The Kilbourne’s are a curious lot. Henry, the irascible patriarch, has his patience duly tried by his three impetuous and irreverent children: Geraldine (Jerry), Kane and Marion. Mother Emily rounds out the clan and may be the most endearingly peculiar of them all, as she doesn’t knit or collect stamps as a hobby, but instead takes in “Forgotten Men” intent on rehabilitating them.

However, after her latest protege makes off with the family silver, Emily swears off any do-gooding… that is until the vacationing Wade Rawlins shows up at her doorstep and is mistaken as a tramp. Becoming the family’s new chauffeur, Rawlins soon proves useful to the Kilbourne’s in more ways than one. He also quickly grabs the attention of nearly every female about him—especially and including Jerry’s.

Billie Burke is not only reunited in Merrily We Live with her Topper co-stars Constance Bennett (Jerry) and Alan Mowbray (Grosvenor, the Kilbourne’s long-suffering butler), but her performance as the delightfully daffy Emily also garnered her the only Academy Award nomination of her career (Best Supporting Actress). Joining the Topper trio is also a sublime cast including Brian Aherne, Clarence Kolb, Bonita Granville, Ann Dvorak, Tom Brown, Patsy Kelly and Willie Best.

For thoughts on Merrily We Live, please check out my piece on The Video Attic here.

[youtube https://youtu.be/69POiJSADEk?t=727]

Video Quality

Merrily We Live makes its Blu-Ray debut thanks to ClassicFlix with a 1080p master that looks very pleasing, especially considering the age and relative scarcity of the picture. The film largely looks really nice, but there are obvious variances throughout where you can tell elements were in a bit worse state. I would not be surprised to learn that this new master was derived from second generation elements. There is a striking amount of detail present with nice textures on the clothing and within the production design. The new transfer shows off a solid amount of depth and enhanced detail within the film’s composition. The presentation does not really experience much in the way of black crush or compression artifacts. Although, there are a few instances where white levels bloom just a bit. The sumptuous black-and-white photography sparkles in high definition with natural grain intact. The contrast has brief moments of variance that impacts brightness and the stability of the otherwise solid black levels. ClassicFlix should be proud of the fine work they did for this one overall.

Audio Quality

The Blu-Ray comes with a serviceable DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that presents this movie as well as can be expected given the vintage of the source material. The lively music from Marvin Hatley never overpowers the dialogue or other important information. This track presents some amount of age related wear and tear and some slightly boxy or harsh sounding music at its peaks. Dialogue and background noises are represented in harmony with all competing elements, even if it can sound a bit hollow. The overlapping dialogue can become a bit chaotic, but the track holds up admirably as individual voices are delineated well. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles included for the feature film. ClassicFlix has done as well as can be expected to provide a top-notch audio experience for fans.

Special Features

There are no special features provided on this disc.

Final Thoughts

Merrily We Live is a hilarious and occasionally touching screwball comedy which provides some social commentary to go along with its outlandish gags. This is not one of the most well-known comedies from the Golden Age of Hollywood, but the incredibly talented cast is enough to put this one firmly on your radar. ClassicFlix has released a Blu-Ray featuring a good A/V presentation and nothing in terms of extra content. This will probably be a discovery for most, but do not overlook it any longer. Recommended

Merrily We Live is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: ClassicFlix has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.