Merrily We Go To Hell

Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)

Runtime: 83 minutes

Directed by: Dorothy Arzner

Starring: Sylvia Sidney, Fredric March, Adrianne Allen, Skeets Gallagher, Cary Grant

From: Paramount

I learned that there is such a thing as “white boy tapdancing.”

This is a movie I've known of for awhile now; besides having a great title, it covers the serious topic of alcoholism, has Cary Grant in a small role and is one of the films directed by Dorothy Arzner; after her career was finished it was a few decades before a female director did movies for major Hollywood studios. From cursory searches, her story of how she was the only woman directing at a big company (Paramount) during the 30's is a fascinating one and this is why two of her movies are on the Criterion Channel... until they leave at the end of November. There are other places I could have seen this-but shhh on that-I chose to do so officially rather than by visiting any sketchy areas of the Internet.

Fredric March was a newspaper reporter/frustrated playwright who is an alcoholic and Sylvia Sidney (who was a dish back during this time) is a heiress. Against her father's protests they decide to marry. He goes on the wagon for the sake of the marriage as the bottle has resulted in several incidents which totally embarrassed his gal. I mean, he got drunker than Cooter Brown-to use a phrase I've learned since I started living in the South-and passed out in random places. However, he still pines for a gal from the past and when she returns... he turns into a real jerk, to put it mildly. It is easy to feel plenty of sympathy for her. For the time it was a surprisingly mature look at such themes as alcoholism and an open marriage.

It was great performances from the duo which helped elevate the movie. So was an interesting story which had some humorous moments but also some which were stone cold sober-pun intended. S*** got real in the final few minutes-it was quite the contrast to the funny bits of Skeets Gallagher attempting to tap-dance or an amateur singing quartet where three of them are properly sauced. As it was a nice job directing by Arzner, in the future I'll have to track down more of her work.