The More the Merrier

Ben Mankiewicz introduces The More The Merrier, 1943.

TCM's Alicia Malone introduces The More The Merrier, 1943.

Introduction and comments following The More The Merrier, 1943, with TCM's Ben Mankiewicz and Rob Citino, PhD.

Ben Mankiewicz introduces The More The Merrier, 1943.

Ben Mankiewicz introduces The More The Merrier, 1943.

Ben Mankiewicz introduces The More The Merrier, 1943.

Director George Stevens has established the wartime Washington D.C. housing crisis and the grumpy visiting Dingle (Charles Coburn) seeking a bed, who now usurps fellow citizens looking to share with Connie (Jean Arthur), early in The More The Merrier, 1943, co-starring Joel McCrea.

Connie (Jean Arthur) catches her ride, having issued rules to her new roommate Dingle (Charles Coburn) who, for reasons not explained, invites Joe (Joel McCrea), answering her ad a day late, to move in, in George Steven’s wartime-Washington comedy The More The Merrier, 1943.

Connie (Jean Arthur), who is engaged to a guy named Pendergast, is beginning to regret having thrown roommate Joe Carter (Joel McCrea) out of her wartime Washington D.C. apartment, especially as he offers a parting gift, in George Stevens' The More The Merrier, 1943.

Killing weekend time on the roof of their townhome, not-quite-settled wartime Washington roommates Dingle (Charles Coburn) and Joe (Joel McCrea) are not impressing their de-facto landlady Connie (Jean Arthur), who is engaged to a guy named Pendergast, in George Stevens’ The More The Merrier, 1943.

Joining director George Stevens’ pantomime, in which Connie (Jean Arthur) doesn’t know that her on-trial roommate Dingle (Charles Coburn) has invited Joe (Joel McCrea) to also board with them, in the Washington D.C. wartime housing crisis comedy The More The Merrier, 1943.