Merrily we go to Hell / a Paramount picture ; Paramount presents ; directed by Dorothy Arzner ; screen play by Edwin Justus Mayer.
Edition:
Blu-ray special edition.
Publisher:
The Criterion Collection,
Copyright Date:
2021
Description:
1 videodisc (83 min.) : sound, black and white ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 folded insert (12 unnumbered pages : color illustration ; 72 x 17 cm, folded to 17 x 12)
Sylvia Sidney, Fredric March, Adrianne Allen, Skeets Gallagher, George Irving, Esther Howard, Florence Britton, Charles Coleman, Cary Grant, Kent Taylor. Originally released as a motion picture in 1932. Based on the story "I Jerry take thee, Joan" by Cleo Lucas. Full screen (1.37:1). Special features: Dorothy Arzner: Longing for Women, a 1983 documentary by Katja Raganelli and Konrad Wickler; new video essay by film historian Cari Beauchamp; essay by film scholar Judith Mayne.
Summary:
"Addiction, nonmonogamy, and female sexual liberation: decades before such ideas were widely discussed, Dorothy Arzner, the only woman to work as a director in 1930s Hollywood, brought them to the screen with striking frankness, sophistication and wit--a mature treatment that stands out even in the pre-Code era. Fredric March (in one of four collaborations with Arzner) and Sylvia Sidney turn in extraordinary performances as an urbane couple whose relationship is pushed to the breaking point by his alcoholism and wandering eye, leading them into an emotionally explosive experiment with an open marriage. Exposing the hypocrisies and petty cruelties simmering beneath the surface of high-society elegance, Merrily We Go to Hell is a scathing early-feminist commentary on modern marriage"--Container.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.