The More the Merrier
1943 film by George Stevens
The More the Merrier is a 1943 American romantic comedy film produced and directed by George Stevens, and starring Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, and Charles Coburn. The film's script—from Two's a Crowd, an original screenplay by Garson Kanin (uncredited)—was written by Robert Russell, Frank Ross, Richard Flournoy, and Lewis R. Foster. Set in Washington, D.C., the film presents a comic look at the housing shortage during World War II.
The film received six nominations at the 16th Academy Awards, among them Best Picture, Best Director for Stevens, Best Actress for Arthur, Best Writing (Original Motion Picture Story), and Best Writing (Screenplay). Coburn won Best Supporting Actor.
The film was remade in 1966 as Walk, Don't Run, starring Cary Grant, Samantha Eggar, and Jim Hutton. The setting was changed to Tokyo, which had experienced housing shortages due to the 1964 Summer Olympics.
Plot
Retired millionaire Benjamin Dingle arrives in Washington, D.C., as an adviser on the housing shortage, two days early and finds that his hotel suite will not be available for two days. There are no other rooms available at the hotel, nor at any other hotel in town. He sees a classified ad for a roommate and talks the reluctant young woman, Connie Milligan, into letting him sublet half of her apartment. The next morning, after Connie leaves for work, Dingle meets Sergeant Joe Carter, who is interested in a room to stay for a week while waiting to be shipped overseas.
The public source identifies “The More the Merrier” as 1943 film by George Stevens. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around More, Merrier and film.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1620549. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 1966 and 1964.
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This entry incorporates text from “The More the Merrier” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.