Merrily We Go to Hell • The Next Reel

The Next Reel Film Podcast · Feb 3, 2022 · 50m

“Gentlemen, I give you the holy state of matrimony, modern style! Single lives, twin beds, and triple bromides in the morning!”

Dorothy Arzner is a filmmaker we want to look at more closely.

It’s surprising and a tad shameful to learn this late in the game about Dorothy Arzner. There had been other female filmmakers in the early days of the Hollywood system, but Arzner was largely the only woman regularly working as a director in the 30s and 40s. Her film Merrily We Go to Hell has some comedy in it but largely is a drama about a young couple who fall in love only to have their marriage…