The More the Merrier (1943)

Directed by George Stevens. With Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn, Richard Gaines. During the World War II housing shortage in Washington, two men and a woman share a single apartment and the older man plays Cupid to the other two.

Overview of The More the Merrier, 1943, directed by George Stevens, with Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Charles Coburn, at Turner Classic Movies

To fully appreciate The More the Merrier, it is important to know that, during WW2, there was an acute housing shortage in Washington DC. This is why elderly Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) is obliged to share a tiny DC apartment with pretty Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) and handsome Joe Carter (Joel McCrea). After nearly two reels of misunderstandings, the trio becomes accustomed to their curious living arrangement. Joe takes a platonic liking to Connie, but she's engaged to stuffy bureaucrat Charles J. Pendergast (Richard Gaines). Sizing up the situation, foxy Benjamin contrives to bring Connie and Joe together, in spite of themselves. Things get dicey when Joe endeavors to complete a top-secret mission for the Air Force, which leads to all sorts of comic complications and misguided remonstrations. Throughout the film, director George Stevens and the four-man screenwriting staff deliberately tweak the noses of the Hays Office, getting by with any number of censorable offenses by deftly and tastefully sidestepping the obvious. Especially potent is the scene in which Joe tries to seduce Connie by talking about everything except seduction: it's also fun to watch Dingle robustly repeat the word

A wartime housing shortage has a lovely government employee, a stranded industrialist, and a handsome young inventor sharing a Washington, D.C. apartment. (O...

The More the Merrier is a 1943 American comedy film made by Columbia Pictures which makes fun of the housing shortage during World War II, especially in Washington, D.C.

The More the Merrier (1943) is a delightful romantic comedy of the homefront at wartime, exploring the problems of housing-bed-man shortages.