MovieChat Forums > The More the Merrier (1943) Discussion > Good and funny movie until her cryingI

Good and funny movie until her cryingI

posted 9 years ago by ziggystar86
8 replies | jump to latest

I thought she would never stop, that horrifying sound, good the movie ended what a crappy endings.

[–] drmalama 9 years ago

I agree with you on that. I have to chalk it up to a rare misstep by George Stevens--Jean Arthur could definitely cry convincingly on camera (see Mr. Deeds Goes to Town or History is Made at Night, one of the weirder but weirdly compelling weepies out there).

I didn't enjoy every minute of this movie, and I definitely could have done without the loud wailing at the end. But when it's good--such as that mesmerizing, justly famous stoop scene and the one that followed where Connie and Joe talk to each other through the wall--The More the Merrier is unforgettable.

[–] Merrida 8 years ago

I can see I'm in the minority on this one, but I find her "crying" sort of adorable. I never thought for a minute that at the end she was actually, genuinely crying. Or that Arthur was trying to pull off something akin to "real crying."

It was pretty clear, at least to me, that she was somewhere between crying, hysterics, giddy, silly, shocked, happy,...and it just comes out as a type of burbling babbling. Ahh, human nature and our emotions!
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Sic vis pacem para bellum.

[–] nocomputer1962 8 years ago

I give this a "10," but the crying almost forced me to knock a point off my rating. Comical crying scenes just rub me the wrong way, not unlike comical vomiting scenes.

[–] waltereckland 8 years ago

Exactly. The rest of the movie is so good that it overcomes the horrible crying scenes. The next time I watch it I will fast forward thru the crying scenes.

[–] nocomputer1962 8 years ago

This movie hits so many right notes for so much of its running time, that I'm just going to assume that the crying scenes are brilliant on some level that I don't get.

[–] waltereckland 8 years ago

Trust me. They are not. Just like there is good naked and bad naked, there is good crying and bad crying. This is not the good crying. This is the nails scraping the blackboard type of bad crying.

[–] MsELLERYqueen2 8 years ago

The crying really should have been left out.

I wonder which crying scene is worse - Jean Arthur in The More the Merrier, or Jane Fonda in Period of Adjustment?

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Jim Hutton (1934-79) & Ellery Queen 🎇

[–] forlorn_rage (145) 4 months ago

I actually found Fonda's crying in Period of Adjustment hilarious! Actually, the way she gave switching between southern belle and OTT yelling was hilarious to me. Whereas, Jean's ""crying" made me want to rip out her vocal chords! It didn't help that her character was an awful, unlikeable b*tch to begin with. What all those guys see in her I'll never understand even all these years later.