Rating: 
Summary: Quite possibly one of the worst films ever!
Review: I cannot recommend for anyone to purchase The More the Merrier.
The movie was made during World War II and contains extremely insensitive racial remarks. I am surprised that no one else should notice this. Furthermore this film is not at all funny in the least and contains a poor script plus poor acting
performances from every member of the cast. Personally, I also feel that compared to the other great comedians of time-Claudette Colbert, Carole Lombard, Lucille Ball,Greta Garbo, Irenne Dunne-Jean Arthur was just plain unattractive. Add to this the leading man-Joel MCcrea has no screen charisma and appears dull and wooden. I had to stop the film halfway through and throw away the videotape. A terrible waste of money for me, just don't let this happen to you. If anyone is looking for a classy comedy/romance I highly recommend Midnight starring Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche. You won't regret it.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best comedies ever! So glad it's coming on DVD..
Review: I love, love, love this movie, and i'm so excited it's finally coming on DVD. I feel similarly to 'debalan89', because our family has lines that we have as jokes,etc. I think it's by far the best Jean Arthur movie - and Joel McCrea is great. Charles Coburn is fantastic. I wish there were more movies like this. I have searched, believe me!
As far as other reviewers who didn't find it funny; it seems hard to believe!
It's an undiscovered gem - i guess that's why it took so long for the DVD to arrive..
Rating: 
Summary: Swerving round the Hays Office
Review: Not quite the best of Jean Arthur and Joel McCrae, but amusing none the less. The sit in the com is the accomodation shortage in Washington after Pearl Harbour, when the New Dealers hadn't moved out, but when FDR was drafting in all available expertise, regardless of party, to hit the Pacific running. Arthur sublets to Charles Coburn, who further sublets to McCrae, reckoning that Arthur needs a husband, and that McCrae fits the bill admirably.The pair drive a coach-and-four through the Hayes Office's one-foot-on-the-floor rule by occuping parrallel beds visible from the foot through two adjoining windows, allowing viewers to ighore the wall between the two bedrooms. Many pertinent cracks at politicians - times have not changed. Only the pork barrel's got bigger - and the politicians smaller.
Rating:
Summary: Two Men, a Girl and a cramped Wartime Washington Apartment
Review: One of the best home-front comedies produced during World War II, this 1943 film from director George Stevens deals with wartime housing conditions in Washington. Not only is there a shortage of housing and hotel rooms in the nation's capital, but also men. Jean Arthur shines as Connie Milligan, a young Washington single gal who is forced by circumstances to rent half her apartment to Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn), a retired millionaire in town for business. In turn, he sublets half of his half of the apartment to Sgt. Joe Carter (Joel McCrea), a young Army aviation expert. Of course there are problems regarding privacy, including a futile attempt at working out a schedule for the apartment, which are helped along by Dingle playing Cupid for the young couple. In fact, Coburn won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. The only stumbling block is Connie's plan to marry her pompous boss, Charles J. Pendergast (Richard Gaines). The best scene in the movie is when Connie explains her marriage plans to the increasing amorous Joe on the front stoop until he is finally able to distract her long enough for the couple to admit they love each other. "The More the Merrier" is predictable to be sure, but still an enjoyable romance and one of Jean Arthur's most engaging performances. As the tagline put it, "Home is where you hang your guests!"
Rating:
Summary: Amazing classic war-time comedy....medicore transfer
Review: One of the brightest and most popular WWII comedies, "The More The Merrier" is finally on DVD with what appears to be the typical medicore quality from Columbia. Like "The Awful Truth", the quality is medicore...lines, blotches, pops, and plenty of dirt. This one's also a bit blurry at times.
Transfer aside, this George Stevens production has one of the best performances from Jean Arthur, not mention Joel McCrea's typically dead-pan but brightly amusing performance. Supporting them is the great character actor, Charles Coburn, who stole the movie with his amazing comedic performance...and he bagged the Best Supporting Oscar for his performance.
I couldn't be happier to finally get this on DVD...but Columbia has no idea how to mine their vaults.
Rating:
Summary: "Damn the Torpedoes!...Full speed ahead"
Review: The line that serves as title for my review is spoken by the great Charles Coburn all through the movie, and at the end of the film it is used as a "subtle" innuendo of what's going on...you'll know what I'm talking about when you see this great film.
I am a fan of pre-codes, in other words, films that were released before the Production Code was fully enforced (1930-1934), but this does not mean I do not love too, films produced during its full enforcement, because it never ceases to amaze me how certain masters of the American Cinema (Hitchcock, Preston Sturges, Lubitsch, etc.) found ways of subtly insinuating what could not be fully showed or directly told onscren.
This film takes place during the severe house (and men) shortage in World War II Washington D.C. and tells us the story of how the funny cupid-mister-fix-it character played by Coburn (Mr. Dingle) gets "clean-cut" Joel McCrea (Joe Carter) into Jean Arthur's (Miss Milligan) small Apartment. Previously, he has managed to get inside of it himself.
I had seen McCrea and Arthur together in the screen for the first time in the Early Talkie "The Silver Horde" (1930), a nice and entertaing adventure yarn (she plays his spoiled rich fiancée), but neither Arthur had yet blossomed into the excellent actress and deft comediene she was yet to become in the mid 1930's, nor had the great chemistry between both stars developed the way it did in this gem of a movie.
As I said before, in spite of censorship's shortcomings and the Code's restrictions, great directors such as George Stevens (the man who gave us Kate Hepburn's "Alice Adams" or Liz Taylor's "A Place in the Sun") knew how to handle the scenes and show us, insinuating it in a subtle way, in this case, the sexual tension between Connie Milligan and Joe Carter. In fact, never I had seen McCrea or Arthur in such sexy-romantic-"physical" scenes (by 40's standards), showing the love and desire they feel for each other, all the longing for "more".
McCrea seems so much "passionate" in his romantic secenes, than usual, and Arthur looks sexy to the hoot. What a fine figure this lady had! She surely looks much younger than the 43 years old she was when she made this movie and gets to wear some sexy-outfits (I liked her especially with her hair "loose") and even a translucid (or look-through) black nightgown.
Trust me, this is one of the most engaging, romantic, amusing, comedies from Hollywood's Golden Era, that you can get.
Now, one more time Columbia-Sony leads us into mistake, with its statement on the back-cover of the DVD Case, that this film was "remastered in high definition". The quality of the transfer is so-so, pretty uneven I'd dare to say, with many imperfections. But then, it's the only DVD edition available of this masterpiece, so buy it anyway! You won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: Oddly Romantic
Review: This is one of my favorite movies. Jean Arthur shows off her impeccable comic timing and manages to keep up the charm. I am a huge Joel McCrea fan so in my book he can do no wrong; here's one film where others might actually agree with me.
The film has some moments where you just have to laugh at the characters in a good-natured manner. One scene at a nightclub shows several women responding to McCrea's obvious charms -- you just have to snicker. Arthur and McCrea seem like such an unlikely couple that when overtures are finally made you find yourself being sweetly seduced along with Jean.
One sour note, however. The movie is set during WWII and more than once uses a derogatory term for the enemy.
Rating:
Summary: Some brilliant moments, flawed but still classic
Review: Too bad there's no way to post half-star ratings here, or mine would be 3-1/2 instead of 4. But I give a very, very skilled cast and good direction the benefit. Set along the lines of 30's screwball comedies, this film has the formula right but lacks inspiration after the first 30 minutes, mainly because the writers abandoned earlier plot premises along with any semblance of character consistency. Still, the first third is crackling good fun. It soon fizzles and most of the plot devices just don't work, starting with Coburn's out-of-character dirty trick (which was not at all amusing). Near the end look for a flirting and kissing sequence that stands out all the more brilliantly amid comedy routines that not only don't work but don't make any sense. Its flaws are mostly due to poor plotting and writing, not to mention weird turnarounds in character development -- but this remains a keeper because of a truly wonderful cast and skilled direction. It's also a great look at wartime living in Washington DC, which was pretty much the same zoo it is today. Jean Arthur is almost breathlessly cute, and she and the cast do as well as could be expected with some flawed writing. The movie was remade as "Walk, Don't Run" (Cary Grant's last film), which was a disastrously lame effort at "improving" the flawed original. The actor who comes off best here is McCrae, who managed to keep his character consistent and whose talent for comedic underplaying is pure genius.
Rating:
Summary: Some brilliant moments, flawed but still classic
Review: Too bad there's no way to post half-star ratings here, or mine would be 3-1/2 instead of 4. But I give a very, very skilled cast and good direction the benefit. Set along the lines of 30's screwball comedies, this film has the formula right but lacks inspiration after the first 30 minutes, mainly because the writers abandoned earlier plot premises along with any semblance of character consistency. Still, the first third is crackling good fun. It soon fizzles and most of the plot devices just don't work, starting with Coburn's out-of-character dirty trick (which was not at all amusing). Near the end look for a flirting and kissing sequence that stands out all the more brilliantly amid comedy routines that not only don't work but don't make any sense. Its flaws are mostly due to poor plotting and writing, not to mention weird turnarounds in character development -- but this remains a keeper because of a truly wonderful cast and skilled direction. It's also a great look at wartime living in Washington DC, which was pretty much the same zoo it is today. Jean Arthur is almost breathlessly cute, and she and the cast do as well as could be expected with some flawed writing. The movie was remade as "Walk, Don't Run" (Cary Grant's last film), which was a disastrously lame effort at "improving" the flawed original. The actor who comes off best here is McCrae, who managed to keep his character consistent and whose talent for comedic underplaying is pure genius.
Rating:
Summary: This one is a "Keeper"
Review: Wonderful romantic comedy with Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea & Charles Colbun (who steals the show in my opinion). This movie was remade with Cary Grant, Jim Hutton and Samantha Eggar and titled "Walk, Don't Run". The remake, like most, just doesn't have the spark of the original. We have watched this movie so many times (can't wait for a DVD version) that my husband and I have a number of small "inside" jokes based on the dialoge. This movie is well written and well acted, and maybe a little corny in a couple of spots, but I can't beleive anyone wouldn't enjoy it.
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