movie review the more the merrier

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More the merrier, common sense media reviewers.

Raunchy Spanish comedy has lots of sex, language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

At the end, voiceover preaches the virtues of bein

Not much depth to these characters -- just enough

Movie explores casual and consensual sex across va

Strong sexual content throughout. People shown hav

"F--k" often used, as a verb, as an exclamation. A

Booze drinking throughout. Wine and beer drinking.

Parents need to know that More the Merrier is a Spanish sex comedy in which five different stories tell the story of characters in search of the fulfillment of their sexual fantasies. The movie is on the verge of being softcore porn, is mostly set in a nightclub that is a club for swingers, and as such, there…

Positive Messages

At the end, voiceover preaches the virtues of being true to yourself and what you want rather than conforming to what is deemed "normal" by the narrow standards of society.

Positive Role Models

Not much depth to these characters -- just enough character development to explain their motivations for seeking casual sex.

Diverse Representations

Movie explores casual and consensual sex across various interests and sexual orientations.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Strong sexual content throughout. People shown having sex throughout the movie, usually without nudity, but almost always with orgasmic moans of pleasure; the end of the movie shows a montage close-up of all the different characters climaxing. Brief occasional nudity throughout -- female breasts, male buttocks. Man receives oral sex in a "glory hole" inside of a "swingers club." Woman shown receiving oral sex (moaning, no nudity). Characters swap partners. People shown having casual sex in hallways and backrooms of the club. Talk of orgies and threesomes. Most of the movie takes place inside a "swingers bar," where people enter looking to fulfill sexual fantasies of various kinds -- everything from partner swapping, to being tied up, to having anonymous sex, to watching partners having sex with others, etc. Scantily-clad men shown in videos on a dating app.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k" often used, as a verb, as an exclamation. Also: "c-m," "d--k," "d--kless," "t-t," "bitch," "damn," "crappy."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Booze drinking throughout. Wine and beer drinking. A woman and her friend return to the bar after being so drunk the night before, they blacked out and the woman lost her engagement ring. Cigarette smoking.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that More the Merrier is a Spanish sex comedy in which five different stories tell the story of characters in search of the fulfillment of their sexual fantasies. The movie is on the verge of being softcore porn, is mostly set in a nightclub that is a club for swingers, and as such, there's strong sexual content throughout. Characters talk about or explore sex involving different partners, swapping partners, multiple partners. Talk of orgies, threesomes, masturbation. Brief nudity throughout -- female breasts, male buttocks. One story centers on a man receiving oral sex through a "glory hole" inside of the club. While there isn't as much nudity as one might think in a movie centered on sexual gratification, there are plenty of scenes in which characters are shown making orgasmic noises, and the end of the movie is a brief montage close-up of all the different characters having orgasms. Strong language throughout, including "f--k" used as both a verb and an exclamation. Cigarette smoking. Alcohol, beer, and wine drinking. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

MORE THE MERRIER presents five different stories that intersect and center on characters searching for new forms of sexual fulfillment. Two middle-aged best friends try to arrange a partner swap with their wives, only to discover that their wives have strong feelings for each other. A gay man finds a potential long-term boyfriend in the unlikeliest of situations, while striking up a conversation with the man who's performing oral sex on him through a gloryhole. A young woman who used to masturbate in the other room while her fast-living cousin was having sex takes her now-conservative businessman cousin to Club Paradiso, a "swingers club" where she hopes he'll return to his former self. A bored couple goes to Cafe Paradiso looking to swap partners, but the man is shocked to discover that the couple his wife wants to swap with includes his ex-girlfriend. A woman returns to Club Paradiso after blacking out the night before at her engagement party in search of the engagement ring she lost.

Is It Any Good?

This is a raunchy Spanish sex comedy with some messages on finding freedom and happiness through honest sexual fulfillment of one's fantasies. It almost seems inevitable that a movie like More the Merrier would emerge in the aftermath (or near aftermath) of Covid social distancing, isolation, and lockdowns. There are five intersecting stories with all the depth of softcore porn, with diverse characters (in terms of age and sexual orientation, anyway) looking for ways to spice up their stale love lives. And if you're not sure what the point of this movie is while watching it, don't worry, because the movie poster promises a "happy ending" for everyone, and if you're still not sure, each character is shown attaining orgasm in the movie's final montage.

Also at the end, the movie tries to tie in these five stories of wonton sexcapades with a voiceover editorial that champions consenting adults defining happiness and sexual gratification on their own terms rather than the restrictive dictates of society. As this is essentially a romcom for the polyamorous, it's a bit absurd to include such rhetoric. Regardless, this is obviously not a movie for the kids in the family.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the sexual content in More the Merrier . Where did it seem necessary to the stories and the overall message, and where did it seem gratuitous?

What is the movie trying to say about sex, love, relationships, and happiness? Do you agree or disagree? Why?

How do these five stories intersect, and how are they different from each other?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : November 30, 2021
• Cast : Ernesto Alterio , Raul Arévalo , Luis Callejo
• Director : Paco Caballero
• Inclusion Information : Latino actors
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Comedy
• Run time : 100 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : February 17, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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The More the Merrier

Directed by George Stevens (1943) ***1/2

The More the Merrier uses the housing shortage in Washington, D.C., during WWII as its backdrop. Charles Coburn plays a delightful millionaire codger, Benjamin Dingle, arriving in D.C. as an adviser on the housing shortage. When he finds his hotel room won’t be available for two days, he relies on his favorite inspiration, Rear Admiral Farragut’s admonition to “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” and bulldozes his way into an apartment, convincing Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) into subletting hers. The arrangement stretches credibility, but the screenplay sells it.

When it’s revealed Connie has a years-long engagement to an older, fuddy-duddy government bureaucrat, Dingle decides to play matchmaker and lures literally the first serviceman he sees on the street, Sergeant Joe Carter (Joel McCrea) into his apartment and sublets his portion. He also neglects to tell Connie that Joe is living there …

One of the few faults is that the comedic tone gets lost in the third act, a common trait with screwball comedies, even classics like The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1942). (More recent films which attempt the same screwball comedy dynamics suffer the same fault; Jonathan Demme’s 1986 Something Wild is a good example).

None of the original or reissue promotional posters were able to capture the spirit of the movie. One shows Arthur sitting sultrily, in a bathing suit, on a bed while McCrea and Coburn are hanging on a coat rack. Another shows Arthur taking one of her high heels off while seven women sleep in her bed! A reissue poster proclaims “The ONLY picture with a DINGLE” (?).

1943 may seem long ago, but The More the Merrier was at the tail end of several of its creators’ trajectories. It was the last comedy Stevens directed, after a long succession of popular films starting with the classic Alice Adams (1935). Jean Arthur was in only four more films before she quit Hollywood altogether. The More the Merrier was remade as Cary Grant’s last film, Walk, Don’t Run (1966).

The More the Merrier is available on Columbia Pictures DVD; no Blu-ray release yet.

— Michael R. Neno , 2017 May 10

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The More The Merrier Review

26 Mar 1943

104 minutes

More The Merrier, The

A madcap attempt to carry the carefree screwball comedy of the 30s into a more serious wartime setting, making romantic fun of the dullest-sounding of all subjects, the housing shortage in Washington DC during the first months of World War II. Kindly old Charles Coburn does his best to play cupid for tough-talking single girl Arthur and amiable hunk McCrea, though the fact that they’re sharing a tiny flat leads to much friction before the inevitable final clinch. Stevens doesn’t quite have the light touch, but the cast is unbeatable: Coburn scooped a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and Arthur rattles off funny dialogue like a machine gun.

The More the Merrier

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Brief Synopsis

Cast & crew, george stevens, jean arthur, joel mccrea, charles coburn, richard gaines, bruce bennett, photos & videos, technical specs.

Retired millionaire Benjamin Dingle comes to Washington and is greeted by a flurry of no vacancy signs, the result of a severe war-time housing shortage in the capital. Upon discovering that he must wait two days to occupy his hotel suite, Dingle scours the classified ads for room rentals. Arriving at a building to find a line of eager applicants waiting to rent the half-apartment described in the paper, the enterprising Dingle pretends to be the lease holder and dismisses the other candidates. When Connie Milligan, the real lease holder, arrives, she expresses reluctance to rent to a male roommate, but Dingle convinces her to grant him a week trial period. After Connie scurries to work the next morning, Dingle meets Sgt. Joe Carter, who has come to inquire about renting the room while he awaits his military assignment. Dingle offers to rent Joe half of his room, and when Connie returns home from work that evening, Dingle tries to conceal Joe's presence from her. Joe's barking in the shower attracts Connie's attention, however, and upon discovering her new tenant in the hallway, she becomes furious and orders both Dingle and Joe to leave. When they demand that she refund their rent, however, Connie allows them to stay because she has spent the money on a new hat. At breakfast the next morning, Joe finds himself attracted to his new landlady. After Connie reveals that she has been engaged for two years to bureaucrat Charles J. Pendergast, Dingle questions the delay and advises her to "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." Dingle, who has come to Washington as an advisor on the housing shortage, coincidentally meets the prosaic Pendergast the next day at a luncheon meeting and decides that Joe would be a better match for Connie. One day, Dingle discovers Connie's diary and begins to read aloud the pages that flatter Joe. When Connie discovers Dingle reading her diary, she denounces him and orders both Dingle and Joe to move out the next day. The following day, Connie returns home from work, and Joe gives her a farewell note from Dingle, absolving him of all blame in the diary incident, and then presents her with a traveling bag as an apology. Connie, who has become attracted to Joe, accepts the gift and agrees to let him stay until he leaves for his mission in Africa in two days. When Joe invites Connie to dinner that night, she demurs, saying that she must wait until eight o'clock for Pendergast's call. After the hour passes without a call from Pendergast, Joe and Connie prepare to leave when Connie's neighbor, teenager Morton Rodakiewicz, comes to ask her opinion about joining the Boy Scouts. Morton notices that Joe has taken the phone off the hook, and as soon as he returns the receiver to its cradle, Pendergast calls. As Connie leaves to join Pendergast in the lobby, Joe watches them through binoculars and Morton accuses him of being a spy. After driving Morton away by claiming to be a Japanese agent, Joe goes to meet Dingle for dinner. They arrive at the same restaurant where Pendergast and Connie are dining. When Dingle stops at their table with Joe, Pendergast, who is unaware of Connie's housing situation, invites the two to join them. Determined to unite Joe and Connie, Dingle suggests they dance while he and Pendergast discuss the housing shortage in his suite. On the dance floor, Joe is about to kiss Connie when they are interrupted by a group of Connie's man-hungry women friends. After Pendergast calls Connie to ask Joe to take her home, Connie extracts Joe from the clutches of his admirers, and they walk home together. On the steps outside their apartment building, Joe starts to caress Connie. Flustered, she begins to extoll Pendergast's virtues, and they kiss. Saying goodnight, they retire to their separate bedrooms. Through the wall separating their beds, Connie confides her doubts about marrying Pendergast, and Joe admits that he loves her and proposes. As they murmur endearments to each other, Evans and Pike, two FBI agents, burst into the apartment, having been alerted by Morton that Joe is a Japanese spy. The agents take Joe and Connie to headquarters and also summon Dingle, their ex-roommate, there. Dingle arrives with Pendergast in tow, and when Pendergast learns that Joe shares Connie's address, he is scandalized. After Joe is released when his commanding officer vouches for him, he, Dingle, Connie and Pendergast pile into a cab. Unknown to them, the other passenger in the taxi is a reporter. After accusing Pendergast of being interested only in his career, Connie angrily returns his ring. When the reporter leaves the cab at the headquarters of the Washington Post , Pendergast, terrified of a scandal, follows him. Dingle then advises Joe and Connie to marry quickly and file for an annulment to avoid a scandal. With only twenty-six hours remaining before Joe is to leave for Africa, the couple fly to South Carolina to wed. Upon returning home, the sobbing bride and her groom go to their separate bedrooms. As Joe and Connie nervously pace, they realize that Dingle has had the wall between their rooms removed, and they kiss. Dingle, who has been sleeping in the lobby with a group of roomless men, then steals up to their apartment door and changes the nameplate to read Mr. and Mrs. Sgt. Carter.

Frank Sully

Don Douglas

Clyde Fillmore

Stanley clements.

Sugar Geise

Peggy carroll, douglas leavitt.

Grady Sutton

Don barclay.

Shirley Patterson

Mary taylor williams.

Gladys Blake

Kay linaker, byron shores, betzi beaton, harrison greene, robert mckenzie, frank la rue, ernest hilliard, douglas wood, harry bradley, betty mcmahon, helen holmes, marshall ruth, harold gerard, henry roquemore, eddie foster, kitty mchugh, chester clute, jack gardner, robert f. hill, eddy chandler, george reed, marjorie wood, lulu mae bohrman, sally cairnes, fred johnson, bertha priestley, diedra vale, david alison, fred rapport, brandon beach, fay babcock, lionel banks, lodge cunningham, norman deming, edward eliscu, richard flournoy, lewis r. foster, leigh harline, henry myers, robert russell, rudolph sternad, m. w. stoloff, ted tetzlaff.

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Best Supporting Actor

Award nominations, best actress, best director, best original story, best picture, best screenplay.

The More the Merrier on DVD

There are two kinds of people - those who don't do what they want to do so they write down in a diary about what they haven't done and those who are too busy to write about it 'cause they're out doing it! - Benjamin Dingle

The working title of this film was Merry-Go-Round . According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, that title was changed to The More the Merrier based on the results of a nationwide survey. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, Cleo Manning was to make her screen debut in The More the Merrier , but she does not appear in the picture. This was director George Stevens' last picture for Columbia before he joined the Army as chief of the combat photographic unit. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, the picture won the greatest number of hold-overs for a Columbia picture in the first week of release. Actress Jean Arthur and writer Frank Ross were married at the time that the film was made. Charles Coburn won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the picture. Also nominated were Arthur for Best Actress; Frank Ross and Robert Russell for Best Original Story; Ross, Russell, Richard Flournoy and Lewis R. Foster for Best Screenplay; and Stevens for Best Director. The film was also nominated for Best Picture. Arthur and Coburn had previously starred together in the 1941 RKO production The Devil and Miss Jones . According to modern sources, Garson Kanin also worked on the film's story. In 1966, Russell and Ross's story was remade by Columbia as Walk Don't Run , starring Cary Grant, Samantha Eggar and Jim Hutton and directed by Charles Walters (see AFI Catalog of Feature Films, 1961-70 ; F6.5408).

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More the Merrier

Where to Watch

Ernesto Alterio (Alberto) María Morales (Marta) Luis Callejo (Paco) Anna Castillo (Clara) Pilar Castro (Claudia) Miki Esparbé (Pablo) Carlos Cuevas (Iván) Verónica Echegui (Ana) Jorge Suquet (Miguel) Ricardo Gómez (Víctor)

Paco Caballero

A diverse group of people share a night of sexual self-discovery.

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The More the Merrier Reviews

• 1 hr 44 mins
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An eccentric older man, who sublets half of a very small apartment in wartime Washington from a young "government girl," plays Cupid after finding out she is single and tries matching her up with a handsome Air Force sergeant by persuading him to move in, too. Charles Coburn won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as the matchmaker, and the film was nominated for Best Picture.

A delightful and effervescent comedy marked with terrific performances. It's set in Washington DC during WW II when there was a significant shortage of housing and single males in that city. Arthur is a single woman who lives by herself in a tiny apartment. To do her part in alleviating housing problems, Arthur sublets half of the place to Coburn. The old gentleman is an affable roommate but is distressed to see Arthur without some male companionship of her own age. Coburn decides it's his duty to fix her up with some nice young man, so he sets out to find a suitable prospect. Eventually he meets McCrea, an Air Force mechanic who's in Washington to pick up some orders for a special assignment. Coburn rents McCrea half of his space and of course all sorts of slapstick complications ensue. Though there are plenty of fights over privacy and space in the quickly shrinking apartment, Coburn is able to rise above the mayhem. His matchmaking is successful as Arthur and McCrea fall in love, uniting in marriage at the story's end. In lesser hands, this lighter-than-air farce could easily have gone flat, but under Stevens' skilled direction the three spirited leads pull it off. Using the small confines of the set with precision, Stevens builds up the tension (and thus laughter) between the Coburn-crossed lovers with a marvelous series of perfectly timed scenes. Like the characters in their cramped confines, situations seem to stumble into one another, building to a frenzied pitch. This was Stevens' last film before he entered the service himself, serving as a major in his position with the Army Signal Corps film unit. Arthur and McCrea play off each other in a fine display of comic acting. As the well-meaning Mr. Dingle, Coburn is nothing short of superb, stealing scene after scene with astonishing ease. Uncredited for his contribution to the screenplay was Garson Kanin, who came up with this script specifically to suit Arthur's comedic talents. Stevens was considerably impressed with Arthur, later remarking that she was "one of the greatest comediennes the screen has ever seen." THE MORE THE MERRIER often resembles a Frank Capra comedy in its situation and approach. Arthur, of course, had starred in several of Capra's social comedies in the late 1930s and there are a few references to those films here. However THE MORE THE MERRIER is certainly strong enough to stand on its own merits, a fine example of farce at its best. The film garnered Oscar nominations for Best Picture (losing to CASABLANCA), Best Actress (Arthur), Best Supporting Actor (Coburn), Best Director, Best Original Story, and Best Screenplay, with only Coburn coming up a winner. In 1966 the film was remade as WALK DON'T RUN, a rather dismal effort that provided an unsatisfactory conclusion to Cary Grant's wonderful career.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘More the Merrier’ On Netflix, A Raunchy Spanish Comedy That Takes Place At A Sex Club

Where to stream:.

• More the Merrier

• Decider After Dark

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Anyone but You’ on Netflix, an Amusingly Randy R-rated Rom-Com Starring a Sizzling Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell

Steph's water breaking while hooking up with chet in 'fallout' is 2024's craziest tv sex scene so far, 'ahs: delicate' welcomes first freaky sex scene of the season, more like sex-men: rogue and magneto’s romance heats up ‘x-men ’97’.

Who doesn’t love a good comedy stocked with multiple storylines?  More the Merrier , now streaming on Netflix, follows several people and couples as they embark on an evening of sexual escapades — sexcapades, if you will — with most activities landing them in a swinger bar called Club Paradiso. This steamy Spanish comedy doesn’t shy away from the sexy stuff, and by the end of the evening, many of these characters discover more about themselves (and their respective partners) than they may have wanted to. 

MORE THE MERRIER : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: There’s a moment that changes your life – a spark, a fire in your belly, that pushes you over the edge in pursuit of pleasure. That’s exactly what Anfitriona (Ana Milán) tries to capture at her swingers’ club, Club Paradiso. She tells her patrons to leave their feelings at the door and come in for pleasure, and on this night, quite the crew of people come through those doors. There’s Raúl (Álvaro Cervantes), unimpressed by the porn he’s watching at home and in search of a glory hole, Belén (Melina Matthews) and Jaime (Raúl Arévalo), a shy couple looking for something to spice things up who happen to bump into Ana (Verónica Echegui) and Miguel, a club regular couple who may have more in common with the aforementioned pair than they know.

There’s also Clara (Anna Castillo), a club employee who brings her hot, uptight cousin Pablo (Miki Esparbé) along for a steamy night, and Alba (María León), who takes her BFF to frantically search Club Paradiso for her missing engagement ring. Not at the club this evening? Older couples Paco (Luis Callejo) and Marta (Maria Morales) and Alberto (Ernesto Alterio) and Claudia (Pilar Castro), a foursome having a dinner party the husbands hope will turn into much, much more. Over the course of the chaotic evening, the respective couples and individuals find themselves coming to some pretty surprising conclusions. There are sexual awakenings between more than a few people, and taboo encounters some might consider better left in the dark. One thing’s for sure, though; More the Merrier  is a shame-free zone, no matter how wild the desire.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?:  More the Merrier  and its multiple storylines might remind viewers a little bit of flicks like  Crazy Stupid Love , Valentine’s Day , and  Love, Actually , as well as various sex comedies.

Performance Worth Watching:  Carlos Cuevas is an utter delight as flirtatious bartender Iván, playing a crucial role in some of the film’s best banter scenes. He doesn’t get as much to do as the rest of the film’s ensemble, but he’s a consistent presence, offering a much-needed deadpan or eye roll when entitled patrons confront him. He also gets his moment to get sexy, too, and boy, does he play it well; Cuevas offers us the platonic ideal of a scene stealer, memorable enough to leave an impression, but not so big that we forget about the film’s more important characters.

Memorable Dialogue: Oh, boy, is there some silly dialogue in  More the Merrier , but this has gotta go to Alberto when he tries to soothe Paco about his sexual insecurities: “Does the size of the dick really matter? All that matters is the size of this thing here, your heart.”

Sex and Skin:   More the Merrier is allll about the sexy stuff; from the very beginning, there’s wild fantasy sex, sex at Club Paradiso, use of glory holes, Strip Truth or Dare, steamy swimming pools, and rooms bathed in various colored lighting for various sexual activities.  More the Merrier  is decidedly not for those looking for a more buttoned-up cinematic experience.

Our Take:  More the Merrier  doesn’t seem to know what kind of movie it is; it alternates between sex comedy and sex-positive dramedy, veering into extremely corny territory when it gets too earnest and into X-rated territory when it leans hard into some of the steamier scenes. The message at the heart of the film about erasing sexual shame and stigmas is a good one, but  More the Merrier  seems to struggle with how to present this. With the help of a narrator? With dramatic confrontations? With dramatically-lit sex scenes? It’s not that the multiple storylines are difficult to follow, but that the entire thing feels like a chaotic mess rather than a cohesive whole.

The ensemble does a stellar job with the often-confused script, putting on their best O-faces for the cameras and delivering laughs and heat where needed. It feels like a true ensemble, too, which is rare, especially because the film kicks off with the misdirection that the club owner may be our leading lady. At the start, everyone in More the Merrier  doesn’t quite seem to know what they’re looking for, but by the end of the evening, they all get what they need (even if those needs are unconventional). There is something to be said for everyone getting a happy ending (both literally and figuratively) here;  More the Merrier  almost plays as a raunchy farce, despite its tonal inconsistency. Moving from an outrageously hot or silly scene to closing narration like “sex and love are the most incredible gifts one can receive” is a perfect example of how bizarre a script  More the Merrier  really is, even with all the things it has going for it. With a few tweaks and trims,  More the Merrier  might very well have been a solid sex comedy. Unfortunately, as is, it doesn’t feel worth the time.

Our Call:  SKIP IT. While the actors certainly bring their best to the script and the sex-positive message is a welcome one, More the Merrier  doesn’t quite know what kind of movie it wants to be and fails to come together in the end.

Will you stream or skip the raunchy Spanish comedy #MoreTheMerrier on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) December 6, 2021

Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines, hogging the mic at karaoke, and thirst-tweeting. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski .

Stream  More the Merrier  on Netflix

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The more the merrier.

1943 Directed by George Stevens

The only picture with a DINGLE!

It's World War II and there is a severe housing shortage everywhere - especially in Washington, D.C. where Connie Milligan rents an apartment. Believing it to be her patriotic duty, Connie offers to sublet half of her apartment, fully expecting a suitable female tenent. What she gets instead is mischievous, middle-aged Benjamin Dingle. Dingle talks her into subletting to him and then promptly sublets half of his half to young, irreverent Joe Carter - creating a situation tailor-made for comedy and romance.

Jean Arthur Joel McCrea Charles Coburn Richard Gaines Bruce Bennett Frank Sully Donald Douglas Clyde Fillmore Ann Doran Grady Sutton Ann Savage Chester Clute Jack Carr Brandon Beach

Director Director

George Stevens

Producers Producers

George Stevens Fred Guiol

Writers Writers

Lewis R. Foster Richard Flournoy Frank Ross Robert Russell

Editor Editor

Cinematography cinematography.

Ted Tetzlaff

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Norman Deming Budd Boetticher Bud Brill

Art Direction Art Direction

Rudolph Sternad Lionel Banks

Composer Composer

Leigh Harline

Songs Songs

Edward Eliscu Henry Myers Jay Gorney

Columbia Pictures

Releases by Date

13 may 1943, releases by country.

104 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by covkate ★★★★★ 21

Why am I wasting my time watching any film that does not have Jean Arthur in it?

A scrumptious sugarpuff of a film in the best possible way: I adored it. Jean Arthur is absolute magic. She has such a talent for comedy, both physically and in her delivery, and I love everything about her. She looks so cute here, too - in her work outfits, in her stripey pyjamas, and that supercute playsuit when she's up on the roof!

It is really well-written and there were so many funny/lovely moments in this that I lost track of them all (I was trying to keep tabs to write about later). The three leads are just wonderful together, and the scene…

Review by sarah ★★★★ 9

Currently high on all the yearning and the soft lighting and the one-take conversations and Joel McCrea gently caressing Jean Arthur’s shoulders and Jean Arthur grabbing Joel McCrea’s face when they kiss and "FULL SPEED AHEAD" and Jean Arthur crying away atop a plate of catfish and rice on her wedding day. Movies are wonderful.

Review by Sara Clements ★★★★½ 2

NAME SOMEONE CUTER THAN JEAN ARTHUR I'LL WAIT

(I would also like to take this moment to remind ya'll that she taught Meryl Streep in acting school)

Review by ele 🪷 ★★★ 8

jean arthur playing a character who is engaged to an older forty year old man when she was in fact forty three at the time is such a power move. also how did that front stoop scene pass the production code?? it had me Sweating oh my god.

Review by Josh Gillam ★★★★ 2

Thrown together due to a Washington housing shortage, a woman (Jean Arthur) and two men (Joel McRae and Charles Coburn) are forced to share one apartment together. The disruption of WW2 provides a backdrop for this classic romantic comedy, setting the stage for a fun dynamic between these three very different people—all brought together by wartime crowding. 

Coburn shines here as the young-at-heart Cupid bringing our lead couple together, a perfect showcase for his distinctive charm. He delivers with a lightness and twinkle in his eye that helps pull off the different complications here so well, never feeling contrived thanks to a perfectly judged balance he brings at the centre. 

After the war ended director George Stephens would move away…

Review by Lara Pop ★★★½ 1

Typical old Hollywood actresses to men: 'Oh, my love, I don't know what I would do without you...! You're the only one, darling, I'm nothing, I'm nothing without you!'

Jean Arthur to men: 'Don't you shush me! You've been shushing me for 22 months!... Now you shushed your last shush!'

Review by Emily ★★★★★ 4

Joel McCrea more like Joel McBabe. 😍

Review by Lara Pop ★★★★ 9

Let's just all agree that Jean Arthur's voice is the most adorable in the whole universe.

This was a joy to rewatch, thanks Cormac , Jack and Stephen for sharing the experience.

Review by megan ★★★★½

Things about Joel McCrea and Jean Arthur that set my soul on fire: -When Joel McCrea sees her for the first time and Jean Arthur has face cream on but he looks at her like she's the most gorgeous thing he's ever seen - Any time their face get within an inch of each other. They have no concept of personal space. - When Joel McCrea is necking her while she's talking about Mr. Pendergast. - The entire front porch scene tbh.🔥🔥🔥🔥 - When they're laying in bed, next to each other, seperated by the wall. THE PINING. THE ANGST. - The way she calls him "darling" for the first time and the way he calls her "dear" for the first time.

Review by nora ★★★★★ 2

i love how this movie is basically the code-era version of the "oh no there's only one bed in this hotel room i guess we have to share :/" trope but extended into an entire movie and so much more creatively horny. that scene on the stoop is still absolutely ridiculous like joel mccrea going straight for jean arthur's neck??? i think about it daily.

Review by theriverjordan ★★★½ 5

Director George Stevens seems to be giving his legendary run of classic comedies a sweet sendoff in “The More the Merrier.”

The year of its release, he joined the army Signal Corps in WWII. When he returned, he shifted into creating dramatic films, and never made another full-length movie from the genre of his roots. 

“Merrier” is, then, a dignified au revoir to innocence from a director whose career was rent in two by his combat experience. Fittingly, it carries a tone of parting restraint - broken up only by some roguish mischief from Joel McCrea. 

“Merrier,” about cohabitation that builds to romance during a wartime housing shortage, makes no daring political advances, despite ample opportunities given its subject matter.…

Review by Catherine Stebbins ★★★★★ 1

I’m just head over heels in love with this movie, which takes the then-serious housing shortage in Washington D.C during the war and makes a screwball comedy out of it! The More the Merrier marks George Stevens’s last foray into comedic territory. He left immediately after the film’s completion to join the U.S Army Signal Corps, and his experiences during the war would dramatically shift the kinds of films he’d be making thereafter. This is one of the sexiest romantic comedies of the studio era. In fact it’s damn near erotic. It hilariously scrutinizes how our trio in close quarters shares space from the sitcom-esque sequence with the hectic schedule, the crowded closeness of the premise, and Jean Arthur’s increasing…

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The More the Merrier Parent Guide

Because of a housing shortage in Washington D.C., Miss Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) is forced to play host to Mr. Dingle (Charles Coburn). But her tiny apartment becomes a house divided when the middle-aged businessman (and self-appointed cupid) takes the liberty of sharing her hospitality with the young, handsome and homeless Joe Carter (Joel McCrea).

Why is The More the Merrier rated Not Rated? The MPAA rated The More the Merrier Not Rated

Get Content Details

The guide to our grades, parent movie review by donna gustafson.

Retired millionaire Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) travels to Washington D.C. to consult with Senator Noonan (Clyde Fillmore) about the housing shortages caused by an influx of people in the capital during World War II. But he comes face-to-face with the reality of the no vacancies crisis when he arrives two days early for his appointment and is informed there is no room for him at the inn.

Without a place to stay until his reservation date, the capable older gentleman seeks shelter by answering an advertisement for a roommate situation. Eliminating any possible competition, he pushes his way into the apartment of Miss Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur), despite her objections over renting to the opposite gender.

As luck would have it, he runs into just the right sort of eligible bachelor the very next morning. Because Joe Carter (Joel McCrea) is also looking for somewhere to stay, Mr. Dingle sublets the other half of the guest bedroom he is renting from Miss Milligan. Of course he neglects to mention the existence of Connie to Joe, or of Joe to Connie. With a twinkle in his eye, the conniving old busybody seems pretty confident that amidst the sure to ensue hi-jinx and hilarity, romance will bloom. However, a single woman living with two unmarried gents is fertile ground for rumors and scandal too.

While a grasp of these negative implications is essential to understanding the plot, the movie does not depict any sexual content more obvious than a few slightly immodest female costumes, a shot of a man’s bare chest as he gets into the shower, and a passionate kiss. Also, in a reverse portrayal of the social norm, one scene shows a room full of women whistling at a handsome man. Other concerns include the repeated reciting of an expression containing a mild profanity, a lead character who smokes a pipe and the use of a racial slur typical to the time period in which this film was made.

Nominated in 1943 for six Academy Awards, Charles Coburn took home an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, thanks to his charming characterization of the film’s cherubic-like cupid. Although the performances by Arthur and McCrea are sometimes a little melodramatic, when it comes to the slapstick humor, all I can say is— The More the Merrier.

About author

Donna Gustafson

The more the merrier parents' guide.

Connie Milligan announces she has a fiance who has a good wage and an up and coming career. In Mr. Dingle’s opinion, what is her soon-to-be husband missing? In your opinion, what are the most important qualities to look for in a prospective spouse?

Mr. Dingle often quotes Admiral David Farragut’s classic statement, which roughly translates to—Forget the consequences, and proceed with haste. To learn more about this historical figure, check out this website .

The most recent home video release of The More the Merrier movie is November 1, 2004. Here are some details…

DVD Release Date: 2 November 2004

The More the Merrier is now available on DVD, The black and white film comes in a full screen presentation, with close captioning.

Related home video titles:

Jean Arthur, whose silver screen career spanned several decades, can also be seen in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington .

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

More the Merrier

A diverse group of people share a night of sexual self-discovery. A diverse group of people share a night of sexual self-discovery. A diverse group of people share a night of sexual self-discovery.

• Paco Caballero
• Daniel González
• Eric Navarro
• Ernesto Alterio
• María Morales
• Luis Callejo
• 24 User reviews
• 12 Critic reviews

• Anfitriona en club

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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia The original poster features the sixteen main actors disposed as identity photo cards (all them nude making a sensual pose) in a 4x4 square. From left to right and from up to down these are: - Jorge Suquet , Melina Matthews , Raúl Arévalo and Verónica Echegui . - Carlos Cuevas , Ana Milán , María León and Aixa Villagrán . - Miki Esparbé , Anna Castillo , Álvaro Cervantes and Ricardo Gómez . - María Morales , Luis Callejo , Pilar Castro and Ernesto Alterio .
• Soundtracks El Bellakeo Performed by Don Dixon By courtesy of Adiccting Records

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 51 minutes

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Review: In ‘Unsung Hero,’ a family’s musical success story comes to life via the clan itself

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Cinematic memoir can be a complex creative endeavor. Film is a collaborative medium and memoir requires a certain acknowledgment of the author’s creation. Without that self-reflection, it can slip into murky, confusing territory. This space is where the new film “Unsung Hero,” which is billed as a “For King & Country Film,” exists.

If you’re not yet aware of the Grammy-winning Christian pop duo For King & Country, comprising brothers Joel and Luke Smallbone, “Unsung Hero” will introduce you to their folksy family lore, if not their musical successes. The film is a biographical drama about the Smallbone family, a large brood from Australia who immigrated to Nashville in the early 1990s, following father David’s dreams of working as a promoter in the music industry.

“Unsung Hero” is co-written and co-directed by Joel Smallbone (with Richard L. Ramsey) and he also stars in the film playing his own father, who eventually managed the music careers of For King & Country, and Joel’s sister Rebecca St. James. Their siblings work in the family business as managers, lighting directors and documentarians (they all make cameos in the film), and there’s a sense of can-do collaboration among the tight-knit Smallbone family. This theme runs throughout the film and it makes sense that Joel would undertake the telling of his family’s own story in such an intimate way.

Therefore, “Unsung Hero” is like a much more expensive extension of the camcorder home movies that serve as a running motif throughout. This isn’t just a music biopic or a family drama — it’s a presentation of a family narrative as told and embodied by the family members themselves. A valid endeavor, to be sure, but important context when considering the work as a cultural product.

Joel Smallbone is an appealing actor, even if it is a bit distracting that he’s portraying his own father (he has described the experience as a “therapy session”). Joel is also a character in the film, as a child (Diesel La Torraca), while Daisy Betts plays Helen, the Smallbone matriarch and Joel’s mother. Helen is, of course, the unsung hero of this story, the heart and spine of the family who insists on keeping them together while David makes one last-ditch attempt to make it in the music industry in Nashville. Betts is the emotional center of this film, her character unflagging in her determination, keeping spirits up as David’s dreams are slowly crushed.

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The family of attractive Aussies arrive in the United States without a stick of furniture in their rental home, and they nest in beds of clothes while they get on their feet with the help of a couple from their church (Lucas Black and Candace Cameron Bure). They clean houses and landscape yards, clip coupons and accept the charity that comes their way, reluctantly, on David’s part.

While David struggles with the dampening of his dreams, his daughter Rebecca (Kirrilee Berger) is just starting to embrace her musical aspirations. But she can’t chase them until her father gets over his own deep hurt at being rejected by the industry. It takes him some time to understand the advice given to him by his own father, James (Terry O’Quinn), back in Australia, that his family isn’t in the way of what he wants. Rather, they are the way.

“Unsung Hero” follows a predictable narrative path of struggles and salvation, but it’s not a traditional music biopic — it doesn’t start with a record deal, it ends with one. The focus is on their hardships to get to that record deal, which is clearly what matters to filmmaker Joel Smallbone. It’s not the success, the Grammys, the stadium concerts, but the ways they stuck together, eked it out, allowed themselves to dream, all thanks to their mother, who never let David’s challenges get in the way of her kids’ imaginations.

It’s a humble story, one with the capacity to inspire in its simple message of perseverance. But the film itself, as an artistic product, feels limited in its observational scope, because the filmmaker doesn’t have any distance from the material. Smallbone is a fine actor, but alongside Ramsey, he’s a limited filmmaker. Their visual style is drab at best, and the storytelling lacks the kind of self-reflection that might elevate this project. As it is, “Unsung Hero” feels more like band merch than an insightful family portrait.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

'Unsung Hero'

Rating: PG, for thematic elements Running time: 1 hour, 52 minutes Playing: In wide release Friday, April 26

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Review: Zendaya's 'Challengers' serves up saucy melodrama – and some good tennis, too

The saucy tennis melodrama “Challengers” is all about the emotional games we play with each other, though there are certainly enough volleys, balls and close-up sweat globules if you’re more into jockstraps than metaphors.

Italian director Luca Guadagnino ( “Call Me By Your Name” ) puts an art-house topspin on the sports movie, with fierce competition, even fiercer personalities and athletic chutzpah set to the thumping beats of a techno-rific Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross score. “Challengers” (★★★ out of four; rated R; in theaters Friday) centers on the love triangle between doubles partners-turned-rivals (Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor) and a teen wunderkind ( Zendaya ) and how lust, ambition and power dynamics evolve their relationships over the course of 13 years.

The movie opens with Art (Faist) and Tashi (Zendaya) as the It couple of pro tennis: He’s eyeing a U.S. Open title, the only tournament he’s never won, while she’s his intense coach, manager and wife, a former sensation along the lines of a Venus or Serena whose career was cut short by a gnarly knee injury. To build up his flagging confidence after recent losses, Tashi enters Art in a lower-level event that he can dominate – until he faces ex-bestie Patrick (O’Connor) in the final match.

Justin Kuritzkes’ soapy screenplay bounces between that present and the trios’ complicated past via flashbacks, starting when Art and Patrick – a ride-or-die duo known as “Fire and Ice” – both have eyes for Tashi. All three are 18 and the hormones are humming: The boys have been tight since they were preteens at boarding school, but a late-night, three-way makeout session, and the fact that she’ll only give her number to whoever wins the guys' singles match, creates a seismic crack that plays itself out over the coming years.

All three main actors ace their arcs and changing looks over time – that’s key in a nonlinear film like this that’s all over the place. As Tashi, Zendaya plays a woman who exudes an unshakable confidence, though her passion for these two men is seemingly her one weakness. Faist (“West Side Story”) crafts Art as a talented precision player whose love for the game might not be what it once was, while O’Connor (“The Crown”) gives Patrick a charming swagger with and without a racket, even though his life has turned into a bit of a disaster.

From the start, the men's closeness hints at something more than friendship, a quasi-sexual tension that Tashi enjoys playing with: She jokes that she doesn’t want to be a “homewrecker” yet wears a devilish smile when Art and Patrick kiss, knowing the mess she’s making.

Tennis is “a relationship,” Tashi informs them, and Guadagnino uses the sport to create moments of argumentative conversation as well as cathartic release. Propelled by thumping electronica, his tennis scenes mix brutality and grace, with stylish super-duper close-ups and even showing the ball’s point of view in one dizzying sequence. Would he do the same with, say, curling or golf? It’d be cool to see because more often than not, you want to get back to the sweaty spectacle.

Guadagnino could probably make a whole movie about masculine vulnerability in athletics rather than just tease it with “Challengers,” with revealing bits set in locker rooms and saunas. But the movie already struggles with narrative momentum, given the many tangents in Tashi, Art and Patrick’s thorny connections: While not exactly flabby, the film clocks in at 131 minutes and the script could use the same toning up as its sinewy performers.

While “Challengers” falls nebulously somewhere between a coming-of-age flick, dysfunctional relationship drama and snazzy sports extravaganza, Guadagnino nevertheless holds serve with yet another engaging, hot-blooded tale of flawed humans figuring out their feelings.

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‘Unsung Hero’ Review: Music Dedicated to the One They Love

In fact, there’s a lot of singing in the clan whose members inspired this movie and who have racked up five Grammy Awards for their Christian recordings.

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By Nicolas Rapold

In the faith-based drama “Unsung Hero,” an Australian concert promoter trying to earn a living makes a last-ditch move to Nashville with his wife and six children. Based on an actual family of musicians, it mostly plays as a treacly tribute to the parents of Joel and Luke Smallbone — a.k.a. the Christian pop duo For King & Country — and their sister, the singer Rebecca St. James.

Viewer beware: Between the uplift and the cringe, this movie may cause whiplash. Joel Smallbone plays his own father, David, who faces financial and reputational ruin after booking a big concert and failing to pack the house. He resettles the family in the United States, but no job materializes. His pep-talking spouse, Helen (Daisy Betts), and their beatific children pull up bootstraps and practically whistle while they work, but it’s not enough.

Community, humility and the power of prayer are the lessons on offer in their story, set in the 1990s, bathed in warm light and interspersed with home video segments. Fellow churchgoers pitch in, and David gets over himself; he secures auditions for his teenage daughter, Rebecca (Kirrilee Berger), who keeps breaking into dulcet song about how everything is beautiful. The outcome of “Unsung Hero,” as written and directed by Richard L. Ramsey and Joel Smallbone, is never in doubt, though the climax has a kicker line that genuinely surprises with its laughable shamelessness.

The family business has become a success: Rebecca, Joel and Luke have won five Grammys among them. But despite the fuzzy good intentions, it’s tough to make much of this making-of story.

Unsung Hero Rated PG. Running time: 1 hour 52 minutes. In theaters.

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