Merrily We Go to Hell (1932) User Reviews

Alcohol-Soaked Pre-Code Film Is a Very Good One

[evanston_dad · 8/10 · 12 August 2014]

A wonderful and unsettling pre-Code film about an alcoholic playboy (Fredric March) who marries a sweet young thing (Sylvia Sidney) and proceeds to drag her down his path of dissolution. The depiction of their marriage is quite shocking, even by today's standards -- not only do they have an "open" marriage, they openly practice that freedom in front of their friends, suggesting a swinging lifestyle that wouldn't become approachable as subject matter in films for another 30+ years. March and Sidney give fantastic performances, and Dorothy Arzner, one of the rare women directors of the time, takes a matter of fact approach that leaves behind the melodrama and sentimentality that might have blunted this same story's impact in the hands of someone else.

One of the most refreshing aspects of "Merrily We Go to Hell," and one of the most shocking, is that Sidney's character does not suffer nobly while we wait for March to see the error of his ways and come back to her a chastened man. Instead, Sidney starts to behave just like him, coming within a stone's throw of alcoholism herself, and doing her own share of philandering. In that way, the film is even a little progressive in its equal treatment of the genders, even if that equality is the equality of debauchery.

Grade: A

A real gem!

[clovenier-927-957545 · 7/10 · 7 July 2020]

Some time ago I became the owner of the Pre-Code Hollywood Collection. Me was told to watch first Merrily We Go To Hell (1932), one of the six films within this collection. And really I can say... it is a gem on its own. Maybe because it is the first film I've seen from director Dorothy Arzner and the second film I've seen with Sylvia Sidney, I got besmitten from the start seeing her in Sabotage (1936), but I was taken away with the whole as a combination of acting, directing, the story and some gowns.

Fredric March is awesome playing the drunk man, and later husband, just right and not lost in overacting. The parties go on and on. The marriage is more the real thing and not the Hollywood marriage after the Production Code came about. It is nice to see a young Cary Grant, in his first year of acting. Later that year he would have his breakthrough I think I can say fairly with Blonde Venus.

All along the storyline I wondered what the movie is trying to tell us. There are a few good aspects told about how relations can be. First the character of Mrs. Sidney, Joan Prentice, is that of a woman in love and want to do everything for her man, even let him go towards another woman. The next stage is trying to win him back by jealousy and then, the last stage, leaving her husband for good. And you can say in Hollywood in those days they also want an happy ending, but... Sorry, I won't go into spoilers. I didn't expected it, but a real good movie to watch.

Excellent performances and daring subject matter

[gbill-74877 · 8/10 · 18 March 2018]

Clever dialogue, fantastic acting, and several great scenes made this film a delight for me, but be forewarned, its main character may have you saying 'grrr', and reduce your enjoyment. Frederic March plays a newspaper reporter / playwright who has a drinking problem, and it's while he's drunk at a party that he meets a charming young lady, played by Sylvia Sidney. The two hit it off and despite the concerns of her rich father (George Irving), get married. Things get complicated when his ex-lover (Adrianne Allen) re-surfaces and he struggles to control his problem.

It's a very strong cast all around, and Sidney in particular turns in a great performance. She ranges from a sweet, naïve, and trusting soul, loving unconditionally, to hurt and confused, to woman whose solution is to give her husband a taste of his own medicine, in a rather shocking development. The scene with her partying with her own young lover (Cary Grant no less) and his friends and quipping "Gentlemen, I give you the holy state of matrimony, modern style: single lives, twin beds and triple bromides in the morning" is sad, empowering, and a little thrilling all at the same time. As they're in a bar that's practically a den of iniquity, it's all clearly pre-code, but there is an intelligence and honesty in this scene, and throughout the movie.

March is also strong as this affable but flawed man, and in early scenes we smile at his partying, at one point yelling "Is there a baritone in the house?" until he finds a barman to fill out a quartet with his friends so that they can break out in song. The warning signs are there in his tardiness and even at his wedding, as he and his best man (Skeets Gallagher) fumble for the ring, which he's forgotten. That scene is one of several that are well directed by Dorothy Arzner, as she cuts to guests making observations and the facial reactions of March and Sidney as they say their vows.

There is a lot of partying and revelry which may put some viewers off, but I found that allowed for some fantastic moments. In one, March asks Sidney to shut the door and hold him back from going to the other woman, and in a strong way she opens it wide and says "I'm no jailer - get out!" In another, as March and Allen 'play-act' a passionate kiss to the merriment of others right in front of her, we feel the shock and humiliation amplified by her brilliant facial reaction.

The title is clearly meant to titillate, but the film has real substance beneath. It's wild, but also realistic, though I didn't care too much for the ending. We see what destructive behavior leads to, and in that I suppose there is a message, but it's delivered without heavy-handed moralizing. The plot is a tad melodramatic, but it's daring and unique in the areas it explores. Well worth checking out, if you're in the mood for pre-code.

Drink Is The Curse Of The Drinking Class

[GManfred · 7 October 2010]

Once you get past the appalling title, this is a good picture. It's a Pre-Code film and must have been naughty in its day, but is tame by today's standards. It involves a fairly routine love story pulled out of the doldrums by Director Dorothy Arzner and by exceptional acting performances by the two principals, Frederic March and Sylvia Sidney. Poor Sylvia suffered through countless 30's tearjerkers and she is once again miserable here as the put-upon wife of drunken writer March. Was never a fan of Sylvia's, particularly as she became desiccated and more pathetic in later years, but she never looked lovelier and more appealing than in this movie. Skeets Gallagher plays March's drinking buddy and adds immeasurable stature to the film. He remains one of Hollywood's most shamefully underutilized and overlooked talents.

Was surprised to learn that a strain of Womens Lib flourished in the early 30's, as our heroine declares her independence (more or less) from her inebriated husband and, in addition, her wedding vow did not include the words "honor and obey", which I thought were de rigeur until mid-century. This last may have been a directorial touch of a feminist director.

This is an underrated, under-appreciated movie, especially if you enjoy solid acting and are a sucker for a pretty face, to borrow a phrase.

Highly underrated drama

[DangerAwesome · 7/10 · 6 October 2013]

This is a movie that has a lot to say about 'modern' relationships, drinking, and feminism of the time. And for the most part the execution is very good.

Merrily We Go to Hell is an extremely well acted film, but that to me is not the highlight of the movie. It's the writing with realistic characters and funny moments that are the best part of it. It is one of the better performances I've seen from Sylvia Sidney, which is a little odd as its one of her earliest.

Fredric March stars as a man who doesn't deserve the love of a rich girl that has fallen for him. He's frequently drunk (the title of the film is his favorite drinking toast) and disappoints her at nearly every turn. It's hard to understand exactly what Joan (Sidney) likes about him so much. But that's the way love is sometimes. Joan takes the good with the bad and always seems to forgive the bad, no matter how appalling. Jerry (March) is still getting over his last relationship, attempting to drink it off.

One moment in that part of the story was a highlight for me, where Jerry mentions his previous girlfriend. Joan asks if he has a picture of her, and he responds by saying he has one hidden away somewhere that he looks at once in a blue moon when he's feeling lonely. The movie immediately cuts to him arriving home and the picture of the girl he was mentioning is framed on the wall, with a personal note written to him on it. A clear omen for things to come.

Merrily We Go to Hell does a fabulous job showing the dark side of drinking, something movies of the time rarely did. As the overall weakness of Jerry and Joan's relationship becomes unraveled, it takes Joan just a little longer than it seems like it should to finally get the courage to leave him. This is very much a sign of the times Depression-era picture. Showing the underlying unhappiness in the lives of socialites.

If you are are a Carey Grant fan, he is essentially a pawn in the relationship game. As Jerry seems to be falling for his ex, the star of his new play, Joan attempts to give him a taste of his own medicine by going out with the other star of his play (Grant). Grant has maybe 4 or 5 lines.

My only major criticism of the movie is the ending. I know it was a written rule in Hollywood at the time for movies to have a happy ending, but I don't consider the two of them getting back together a happy ending. Joan was right to leave him and she never should have taken him back. She was better off without him. Ending on the scene where she leaves would have been a better ending climatically, as well as been a happier ending. But in the time period that ending would not have been possible.

I Jerry, Take Thee, Joan

[lugonian · 7/10 · 7 June 2001]

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** MERRILY WE GO TO HELL (Paramount, 1932), directed by Dorothy Arzner, is not a horror movie about Satan worshipers who hold Black Masses in Transylvania, as the title may indicate. It's is a story about an heiress names Joan Prentiss (Sylvia Sidney) who meets Jerry Corbett (Fredric March), a drunken newspaperman, on the rooftop during a party. Jerry's ambition is to become a successful playwright. Within a short time he falls in love with Joan, but Joan's father (George Irving) disapproves of Jerry because of his careless ways. He offers to buy Jerry out of marrying his daughter, but refuses to accept the $50,000. Quite happy that Jerry's sole interest is in his daughter, he gleefully approves of the upcoming marriage. During the wedding ceremony, Jerry, somewhat drunk, forgets the wedding ring and finds himself in an embarrassing situation by placing a beer tap on Joan's finger. Time passes. Jerry writes the comedy play, "When Women Say No," and it gets produced. The leading lady turns out to be Claire Hempstead (Adrienne Ames), Jerry's former girlfriend. While the play proves successful, Jerry's married life is not, especially when Joan finds he's spending more time with Claire as well with the booze. Not wanting to be an old-fashioned wife, Joan decides not to let this bother her by dating Charlie Baxter (Cary Grant), the leading man of the play, to society functions. Disgusted, Joan finally does leaves Jerry without telling him she's pregnant with his child. Old Man Prentiss tries his best to keep Jerry from visiting Joan in the hospital, where she's in danger of possibly losing either her life or baby.

The title, MERRILY WE GO TO HELL, happens to be the catch phrase used by March several times in the story before taking a drink. The movie in itself is forgotten with a familiar plot quite common during the Depression era. Film titles using "Hell" in it were also quite common practice during that time, until the production code people stepped in and put a stop to that, for the time being anyway. This romancer may be of some interest to film buffs today, especially seeing it being an early screen appearance by Cary Grant, in his third featured role. He is first seen (in long shot) wearing period costume and wig in Jerry's stage play opposite Adrienne Ames, and later at a social function in dinner clothes after the play's opening, before his character disappears. Sylvia Sidney does what she does best playing a long suffering girl, a kind of role she played from time to time, possibly because of her sweet and tender face. Before the end of 1932, Grant would elevate to becoming Sidney's co-star in one of her most tender movie roles, MADAME BUTTERFLY.

Also featured the cast of MERRILY WE GO TO HELL is Richard "Skeets" Gallagher as Buck, Jerry's reporter friend with a talent for tap-dancing, adding some amusing support during the film's serious moments; Kent Taylor as Gregory; and Florence Britton as Charlcie. Background music score includes "What a Little Thing Like a Wedding Ring Can Do" and "We Will Always Be Sweethearts," songs introduced in Paramount's 1932 musical hit, ONE HOUR WITH YOU starring Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald.

In spite of good actors rising above somewhat average script, it's worth seeing as a curiosity on DVD (double featured with 1931's THE CHEAT), and on Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: September 1, 2020). If the story may not be an attention grabber, the title definitely is. (**)

Good performances wasted on a rather ordinary script

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 22 February 2021]

Everybody here is terrific, and Paramount brought out its A-list stars for the leads, Sylvia Sidney as heiress Joan Prentice and Fredric March as aspiring playwright Jerry Corbett. They are a young couple who marry in spite of the fact that Jerry is an alcoholic who is still stuck on a past heartbreak, stage actress Claire Hempstead.

The plot treads a conventional path full of precode tropes - infidelity, drunkenness, open marriage, the inconvenient pregnancy, and the wealthy family of one spouse distrusting the not so wealthy other spouse and his motives. But yet it is interesting because of several - "Wow did they do that back then?" moments.

For example - Jerry works at a newspaper. When somebody makes an insulting remark about his upcoming wedding, Jerry punches him in the throat. And yet nobody gets fired or arrested. Prohibition is still in force, and everybody drinks everywhere. Nobody even bothers with the discretion of a flask. There is booze at private parties, booze in public places, booze everywhere. When a turkey gets accidentally dropped on the floor, the alternative is... canned chicken??? Ugh. I would think the couple didn't want to have me over for dinner in the first place. Then there is Jerry's hit play up in lights - "When Women Say No - a satirical comedy". Yikes!

Need I mention that the art design and Sylvia Sidney's fashions are gorgeous. With Skeets Gallagher as Jerry's best friend, the great Esther Howard who seems to be in some kind of relationship with Skeets' character and had a marriage end because of her former husband's drinking - she's always memorable, and Cary Grant as one of Joan's extramarital escorts with what seems to be his original nose.

"It is their husbands' faults if wives do fall." Shakespeare.

[brogmiller · 8/10 · 16 February 2024]

Cleo Lucas wrote 'I, Jerry, take thee Joan', her only novel, at the tender age of twenty-four and it has been adapted by Edwin Justus Mayer for Paramount whilst marking the last film directed for that studio by Dorothy Arzner before going freelance.

Early on in the film the newly engaged Jerry of Fredric March asks: "Have I a right to take a swell girl and make her a wife?" Thus setting the scene for another of Ms. Arzner's stealthy critiques of the married state.

As expected, her direction is impeccable, her editing seemless and the magnificent performances she has drawn from her two leading players makes this emotional rollercoaster riveting viewing.

The all-important chemistry between March and the enchanting Sylvia Sidney as Joan without which the film would not work, is palpable from the outset. Her character develops and grows in strength as the film progresses whilst in his fourth film for this director, his portrayal of a tragic drunk makes him perfect casting for the role of Norman Maine five years later. Classy English actress Adrianne Allen is Jerry's old flame whose reappearance spells disaster.

Ambivalence runs through Ms. Arzner's oeuvre, never more so than in the ending here which is both happy and deeply tragic.

Some unsusal aspects here....

[gridoon2024 · 7/10 · 3 June 2018]

....most of all, the somber ending - very rare for a 1930s movie. The production is A-class; Dorothy Arzner's direction is smooth; Sylvia Sidney looks exceptionally beautiful; and the script is thin but sophisticated: for example, when Sidney complains to March near the end of the movie that he has never told her that he loves her, you realize that it's true. *** out of 4.

Three Little Words!!!

[kidboots · 8/10 · 29 December 2010]

The title was immortalized by the British censor, who apparently insisted that the last word be replaced by a dash!!! People flocking to the movie for a bit of titilation would have felt pretty disappointed by this pap - although with Sylvia Sidney and Frederic March in the leads - it was high grade soap opera. Taken from Cleo Lucas' novel "I, Jerry, Take Thee Joan", even though it got Sylvia out of prison and into high society (she was constantly on Best Dressed Lists during the 30s), the plot made sure she suffered like never before.

Joan (Sylvia Sidney) meets Jerry (Frederic March) at a New Year's Eve party. She is instantly taken with him and his eccentric humor. He is very drunk and teaches her his "theme song" "Merrily We Go to Hell", but when she says goodbye, he is too drunk to remember who she is. For her, it is love at first sight, but she puts up with a lot from him - even passing out drunk at their engagement party - her father is not amused.

They marry and after an initial struggle, Jerry finally gets his play produced - with his old girlfriend Claire in the lead. Adrienne Allen is right up there with Sidney and March, she was just super as the neurotic wife in "The Night of June 13th" and she brings intelligence to this "other woman" role. Of course, after months on the wagon, Jerry falls back into his old drunken ways but the twist is, Joan follows him "Merrily to Hell". When she becomes ill through too much riotous living, she returns to her father, who protects her and refuses to let Jerry near her.

The movie ends with a repentant Jerry, at the hospital, vowing, as Joan clings to life, to give up his old ways and telling Joan those three little words (I love you) that she has never heard him speak before. I tend to agree with the blurb on my DVD cover, who knows whether Jerry will stick to his pledge? During the movie, he had been "on the wagon" a couple of times and when Joan rashly starts to drink, he welcomes her as a drinking buddy - I would have thought that would have been his turning point - but no!!! Skeets Gallagher is always great to have around and he is just marvellous as Jerry's tap dancing drinking buddy. Florence Britton is beautiful and elegant as Joan's concerned friend.

Recommended.

Early dissolute character for March

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 19 April 2013]

Fredric March and Sylvia Sidney star in Merrily We Go To Hell, the story of a nice rich girl who falls in love with an alcoholic newspaperman who has ambitions for greater things to turn his writing talents to. The title comes from a favorite drinking toast of March's.

Occasionally Fredric March turned in some fine performances of some dissolute characters. Later on he would get Oscar nominations for A Star Is Born and Death Of A Salesman and his part in this film can be seen as a harbinger of things to come.

For once Sylvia Sidney was not a child of the slums, she's a rich girl here who falls for March who keeps falling off the wagon. When he gets his play finally produced slinky actress Adrienne Allen comes between Sylvia and Fred. Incidentally playing a small role as Allen's lead in the play is Cary Grant.

The story verges into the melodramatic, but Dorothy Arzner gets some good performances from her stars and their support. Pay note to March's reporter sidekick Skeets Gallagher who has some interesting observations.

Fans of the stars should be pleased.

"I figured out a long time ago, that a punch on the nose, heals a lot quicker than a broken heart."

[DoorsofDylan · 8/10 · 27 April 2023]

Learning of a Criterion UK sale taking place,I went to the local HMV to see the latest movies on offer. Aware for some time of the director, but sadly not having seen anything she has done, I was happily surprised to discover that Criterion has released one of her titles, which led to me going to Hell.

View on the film:

Although featuring a prominent amount of grain, Criterion still present a very good transfer with sparkling audio, backed by interesting extras.

Working for the fourth, and final time with the director, Fredric March gives a terrific turn as Jerry, whose charming manner March pours down the drain as Jerry sinks deeper into the bottle,with attempts to stay on the straight and narrow, being expressed by March with a nervous quiver, due to being unable to stop his marriage from crumbling under his alcoholism.

Putting aside doubts raised by her dad as they exchange vows, Sylvia Sidney gives a fantastic, complex performance as Joan, (who like Sidney, is an only child in the movie) who during the meet-cute breezy Rom-Com early stages of the romance is given a passion by Sidney, which as cracks begin to appear in the relationship with her husband, Sidney mixes into the sadness surrounding Joan, leaving her with one foot in extreme false happiness, and the other in utter despair.

Intelligently transferring superb passages of dialogue directly from Cleo Lucas's story I, Jerry, Take Thee, Joan, the screenplay by To Be Or Not To Be (1942-also reviewed) writer Edwin Justus Mayer laces wicked Pre-Code double entendre, with a bittersweet ,under stated Melodrama, which explores the view of society in this period of women having to stay in marriage, even when the rose- tinted outer appearance, has been seen by all as an attempt to hide the decay sinking deep into the veins of the relationship.

Changing the ending from Lucas's tale, Mayer magnificently leaves J&J's romance with a large slice of pessimism, from Jerry and Joan finding their marriage being caught in rebirth and death, that feeds an ambiguity in the final vow Jerry makes to Joan.

For the final film she made at Paramount, (who were making cuts across all parts of the studio, due to serious money problems at the time) directing auteur Dorothy Arzner is joined by The Crime of the Century 1933-also reviewed) cinematographer David Abel in sweeping across the skyline in a stunning opening shot which lands on a balcony where Jerry's face is deep in bottles.

Standing back to display the hollow institution of marriage (breaking the facade of institutions being a major recurring theme in Arzner's works) Arzner beautifully fills each room with glowing close-ups on the tragically joyful tears of Joan merrily going to Hell.

Precode directed by Dorothy Arzner

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 13 January 2015]

Frederick March and Sylvia Sidney star in "Merrily We Go to Hell," from 1932.

For those of us who only remember Sylvia Sidney as an older character actress -- and usually a pretty mouthy one at that -- seeing her as an ingénue is always a revelation.

Jerry Corbett (March) is a reporter and a drunk, still pining for the woman who broke his heart, Claire (Adrienne Allen). When he meets the lovely Joan Prentice (Sidney) from a wealthy family, the two fall for one another and marry.

Jerry wants to write plays, and he eventually is able to have one produced, early in the marriage. Unfortunately, one of the stars is Claire, and she's perfectly willing to take up where they left off. Jerry starts drinking again. Joan is heartbroken as well as hurt and starts drinking and partying herself. Finally, though, she returns to her father's home.

Nothing too surprising in the plot, but good performances all around. Sidney is pretty and vulnerable, taking a chance on a man her father disapproves of but whom she loves. March shows that Jerry is a weak man who in his heart doesn't believe he deserves the happiness he's had with Joan. Can these two find their way back to one another? Just guess.

Dorothy Arzner had a good sense of pacing, so the film doesn't drag or slow down. Worth seeing for the actors, not necessarily the story.

A bit melodramatic

[HotToastyRag · 3/10 · 17 July 2018]

It's pretty funny to think that in the span of seven years, one movie could have "hell" in the title, and another broke barriers by having an actor say, "damn." In this pre-Code drama, Fredric March is an alcoholic who tends to toast his drinks by uttering the title of the movie. Sylvia Sidney, a good girl who loves him in spite of his behavior, doesn't quite get that he actually means his toast. It isn't long before he does drag her down with him. . .

How many times has Fredric March played in a movie with a drunk scene? I can come up with seven, off the top of my head. The point is, he's had tons of experience, and he does it very well, so if you like to see him in these types of roles, you can give this one a whirl. Merrily We Go to Hell is a very nasty pre-Code movie, with an enormous amount of suggestive dialogue, and situations that, two years later, would never have been filmed. Open marriages, promiscuity, and orgies are made pretty clear, even though nothing is showed. To me, this was a pretty black-and-white film. Bad guy, good girl, bad behavior, good heart. I'd recommend watching My Sin or Call Her Savage instead if you want some pre-Code fun.

Not a happy picture but a very satisfying and wonderfully made one.

[1930s_Time_Machine · 6/10 · 16 April 2023]

Although this story has been done a million times since, Dorothy Arzner's subtle yet brash film still has something different to say which makes this worth watching.

Being not just that rarest of 1930s Hollywood creatures: a woman film maker but also someone in an openly long term same sex relationship I wonder whether she had to try harder than her male contemporaries? She certainly delivers goods with this, imbuing energy and emotion into this very thoughtful drama. It's not just a simple story about alcoholism as it could easily have been considering this is 1932. It is a surprisingly deep examination of a strained and complex relationship which is particularly insightful for the time. Above all though it is a piece of entertainment. Unlike how this subject might be handled today, it doesn't get too bogged down in depressing misery but instead keeps the story moving forward, keeping your eyes glued to the screen with a really fast pace.

It's not just Ms Arzner's energetic yet thought provoking direction which elevates this above a lot of the output from 1932, it's Frederick March. Sylvia Sidney is fine in this (not as good as she was in CITY STREETS, Rouben Mamoulian's masterpiece made a year earlier) but she and the rest of the cast are just not on the same level as Mr March. His characterisation of someone who knows he could have everything yet also someone who knows he is going to destroy not just his own but his wife's life too and someone who knows he can't do anything to stop himself is incredibly natural, authentic and heartbreaking. He achieves this, even when he's being decidedly horrible by being so endearing and likeable. Of all the actors the 30s, he was one who had real depth and demonstrates this fully here making his character both fun and sad, ambitious yet weak and spineless, devoted yet deceitful... a real person.

Despite my gushing praise for this, or maybe because of it, I can't call this a great film. Because it's good I can't just compare it with other films of that era but have to put it in the same category of all pictures from the last hundred years. It's no MIDNIGHT COWBOY or TRAIN SPOTTING thus my fairly low rating... but as films from 1932 go, it's one of the best.

Good Performances Wasted in Routine Story

[Michael_Elliott · 9 March 2017]

Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Reporter Jerry Colbert (Fredric March) is in a drunken state when he meets the beautiful Joan (Sylvia Sidney) who just happens to be the daughter of a millionaire. The two hit it off but before long Joan realizes that Jerry has a major issue with alcohol. At first her love is enough to keep him away from the drink but before long he's back on the bottle.

MERRILY WE GO TO HELL has one of the greatest titles of any movie in history but sadly the film itself isn't all that great or even good for that matter. This here is another Pre-code that manages to have some good performances that go wasted on a story that just isn't all that interested. What's worse is the fact that the story is pretty darn predictable from start to finish without any real surprises or fresh moments.

The best thing going for the film are the performances. March, fresh off his Best Actor Oscar win for DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE, offers up a good performance in the role of a drunk who can't help but want to party more than stay with his wife. Adrianne Allen plays his former lover and she offers up a fine performance. George Irving has some excellent moments playing Sidney's father. You've even got an early performance from Cary Grant. As far as Sidney goes, she's certainly the best thing about the film. She handles the dramatic moments perfectly but the greatest part comes at the start of the picture with that bubbly personality, which makes you understand why an alcoholic would give up the bottle for her.

This here was years before THE LOST WEEKEND so the subject of alcoholism isn't really dealt with in a strong or graphic way. More than anything we just see the March character as either having too much fun or passing out during moments that he's needed. As it stands, MERRILY WE GO TO HELL might appeal to fans of the cast but the film itself has quite a few problems.

Bottled Love

[ricardojorgeramalho · 6/10 · 8 February 2023]

Bottled Love Melodrama where love misunderstandings intersect with alcoholism.

Although it has an interesting cast, led by the energetic Fredric March and the beautiful Sylvia Sidney and where a young Cary Grant even appears, in one of his first appearances in cinema, in the year of his debut in Hollywood, this work lacks a plot and a direction at the height of so much stardom.

The story is banal and the development implausible. It ends up bringing tears, in a semi-open ending, without ever having truly conquered the spectator.

The time left posterity much better both in drama and especially in comedy.

Hard to believe, though I know of people quite like the ones in this film.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 6 June 2011]

As I watched this film, I found myself struggling to believe the plot of "Merrily We Go To Hell"--but I also had to remind myself that there ARE indeed people who behave exactly like the leads did in this film. Yes, real people CAN be this dumb...and it's REAL dumb! Frederic March plays a reporter and frustrated playwright who spends most of his time intoxicated. He's not a mean drunk, but by anyone's standards he's clearly an alcoholic. So when rich and happy Sylvia Sidney meets and falls in love with this guy you wonder why--what in the world does this lush have to offer her?! But, having worked in a rehab program and in other mental health settings, I know that there are many such people who madly choose a hellish life like this--and hope that, magically, love will make the problem vanish.

At first, March tries to be good and manages to get one of his plays produced. Life looks good for the young married couple--but the alcoholism is just lying dormant. When it does rear its ugly head later in the film, is their love enough to help them through it or does it spell disaster? And, more importantly, will the film makers manage to handle the addiction and co-dependence realistically and avoid the clichés? Well, the film makers decided to do it BOTH ways! While the alcoholism angle was generally played well (especially when the wife finally grew up and realized it was time to leave), by the end, March was suddenly and magically transformed--or so it seemed to me.

Not a terrible film, just not a particularly inspired look at alcoholism and co-dependency. The only big plus this film has is a small early role for Cary Grant--who appears and then disappears almost as quickly.

At Least The Lost Weekend Was Intended As a Serious Film!

[malvernp · 4/10 · 9 April 2022]

Merrily We Go to Hell (MWGTH) provides a useful example of one of the downside aspects of the Studio System that flourished during the Golden Age of Hollywood. In 1928, Fredric March was one of America's better known and most promising young stage actors---primarily because of his recent celebrated performance as Tony Cavendish (a spoof of John Barrymore) in the hit play "The Royal Family of Broadway." A movie career inevitably beckoned, and accordingly March signed a five year contract to be a film actor employed by Paramount Studio. Soon he was hard at work making many movies----some worthwhile and others less so.

In 1931, he had the good fortune to star in the stylish (and now classic) Rouben Mamoulian version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde---for which he received his first Academy Award. March's performance was so remarkable.and distinctive that one could reasonably assume Paramount would willingly have provided him with more significant roles to utilize his obvious talent. Alas, that is not the way the Studio System operated. Shortly thereafter, March appeared in a routine vehicle titled Strangers in Love. Then, about six months after he made Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, March starred in MWGTH. It was cut from similar cloth as Strangers in Love, and from an artistic point of view--it proved to be equally disappointing to March.

By 1932, it was increasingly difficult to make a believable romantic comedy that presented a chronic alcoholic lead character as also being a charming, appealing and fun-loving hero. And even in this pre-code era, it was getting somewhat tiresome to offer the idea of an "open" marriage as a good way to sustain a meaningful life style between two people who claimed that they were truly in love with each other. Nevertheless even with good acting and Dorothy Arzner's careful direction, the narrative of MWGTH made it particularly difficult to empathize with the March character. And while Sylvia Sidney's sweet and endearing heroine was quite likable and attractive, this just did not seem enough to make us care about how the story was ultimately resolved. That was too bad, because Sidney made her long-suffering wife very likable. And "Skeets" Gallagher's best friend role also came across effective as well. Strange, but I never before noticed how much Gallagher facially reminded me of Joe E. Brown.

Making films like MWGTH must have provided a serious wake up call for March in terms of how not to successfully sustain a budding movie career. When his Paramount contract lapsed, he did not renew it. March (and other actors of similar stature---most notably Cary Grant) subsequently insisted on becoming a free-lance artist, which enabled him to be more choosy about the roles he would agree to play in the future.

MWGTH is an interesting vehicle to illustrate the kind of films that talented contract players like March had to make under the Studio System at its zenith. He would never allow himself to be put in that situation again. March appeared in some later films that may have been beneath him. But the choice to do so was now his alone.

As a practical matter, it seems that the plot elements of drunkenness and wanton behavior have limited entertainment appeal when offered as inducements to see what is presented to the public as light romantic comedy. Fortunately, March went on to create a major film career that ranks among the greatest in Hollywood history.

Sylvia Sidney shines in this dud

[Phillim212 · 5/10 · 4 July 2017]

Plucky rich daddy's girl Sylvia Sidney falls for charming drunk reporter Frederic March. Enabling, delusion, mutual dive ensues.

Sidney's work is the reason to see this one -- she tirelessly, valiantly tries to breathe life into this otherwise badly-written, badly-directed 'racy' pre-Code weeper. (It pains me to say that: Dorothy Arzner was the only female features director in Hollywood in the 1930s, and reportedly part of Nazimova's crowd of fabulous lesbians).

March's work is general and repetitive -- thoroughly unconvincing. It's an amateur's performance. He got a chance to make amends a few years later as the charming drunk in the superior 'A Star Is Born'.

Newcomer Cary Grant gets a few seconds screen time as a hot side piece in the tawdry perdition sequence. Old vaudevillian 'Skeets' Gallagher keeps threatening to do something as magical as his name, but never gets the chance.

'Merrily We Go to Hell' is a waste of a great title. Pity.

Analogy of alcoholism is a depressing bore.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 23 April 2013]

Funny drunks aren't realistic drunks, and until Billy Wilder created a great part for Ray Milland, alcoholism was rarely treated seriously. Fredric March is a struggling playwright, favorite of the party scene who hasn't hit the big time. He falls in love with wealthy socialite Sylvia Sidney whose domineering father (George Irving) despises March and does everything in his power to dissuade her from marrying him. But they do, success follows for March, and his illness leads to degradation and tragedy. To teach her husband a lesson, in the meantime, Sidney becomes a party girl herself, flaunts her own discretions (with a young Cary Grant, playing one of the actors in the play), hoping he'll leave his current fling (the play's leading lady, Adrienne Allen) and come back to his senses.

These characters are all presented as worthless bon vivants, even the successful theater people, and March's comical sidekick (Richard "Skeets" Gallagher). The title is March's toast every time he takes a drink, and a metaphor for the dead lives that the characters are leading. This leads to a real downer of a story, shocking in its choice of pre-code sins, a party sequence which is almost an orgy in its set-up with sultry music and dialog. Irving's father is truly a nasty character with no motivation other than total control and possessional of his only child for acting as he does. The Paramount pre-code look is lavish, but it is basically "Dante's Inferno" without the end result of that classic poem's destination.

Sloshed

[st-shot · 5/10 · 24 March 2022]

Newspaperman, aspirant playwright Jerry Corbett (Fredric March) is somewhat of a charming alcoholic who tends to run late after a few drinks. He meets an heiress (Sylvia Sidney) who falls for his charm and excuses and they marry. His career takes off as a playwright but drunk he remains and much to suffering Sylvia's chagrin they separate with unfinished business.

Prohibition was still in effect in 32 but you'd never know it from the barrage of drunks and partying going on in "Merrily." Directed in distracted fashion by Dorothy Arzner, it's a movable feast of imbibing for Corbett and his coterie of drinking buddies as they stumble from one speak easy and house party to the next and unlike the patient Sydney it wears thin fast for the viewer.

March looks like he's in training for his Star is Born role. A touch more subdued than Norman Main, his intoxication less flamboyant but annoying nonetheless. Sidney is much too forgiving to sympathize with when she along with Corbett could benefit from a good shaking and strong talking to or at least seek therapy. The melodramatic pile-up at the end is uneven and smacks of cop out in this film that never really sobers up.

I don't like the over-use of close-ups!

[JohnHowardReid · 4/10 · 8 December 2017]

Director Dorothy Arzner was extremely popular with her stars because she always coddled them with close-up after close-up and ensured they were always fastidiously wardrobed and photographed to perfection, no matter how soap-suddy the screenplay.

"Merrily We Go To Hell" (1932) serves as another typical example of her languid, star-indulgent style.

Lovers of weepie-eyed Sylvia Sidney and sartorially splendid Fredric March will enjoy both the 9/10 VintageFilmBuff DVD and its 10/10 Universal rival.

The only thing I really liked about this predictably plotted, slow- moving film was the unexpected appearance of perennial butler Charles Coleman as a gossip columnist with a well-founded dislike for our wastrel hero.

But as for Cary Grant pouring on the charm in a small bit at a party scene, words fail me!

Bold for its time, but doesn't age perfectly

[blott2319-1 · 5/10 · 26 October 2021]

Merrily We Go to Hell is an early look at the ugly dangers of alcoholism. I appreciate that a film from so long ago tackled this kind of subject matter, and showed how this type of addiction can break down relationships. I thought the acting was good, and noticed that the movie never treated the people getting drunk as something humorous where we were intended to laugh along at all the "fun" they were having. It all felt depressing and dark. I also liked that they told this narrative through the framework of a somewhat traditional love story. Where I feel this movie falls a bit short and doesn't age so well is in the resolution. It feels disingenuous to structure a narrative where it seems like someone can just choose to abandon his addiction when it's for the right reason. I think there have been plenty of real-life examples to show that is not the case. Merrily We Go to Hell is a film that takes a big swing, and I can applaud it for the attempt. I think there have been more poignant movies made on the topic of alcoholism since then, but for its time I'm sure this was daring and ground-breaking.

Another 30's Woman Stands by Her Man

[view_and_review · 3/10 · 11 February 2024]

I've mentioned in other reviews some of the things I've learned from 1930's movies and it's quite a bit. I've picked up one more thing from "Merrily We Go to Hell" (MWGtH) that I'd seen in other movies, but I wasn't quite sure if it was an established cultural trait or some anomalies. The new finding is how society deals with infidelity, particularly if they catch the cheater red-handed. Don't be jealous and above all, don't make a scene.

That's sophistication for you.

Meanwhile, the working class and those from the underworld handle things a bit more violently.

In MWGtH Joan Prentice (Sylvia Sidney), a rich society gal, was wooed by a drunken reporter named Jerry Corbett (Fredric March). I think that says a lot about Joan that a guy who can barely stand up straight could so impress her that she fell in love with him. He was such an incorrigible drunk, and she such a nose-wide-open woman, that he was too drunk for his own engagement party yet she still married the fool.

He sobered up a bit while he worked on his play in Chicago, but hit the booze again when the couple went to New York to debut his play. While in his drunken state he resumed a relationship with his lead actress Claire Hempstead (Adrianne Allen), a woman he used to date. He didn't even have shame enough to hide the relationship from Joan. She took it on the chin like a soldier or like a woman hopelessly in love. If and when he sobered up she'd be there for him. It was embarrassing to watch, so I'd imagine she was humiliated. Or maybe she wasn't.

It was love that made her stick around because as she put it, "if you love someone it doesn't matter what they do."

Aaaargh!!

I prefer the Tina Turner statement of, "What's love got to do with it?"

Joan would suffer more than just humiliation by the time it was all said and done, but she had love, and what's more, her man realized he loved her too.

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