Merrily We Live (1938)

Directed by Norman Z. McLeod. Starring Brian Aherne, Alan Mowbray, Constance Bennett, Billie Burke, Clarence Kolb, Bonita Granville, Patsy Kelly, Tom Brown, Ann Dvorak, Marjorie Kane, Marjorie Rambeau, Phillip Reed, Sidney Bracey, Willie Best.

In the tradition of light, slack comedies of error about families of well-to-do eccentrics (You Can’t Take It with You, Boudu Saved from Drowning, My Man Godfrey, etc.), here comes Merrily We Live, where the Kilbourne family matriarch (Burke) delights in taking in vagabonds and hobos, each of whom inevitably take advantage of the situation (it kinda sorta worked out for Jean Valjean, didn’t it?). Brian Aherne isn’t a tramp, just a writer whose car crashed nearby, but the Kilbourne’s make him their chauffeur because, well, there wouldn’t be a movie if they didn’t. Screwball-style silliness hobnobs with frothy misunderstandings and social faux pas, but even when it occasionally turns manic, the humor often plays flat, calling too much attention to itself while flying the flag of sophisticated farce. The final act is particularly mishandled, relying on a blossoming romance which simply isn’t recognizable onscreen, and a ludicrous series of events where everyone overreacts to seeing a supposed ghost, including the recoiling “humor” of Willie Best’s Stepin Fetchit-esque general store worker. If you enjoy the cheerfully contrived form, you may be more receptive; I was at a disadvantage going in since I find the shrill voice of Billie Burke, best known as Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz, to be like nails on a chalkboard at length. Script was reworked from 1930 film, What a Man, which had been based on an E. J. Rath novel and subsequent stage translation of the same.

49/100