We don’t often get the chance to cover pre-Hays Code movies on this podcast, but when we do, we make sure that a former Catholic gets at least 30% of the airtime. MERRILY WE GO TO HELL wasn’t the most salacious rule-flouting film of its day — but even its title was enough to raise the hackles of 1930s Hollywood. By putting salacious topics front and center, like non-monogamy (gasp!), hedonism (scandalous!) and people dealing with moral quandaries (my pearls!!!), queer female director Dorothy Arzner took risks no other woman in Hollywood was willing to.

In this episode, we talk about how nothing really prepares you for the complicated feelings MERRILY WE GO TO HELL elicits, where some narrative refinement could’ve made its norm-challenging story land a bit harder, and differing perspectives on how we’re supposed to read the admittedly bleak ending.

References:

• “Merrily We Go to Hell’s Dorothy Arzner, the Only Female Director in 1930s Hollywood” by Ed Dykhuizen for Perisphere, the Trylon blog


• “Merrily We Go To Hell: ‘The Holy State Of Matrimony,’ Pre-Code Style” by Lucille Hanson for Perisphere, the Trylon blog


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Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: End credits music from MERRILY WE GO TO HELL.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 341: MERRILY WE GO TO HELL (1932)

2:50 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary (under exclusive license from AG Enterprises, Ltd.)

5:41 - The Hays Code

15:10 - The turn from rom-com to something more bleak

29:25 - Would it be better if it were told entirely from Joan’s POV?

40:29 - Joan's dedication and the ending

1:02:08 - The Junk Drawer

1:11:38 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1932

1:13:05 - Tryal by Fire (trivia for movies with iconic “go to hell” quotes)