Region: A
MSRP: $39.95
A pre-code melodrama that provided equal opportunities for sinning for both sexes, Dorothy Arznerâs
Merrily We Go to Hell shows âmodernâ movie marriage in ways that wouldnât be allowed on the screen less than two years later and features charismatic performances from its two leading players that would be bellwethers of finer things to come from both of them. In its free-flowing drinking and multiple sexual escapades, the film may show its age, but itâs still an enjoyable entertainment with glimpses of some stars to be also in the mix.
Newspaper reporter and fledgling playwright Jerry Corbett (Fredric March) has definite problems with alcohol, drinking himself into a stupor almost nightly to forget the girl that got away, flighty Broadway actress Claire Hempstead (Adrianne Allen). One night at another drunken party he meets Chicago heiress Joan Prentice (Sylvia Sidney) who has not allowed her fatherâs (George Irving) millions to spoil her or make her personally irresponsible. Jerry sees salvation for him in the grounded Joan and after an up-and-down courtship, they marry. Wishing Jerry to be all the wonderful things she thinks he is, Joan oversees his staying on the wagon so he can finish his play