The More the Merrier

George Stevens, 1943, bw (8.7*)
Classic B&W comedies don't get any better than this one. Talented and terminally cute actress Jean Arthur actually thought of this story to get work, director George Stevens liked it enough to have the screenplay written and filmed. Washington DC has a severe housing shortage during WW2, and people are sharing their apartments, people are sleeping in foyers, and anywhere else you look. Charles Coburn, perfect in an Oscar-winning supporting role, shows up early for his hotel reservation and has no place to stay. At the same time, Jean Arthur is about to rent half her apt to 'help ease the shortage', and Coburn uses chicanery to worm his way into the rental, which Jean wanted to give to another woman. Coburn immediately decides to play matchmaker, and sub-lets his half to a aircraft worker, the handsome and available Joel McRea, but Coburn doesn't know Jean has a fiance.

The single women to men ratio is 8 to 1 in wartime DC, and Stevens uses this fact for one of the funniest scenes in film. Jean and her fiance go to a restaurant, and Coburn brings McRae to the same restaurant, where Joel is immediately surrounded by 7 single women at the bar. Coburn spots Jean and her beau and manages to not only share their table, but whisks her beau away on business, leaving McRea with the seven single women and Jean - so the 8-1 ratio is now a reality! This lengthy sitcom scene will leave you in stitches, and Arthur will steal your heart. Nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture, but Coburn was the only winner.

This has always been one of my favorite comedies, and it never gets old, and is just as funny today. It was refilmed in 1964 with Cary Grant in Tokyo as Walk, Don't Run, with the Olympics causing the housing shortage, but that remake fell far short of the original.

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The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1943 (8.2*)Entertaining spoof of traditional 18th century British military aristocracy, which became a mid-war critique of the ‘gentleman’s war’ mentality of previous wars, now being rendered obsolete and ineffective against the Nazis. This version is a restored 1983 one that added back originally deleted footage, so now the running time is over 2.5 hrs, making it an epic comedy; though many call this version a masterpiece of cinema, I think that's overblown. It's more like that generation's Dr. Strangelove, though a lot slower and less innovative. It is to be praised for the stand it took however, actually being critical of the British military's 'old guard'.

Roger Livesey has a career role as General Wynne-Candy, a part originally written for Laurence Olivier but his studio wouldn’t release him to Archer for this film. Deborah Kerr has a field day in three separate roles, one for each generation, as the film covers half a century in a man’s life. Despite some incredible individual scenes (such as a duel that features a rising camera shot from above), down a star for the length hurting the overall pace.

Based on a British newspaper cartoon called Colonel Blimp, which poked fun at the outdated military aristocracy that had ruled during the Crimean and other wars up through WW1. Churchill fought the film’s release, thinking it would hurt morale, and the attempted ban made the film a box office giant as the studio advertised the “film banned by the government”, who then (in a secret memorandum) said the film “is so boring that hardly anyone will sit through it.”

Note: Powell (director) and Pressburger (writer) also did The Red Shoes in 1947, and Black Narcissus (1947) which were better films overall.

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Sahara

Zoltan Korda, 1943, bw (7.4*)
Excellent war adventure, as Humphrey Bogart leads a stranded tank squad to a hidden water well in North Africa. Eventually they have to face about 500 Nazis (thankfully with no tanks), who are also searching for water. This becomes a tight, suspenseful story, with very good bw cinematography and is generally one of the oft-overlooked WW2 films. Propagandistic at times, sure, but for 1943 that's to be expected; at least some Nazi officers were bilingual and intelligent.

Note: Definitely NOT to be confused with the 2005 Matthew McConaughey adventure that is lighter than popcorn by comparison (and a waste of time to me).

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