The overall plot of On Our Merry Way concerns Burgess Meredith who works in a dead end job in the want ads section of the local newspaper in Los Angeles. He cons his way into his editor's office, pretending to be an emissary from the big head of the newspaper chain. Meredith is convinced he can do a better job than the roving reporter they've got doing human interest stories.
Armed with a question that wife Paulette Goddard has given him which is the title of the review, Meredith goes out and finds three human interest stories told him in flashback for his efforts.
The first one stars James Stewart and Henry Fonda and its always cited, I think a bit unfairly, as being so much the superior of the others. It's very good though, especially Fonda who had not been this funny on the screen since Tales of Manhattan. There are quite a few laughs in store as you see Fonda trying to play a trumpet to Carl Switzer on stage. He's playing it from a rowboat under a pier and the results are similar to Debbie Reynolds lipsynching Jean Hagen in the finale of Singing in the Rain. The 'baby' here is six foot tall Dorothy Ford who plays a mean trumpet herself and really impresses Harry James.
The second one involves former silent screen star Victor Moore and movie extra Dorothy Lamour and a spoiled child star turned out to be responsible for her big break at the studio. Any chance to see Dottie in her trademark sarong is never to be passed up.
The last segment involve a pair of roguish con men, Fred MacMurray and William Demarest being taken in by a pint sized conman themselves in the person of young David Whorf. As the other reviewers remarked, the last one is definitely ripped off from Ransom of Red Chief. I'm surprised the heirs of William Sidney Porter didn't sue. Still a lot of good laughs here with city boys MacMurray and Demarest out in the woods with country kid Whorf making them look like fools.
On Our Merry Way is a pretty funny film which was co-produced by its nominal star Burgess Meredith who at the time was married in real life to Paulette Goddard. Meredith was part of the Princeton Triangle Players which is why he was able to get classmates Stewart and Fonda to play in that first segment. It was their first joint venture, it would be another twenty years or so before they did another.
All turns out well in the end for Goddard and Meredith and it turns out she's got a personal interest in those answers.
Armed with a question that wife Paulette Goddard has given him which is the title of the review, Meredith goes out and finds three human interest stories told him in flashback for his efforts.
The first one stars James Stewart and Henry Fonda and its always cited, I think a bit unfairly, as being so much the superior of the others. It's very good though, especially Fonda who had not been this funny on the screen since Tales of Manhattan. There are quite a few laughs in store as you see Fonda trying to play a trumpet to Carl Switzer on stage. He's playing it from a rowboat under a pier and the results are similar to Debbie Reynolds lipsynching Jean Hagen in the finale of Singing in the Rain. The 'baby' here is six foot tall Dorothy Ford who plays a mean trumpet herself and really impresses Harry James.
The second one involves former silent screen star Victor Moore and movie extra Dorothy Lamour and a spoiled child star turned out to be responsible for her big break at the studio. Any chance to see Dottie in her trademark sarong is never to be passed up.
The last segment involve a pair of roguish con men, Fred MacMurray and William Demarest being taken in by a pint sized conman themselves in the person of young David Whorf. As the other reviewers remarked, the last one is definitely ripped off from Ransom of Red Chief. I'm surprised the heirs of William Sidney Porter didn't sue. Still a lot of good laughs here with city boys MacMurray and Demarest out in the woods with country kid Whorf making them look like fools.
On Our Merry Way is a pretty funny film which was co-produced by its nominal star Burgess Meredith who at the time was married in real life to Paulette Goddard. Meredith was part of the Princeton Triangle Players which is why he was able to get classmates Stewart and Fonda to play in that first segment. It was their first joint venture, it would be another twenty years or so before they did another.
All turns out well in the end for Goddard and Meredith and it turns out she's got a personal interest in those answers.