This is the screwiest screwball comedy ever! I love it.
This really is a marvel. It’s like the writers meticulously went through every single scene and went “can we add more zaniness here? yes we can!”, no matter how small a scene. It’s gag, gag, gag, relentlessly.
It works cumulatively — after a while everything’s a brilliant joke. I haven’t laughed this much at a movie in yonks.
Using those huge goofy dogs in just about every scene works beautifully — they add a sense of chaos to everything.
And it’s truly an ensemble movie — absolutely every character get a bunch of gags. All the actors are great here.
Hey, that’s Willie Best. I saw him in… oh, yeah, The Ghost Breakers.
The movie is absolutely hilarious. And it doesn’t suffer (like so many otherwise perfect comedies) from a serious Dreaded Third Act — it’s funny all the way through. I wonder who wrote this…
Oh, it’s based on a play, based on a novel. So they were just piling on gags at every stage, I guess.
It’s just about perfect.
Merrily We Live. Norman Z. McLeod. 1938. ⚅
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