The Academy at the Linwood Dunn Theatre:

• Thu 20 at 7.30: The More The Merrier (1943)

Housing is in high demand in wartime Washington so cute Jean Arthur rents out half of her apartment to jovial old cove Charles Coburn. Through the sort of deft plot mechanics that Hollywood used to be able to pull off standing on its head, he in turn rents out half of his half to tall handsome Joel McCrea. You can pretty much guess the rest, including superlative playing and a zinging script, tho there is also a surprising burst of eroticism at the end of a romantic moonlit walk home, used not to sensationalise or titillate but to remind us (effectively) that these are a pair of red-blooded adults. It’s shown in tribute to director George Stevens who has slipped through the cracks of auteurism, perhaps because although a decent film-maker, rarely does he seem to impart a personal stamp to his pictures; his career wound up with the bloated Giant and the self-satisfied Shane but on the evidence of this hugely enjoyable picture and others like Talk of the Town, a smaller comedic scale seemed to suit him better.

Continue Reading