Merrily We Live

Merrily We Live is a 1938 American comedy film directed by Norman Z. McLeod and written by Eddie Moran and Jack Jevne. It stars Constance Bennett and Brian Aherne and features Ann Dvorak, Bonita Granville, Billie Burke, Tom Brown, Alan Mowbray, Clarence Kolb, and Patsy Kelly. The film was produced by Hal Roach for Hal Roach Studios, and was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. While based on a reworking of the 1930 movie What a Man – itself based on the 1924 novel The Dark Chapter: A Comedy of Class Distinctions by E.J. Rath, and its 1926 Broadway adaptation They All Want Something by Courtenay Savage – a number of critics find the plot of the film is similar to the 1936 film My Man Godfrey. Merrily We Live was extremely successful and garnered five Oscar nominations. Plot Grosvenor (Alan Mowbray), the Kilbournes' butler, discovers at breakfast that the family silver has been stolen by Ambrose, the latest tramp Emily Kilbourne (Billie Burke) had taken under her wing as the family chauffeur in her obsession to reform fallen and destitute men, much to the exasperation of the rest of the family. A distressed Emily swears off taking in any more tramps, to the delight of the rest of the family. However, later in the morning, Wade Rawlins (Brian Aherne) appears at the Kilbournes' doorstep. His ramshackle car had broken down; when he got out, it rolled off a cliff. He wants to use the telephone, but is instead immediately adopted by Emily Kilbourne and appointed as the replacement chauffeur, despite the rude efforts of Grosvenor and Emily's daughters Geraldine "Jerry" (Constance Bennett) and Marion (Bonita Granville). Further attempts to convince Mrs. Kilbourne to get rid of this latest tramp are blissfully ignored.