Customer Reviews

Merrily We Live

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This delightful and zany film from MGM is one of the great forgotten examples of screwball comedy. An amazing cast and fine direction from Norman Z. McLeod make this little-known film a real gem.

Constance Bennett may have shortened her own career by being difficult to work with but shows here why her swanky sophistication, touched with sweetness, made her such a huge and sought after star during the 1930's. Young Bonita Granville, always a favorite, also gets to shine as her younger sister.

Bille Burke gives another in a long string of delightful performances as their daffy mom who has a penchant for taking in tramps in an effort to reform them. Brian Aherne as her latest project and Alan Mowbray as their put-upon butler would steal any other film but everyone else is so good here that their topflight antics blend right in. Add a great song from Phil Charig and Arthur Quenzer and you have a screwball masterpiece.

Brian Aherne is novelist Wade Rawlins. When the car he rented gives out and then goes over the side of a mountain he stumbles upon the Kilborne mansion only to use the phone but is soon drafted by Emily Kilborne (Billie Burke) to be her latest project, much to the consternation of the entire family, especially the butler, Grosvener (Alan Mowbray). An exasperated Rawlins (Aherne) soon gives up trying to use the phone and plays along.

Soon all the sevants love him and young Marion (Bonita Granville), who sells info to the rest of the family for two bits a pop, has a huge crush. But it may be real love for swanky Geraldine, who slowly warms to the charms of the tramp who cleans up nice. Bennett is sweet and fabulous here and looks as good as she plays in outfits by Irene. Her scene pretending to lose her key so Rawlins will help her through the window will have you smiling.

When a senator's young daughter named Minerva (Ann Dvorak) takes a shine to the Kilborne's new "guest" Geraldine gets jealous and plays domestic by making fudge with pickles in an attempt to seem more desirable. There is a hilarious scene as Rawlins trades crazy gestures with a smitten Granville standing behind Geraldine, who just looks confused and somewhat amused.

Screwball also had charm, and this one has it in droves. Only in a screwball comedy would someone who's just had a pail of water splashed in their face jump into the arms of the perpetrator and respond with: "I knew you loved me!" This is a wonderful film that is light and delightful and a splendid time capsule of this genre of film during the 1930's. They don't make films like this anymore and they don't build 'em like Bennett anymore either. Film fans don't want to miss this one!

I won't write how great this movie is because someone here already did that. I first saw this movie back in 1987 on the Nostalia Channel. Yes, a long gone channel. But I taped it off the TV the next time it was on and since that day have never been able to find even the name of the movie on movie lists or in the lists of movies the stars appeared in. Praise that is over! I absolutely LOVE this movie and you will too!

Kilbourne: "Tramp?"
Rawlins: "Yes."
Kilbourne: "You stolen anything yet?"
Rawlins: "Not yet. Only got here this morning."

Rarely shown and not much known, 1938's MERRILY WE LIVE will for sure slap you upside the funny bone. That is, if you ever get a chance to watch it. This screwball comedy reunites producer Hal Roach with Constance Bennett, Billie Burke, and director Norman Z. McLeod, who all worked on the very successful Topper the year before. MERRILY WE LIVE was pooh-poohed mightily by the critics and the snooty ones for too closely echoing My Man Godfrey's premise. But, yes, while leading man Brian Aherne is just about a younger carbon copy of William Powell and Constance Bennett a more grounded version of Carole Lombard, MERRILY WE LIVE, I feel, is ultimately redeemed by its witty script and insanely wacky comedy.

This is a wealthy but pretty kooky family, the Kilbournes, and none more loopy than Mrs. Kilbourne. In her own fashion, Mrs. Kilbourne (Billie Burke) is on a mission to reform society's lawless and seedy downtrodden. As such, she tends to take on ex-cons and vagabonds as family servants. It's an uphill struggle, though, as exemplified by her last hire, who's already scampered with the family silver (and the butler's shoes and socks). You'd think she'd have learned her lesson, but, not too long after, at the doorstep comes unkempt - but charming - writer Wade Rawlins (Brian Aherne), who'd just had his car break down (then it rolled down a hill). Merely wanting to use the telephone, the bemused Rawlins is mistaken for a tramp by Mrs. Kilbourne and is promptly hired on as the new driver. Rawlins decides to stick around and it's not too long before this sensible "forgotten man" (what bums used to be called during the Depression) begins to make an impact on the household...and especially on the gorgeous but icy Geraldine, or 'Jerry', Kilbourne (Constance Bennett).

MERRILY WE LIVE may be a hidden gem, but it's one of those films which is simply non-stop funny. Two of the most hilarious bits: Rawlins tries to assist a just arrived and very inebriated Mr. Kilbourne, who staggers up one stairway only to reel his way down the other stairway (and backwards!). Then there's that oh-so-manic, gut-busting kitchen sequence near the film's end (trust me, you will crack up!).

Constance Bennett and Brian Aherne are fabulous as the romantic leads. Both ooze sophistication and wit and are very likable, with Aherne nearly rivaling Powell in the wry and urbane department. Billie Burke as the fluttery mother was good enough to be nominated for Best Supporting Actress, although she didn't win. S'okay, though, as she would be immortalized the next year as Glinda the Good in The Wizard of Oz (Two-Disc Special Edition). There's a sighting of Bonita Granville as Jerry's high-spirited younger sister, who owns two Great Danes with awesome names, "Get Off the Rug" and "You Too". Bonita would go on to star as teen detective Nancy Drew in four pictures. Meanwhile, Alan Mowbray makes me smile as the butler who constantly threatens to quit at the smallest slight.

I love, friggin' love, old films. And, by old films, I don't mean stuff that came out in the 1980s. I'm so grateful Turner Classic Movies is still going strong on cable (TCM is where I caught this film). MERRILY WE LIVE is an appealing, if not so celebrated, representative of the wonderful screwball comedy genre. And more people should see it. You should see it.

And, if you enjoyed this story premise, you might want to check out City Lights (2 Disc Special Edition) (as well as a busload of Chaplin's other flicks), It Happened on 5th Avenue, Sullivan's Travels - Criterion Collection, and, of course, My Man Godfrey. Heck, I guess you could even throw in Trading Places (Special Collector's Edition) into this mix.

I was very surprised by the quality of the dvd, very clean. Great movie that is very funny for an old movie. Saw the movie on tv and had to have it in my collection. Excellent seller and very fast shipping! Thanks for the great movie.

Some friends and I were watching this movie but the end was cut. Well, I searched for months and then I thought of Amazon.com since they have had hard to find items in the past. SUCCESS! Well, we are all happy that we saw the end to this movie as it is just hilarious!
Thank you Amazon.com

Merrily We Live is a funny, snappy, wonderful screwball comedy. It has an excellent cast and is well written and directed.

But you can buy this very same dvd either at Nostalgia Family Video or at TCM/Movies Unlimited. Don't pay these rip-off prices.

I recently saw this movie on cable TV. I don't remember much
of it.....but reading the other reviews here has made me recall
a bit more than I had before starting this review. Yes...Brian
Aheren was great as the novelist mistaken for a servant....and
was that really Bonita Granville as the peppy daughter of the
houswe? (Loved her as Nancy Drew in other old films....anyone
know what has happened to her?)

Oh! For the days when even upper-middle class people could
afford a bevy of servants! Abd eveb lower-middle class people
had at least one servant! (Sigh!)

The one thing I DO remember from this movie is the KITCHEN SET!
The set designer in the film deserves(d) an Oscar for sure --
though I don't know if they had them then. Large, inviting,
airy, flooded with light and conveniences! Yards and yards of
shelf space! And the laundry is in it's own little room, right
off the kitchen! I have seen few, if any, "modern" kitchens
which can compare! If I ever get very, very rich, THIS kitchen
will certainly be amongst the ideas I will use to build mine!

If for nothing else, see this film for the kitchen set, alone!
You can get some (even if not all) ideas for your own kitchen from
it!

I've got to look up the name of that set designer -- if I can find
it. He or she was a genuis, with designs decades and decades ahead
of the time this movie was made!

This Is a very good comedy,
Hopefully someone will put out a version you can watch. This copy is so out of focus It's really hard to watch. But It's so well done I try to get thru It this way. Won't somebody please, please Help Me.

A lighthearted comedy, with some screwball eccentricities, and great one-liners' (`Darling, my mother always said children should be seen and not heard'....`Yes but your mother was smarter than my mother'). A family that *thinks* the new visitor to their door is a tramp, who the mother takes in and gives the job of chauffeur much to the chagrin of the rest of the family. The tramp is not really a tramp at all, but plays along purely for the enjoyment of watching the antics of this eccentric family and because he has taken a liking to the eldest daughter.
I first saw this movie when I was 13, I stayed up all night to record it to VHS off the TV when it played at 1 AM. Since then I have been searching forever for this movie on DVD, so happy to have finally found it! BUT, what a disappointment that one of the best scenes is CUT OUT! There are a handful of scenes where someone is on the telephone, but *the* scene I am referring to is the one where just about everyone in the house is on the main home line at the same time and the conversation is hilarious. I don't want to keep buying different copies of this movie to simply find the one that is uncut, but I did notice that the copy on Amazon states it is 90 minutes run time, whereas other online retailers have it listed as 95 minutes run time....is that the missing telephone scene I wonder?

This DVD version is definitely not restored. I had to crank the volume to hear the audio and the picture is grainy. Another thing--and I don't know the proper term--is that the background "jumps." It is like the film is two-layered, with things in the foreground steady, while things in the background, like curtains on windows, jerk and jump. If anyone is familiar with a term for this effect--and I've seen it on other poor DVD transfers of classic movies--please let me know.

The movie studio ID is missing from the front of the picture, like a bootleg copy. I see the "MGM" logo in the fine print with the copyright. Was MGM the studio that produced this? Above the movie title is "Favorite Films." I've never heard of that company. Can anyone enlighten me with some background?

I wouldn't pay much for this copy. Maybe someday a quality restoration will be done of this charming sleeper.