Review of Merrily We Live

I absolutely love this screwball. I don't care if it's a Godfrey remake or not. It's full of heavy hitters from Patsy Kelly to Alan Mowbray (who was in Godfrey) to Constance Bennett and Billie Burke. It seems no screwball can be without Billie in it. However, to me, it's Clarence that makes it all worthwhile. He can't do anything without making me laugh. His attempts at trying to rein in his family alway make things worse. He does this spectacular pratfall in the kitchen that had me howling. He was obviously very athletic and coordinated to pull it off. I wonder how many takes it took. I loved him on Margie and every time he would bellow "Albright, you're fired!" I would laugh, but this is really his show. I wish we had wonderful character actors like him around now, but sadly they are all gone. I love the way the two great Danes played him too. He played the stooge to everyone. I suspect Preston Sturges had something to do with this, but there is no mention of him. It's so unfortunate how some gems like this one get buried and forgotten when they could be making so many people happy.