MovieChat Forums > The More the Merrier (1943) Discussion > Questions about ending (spoilers!!)

Questions about ending (spoilers!!)

posted 17 years ago by ItSaysKeds
7 replies | jump to latest

1. What was with all of Connie's crying in the end??
2. I take it that they didn't plan on going through with the annulment?

[–] i-love-movies-1 16 years ago

You mean the fake crying at the very end, after they find the wall gone, or before that?

I think the fake crying was just her way to get McCrea onto her side of the room without asking him. The whole movie, she doesn't really admit how she feels about him, except that one time when she tells him she loves him. Ya know?

As for the real crying I think she is just upset because the man she loves and just married is leaving for war the next day. Also, I think she doesn't want to be the first to say I love you, I want you and I want to stay married to you, etc.

And I'm pretty sure neither would have gone through with the annulment, especially since they totally consummated their marriage that night, or so it implies.

And this is just my opinion...hope that helps some!

[–] ItSaysKeds 16 years ago

Thank so much for the clarifications on the crying scenes! Makes perfect sense now.

[–] Ironman54 14 years ago

"...the man she loves and just married is leaving for war the next day."

So,is the McCrea character the original 'Jody" ?? (see "Battleground").
It just occurred to me that this was a sensitive subject with the guys in uniform right around '43. Wonder how it was received then ?

Marching (cadence) song from "Battleground" (insert 'Joey' for 'Jody'... Carter):

Jody was there when you left...
I Company: You're right!
Sgt. Kinnie: Your Baby was there when you left...
I Company: You're right!
Sgt. Kinnie: Sound off!
I Company: One, two
Sgt. Kinnie: Sound off!
I Company: Three, four.
Sgt. Kinnie: Cadence Count
I Company: One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four!
Sgt. Kinnie: Your baby was lonely - as lonely as could be ...
I Company: Until Jody provided company!
Sgt. Kinnie: Ain't it great to have a pal...
I Company: Who works so hard to keep up morale!
Sgt. Kinnie: You ain't got nothing to worry about...
I Company: He'll keep her happy till I get out!
Sgt. Kinnie: You won't get out until the end of the war...
I Company: In nineteen hundred and seventy-four!
Sgt. Kinnie: Sound off!
I Company: One, two.
Sgt. Kinnie: Sound off!
I Company: Three, four...
Ain't no use in feelin' blue
Jody got your sister, too
==========================================================================

[–] ObstinateAnnette 14 years ago

Since he was actually in the service and was heading off to war, he couldn't be "Jody". Jody was a civilian who remained home while all the other men went off to war.

I need my 1987 DG20 Casio electric guitar set to mandolin, yeah...

[–] crossfiberfriction 16 years ago

Imagine if you fall in love with a man the day before he goes off to war. You can't marry him cause you're engaged to someone else and you can't have sex because you're not married to him. Then, circumstances lead you to marry him but it's a fake marriage-- he's doing you a favor by marrying you, which makes the whole thing even more impossible. Bottom line seems to be that they both want each other sexually -- and in order for that to happen they must come out and say that to each other. This doesn't seem to be such a big deal today-- even when sex in those days is depicted in contemporary films such as The Way We Were, when Streisand seduces Redford into her bed.

[–] skiddoo 14 years ago

One must remember that this was before The Pill. Birth control was notoriously unreliable and many the woman who said goodbye to the guy in the way they wanted found out he had left her with a souvenir of the occasion. If anyone thinks singles, or even temporary singles, in wartime Washington didn't do it before marriage, well, yes, they did. :) Although with eight women to each man, not many had the chance. There is nothing like the upheaval of war to break down peer group pressure and morals and give people the impression that they might as well live for today because there might not be any tomorrow. Marriages, divorces, pregnancy, and disease were some of the side effects, not just here but in every war torn nation.

One should also keep in mind that he had stated flat out he wasn't going to marry her. She's still attracted to him but she's no dope and has been warned. This man is heading out and not looking back. Another emotional complication. And they have to make huge decisions based on only knowing each other for a short time. I guess we have to assume it will work out. Some hurried wartime marriages did. Others didn't.

If Joel and Jean's characters weren't hurtling toward the deadline of his leaving as well as running away from her impending marriage with an at-long-last impatient fiance', they would have noticed what a phony issue Coburn's character was using to get them hitched. First the uproar is about being questioned over being a Japanese spy. Then it's about being engaged to one man and living with two others. Then it's about whatever the reporter made of the conversation in the cab and that they all worked for the government and at least two of them were in positions of power and didn't want to be smeared. Then it's about her reputation because she rented out to a guy, which is the phoniest of them all because across Washington men and women were making due with whatever housing they could find and it certainly could have been turned with clever public relations into an argument for relieving the housing crisis for the area workers, such as look what virtuous men and women have to put up with in these difficult times. Dingle was trying to frighten off the straight-laced fiance' with visions of scandal, trying to force the reluctant suitor to marry the lady he really loved, and force the lady to give in to her real feelings toward him. If they hadn't all wanted it that way, the plan wouldn't have worked because the logic did not stand up to scrutiny and wartime audiences would have seen that immediately.

[–] PillowRock 14 years ago

If anyone thinks singles, or even temporary singles, in wartime Washington didn't do it before marriage, well, yes, they did. :)

Just not in the Hays Office. ;-)