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Honor Among Lovers  /  Merrily We Go To Hell

Merrily We Go To Hell  (1932)
September 11, 2015 - 7:30 pm

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by the Myra Reinhard Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Jodie Foster, in cooperation with Universal Studios.

Honor Among Lovers  (1931)


A strange morality unfolds in this modern romance, as secretary Julia Traynor (Claudette Colbert) deflects the aggressive flirtations of her millionaire boss.  Favoring a boyfriend who is more her peer, Julia hasn't reckoned on being the strongest of any of them, leading to a series of reversals in which she learns more clearly where to set her sights.

Paramount Publix Corp.  Director: Dorothy Arzner.  Screenwriter: Austin Parker, Gertrude Purcell.  Based on a story by Austin Parker.  Cinematographer: George Folsey.  Editor: T. Turner.  With: Claudette Colbert, Fredric March, Monroe Owsley, Charlie Ruggles, Ginger Rogers.  35mm, b/w, 75 min.

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by Ralph Sargent, the Myra Reinhard Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Jodie Foster, in cooperation with Universal Studios.

Merrily We Go To Hell  (1932)


Playful heiress Joan Prentice (Sylvia Sidney) meets journalist and aspiring playwright Jerry Corbett (Frederic March) at a party, and falls for him despite (or because of?) his tipsiness.  Cautioned by her alarmed father against being saddled with Jerry, Joan follows through, trying to rehabilitate him and finally joining in his dissipation and carousing.  The varieties of self-delusion are many in this elegy to modern marriage. 

Paramount Publix Corp.  Director: Dorothy Arzner.  Screenwriter: Edwin Justus Mayer.  Based on the novel I, Jerry, Take Thee, Joan by Cleo Lucas.  Cinematographer: David Abel.  Editor: Jane Loring.  With: Sylvia Sidney, Fredric March, Adrianne Allen, Skeets Gallagher, George Irving.  35mm, b/w, 78 min.