The More the Merrier

A comedy set in Washington during the war. There is a housing shortage in the city. The government departments have grown, everyone has come to the capital and there is not a room to be had. Connie decides to sublet half her small flat. The first person to answer is an elderly businessman named Benjamin Dingle; he talks her into it and takes the room. Then Dingle sublets half of his share to someone else, a young officer named Joe. Three people end up living in the same flat. The queue for the bathroom, the morning schedule and the narrow hallway are the film's sources of humour. Connie has a fiancé and plans her day to the minute. Dingle sets about pushing the two together and keeps interfering. The best-known scene takes place on a stoop: as they talk, the man moves closer to her regardless of the subject, and the scene runs in one take. Jean Arthur plays Connie, Joel McCrea plays Joe and Charles Coburn plays Dingle. Coburn won an Oscar for it. George Stevens directed. The film received six Oscar nominations. An enjoyable production for anyone who likes classical Hollywood comedy and the social detail of the period. For a viewer expecting a modern manner, the film builds its shapes according to its time.