Merrily We Live (1938)

The Age of Commercialism

Thanks for the memories!

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

"My Man Godfrey", of which this is a virtual remake, was tainted slightly by a strain of silliness that didn't grow out of the plot but seemed inserted later, as an afterthought. "Merrily We Live" is almost all like an afterthought.I don't mean to be too polyphenolic about it. It's an amusing diversion. But it's a whole lot more amusing if you haven't seen "My Man Godfrey" yet.In the earlier film, there was an inherent absurdity in the contrast between William Powell's immaculate, articulate, and super-polite butler and the lunatic family he served. Brian Aherne's newly hired chauffeur isn't a Boston-bred Harvard graduate. He's more of an Everyman. The family springs its nonsense on him with éclat and he responds with aplomb. Instead of being willingly bound in the role of chauffeur, he wanders around the estate at will, making remarks about the diseases of roses and such. The gags aren't particularly funny. One longs for lines like Carole Lombard's, "If others can have children, why can't OTHERS have children?" Let me put it this way. Watch this before you watch "My Man Godfrey," because this compares poorly.

OMG! this is one of the cutest, funniest of the 30's screwball comedies. Wish I could find a DVD of it. Constance Bennett is so good, as is Allen Mowbray playing the much put-upon butler. There's the long suffering father who loves them all, but oh my does he have to put up with a lot! One of my favorite lines - when the little sister points to the family's two Great Dane dogs who have the run of the house - 'This is "Hey You"and this is "Get off the Couch"!' Billie Burke does, as usual, a good job of playing the ditsy mother. Everyone in the cast is good. All in all, a funny and feel good movie! The film lives up to its title. They all, in spite of the chaos,live very merrily. And it has happy ending. Of course! All in all, a silly and enjoyable feel good movie.

This is hardly an original film, as it was apparently a variation on the 1930 film WHAT A MAN. Plus, it's amazingly similar to the 1936 hit film, MY MAN GODFREY. However, despite being so unoriginal, the overall film is amazingly watchable and a lot of fun.Like in GODFREY, the rich family that is the focus of the film is amazingly ditsy and....well, nuts! Unlike GODFREY, most of the insanity is concentrated into the mother (played by Billie Burke)--though as the film progresses, you come to realize they're all touched! As for Burke, her stupid schtick wears thin at the beginning of the film (making you wonder why the other family members haven't killed her). But, fortunately, as the film continues, she is given such wonderful lines of dialog that I really am glad they didn't kill her. Additionally, the rest of the family's dialog was great as well--showing that the writers were really hitting their mark.The film is about Burke's bizarre habit of bringing home hobos to rehabilitate them, though in many ways they were treated more like pets or toys than people. The rest of the family is sick of this because the hobos are usually thieves or opportunists, so it's no wonder that when Brian Aherne is taken in by Burke that the rest of the family is angry and wants Aherne to go. However, what's really strange is that although Aherne is dressed like a bum, he never WANTS to be saved by Burke and he more or less becomes a part of the family against his will! As the film progresses, like Godfrey, Aherne is obviously more than just a man down on his luck--leading to a dandy conclusion.The film has excellent and well-paced direction, wonderful writing and an excellent ensemble cast. It is actually quite surprising that this film isn't more well-known, as it's one of the better comedies of the 1930s.

As has been noted before (often), this is a brilliant screwball comedy and yet somehow "a lost movie." How do such things happen? Fate, I suppose - which is no answer at all.Do, however,seek out this film when you can find it. I saw it on Turner Classic Movies (God Bless Them), and I will make it my business to gather a crowd when viewing its next showing. Considering how across-the-board dazzling the film is, I hate to single out anyone, but Clarence Kolb, who plays the always exasperated "pater familias," and whom we have all seen in dozens of movies, here displays a mastery of physical comedy that is singularly impressive and downright hilarious.