Blu-ray, DVD Release: Merrily We Go to Hell

By
Laurence
– May 14, 2021Find Others: Blu-ray, DVD, Movie, New Release, NewsGet More: , , ,

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: May 11, 2021
Price: DVD $13.99, Blu-ray $27.99
Studio: Criterion

Addiction, nonmonogamy, and female sexual liberation: decades before such ideas were widely discussed, Dorothy Arzner, the only woman to work as a director in 193os Hollywood, brought them to the screen in the drama-comedy-romance Merrily We Go to Hell. And she did it with striking frankness, sophistication, and wit—a mature treatment that stands out even in the pre-Code era!
In the 1932 film, Inherit the Wind‘s Fredric March (in one of four collaborations with Arzner) and Sylvia Sidney turn in extraordinary performances as the urbane couple whose relationship is pushed to the breaking point by his alcoholism and wandering eye—leading them into an emotionally explosive experiment with an open marriage.
Exposing the hypocrisies and petty cruelties simmering beneath the surface of high-society elegance, Merrily We Go to Hell is a scathing early-feminist commentary on modern marriage.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Dorothy Arzner: Longing for Women, a 1983 documentary by Katja Raganelli and Konrad Wickler
• New video essay by film historian Cari Beauchamp
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar Judith Mayne
Buy or Rent Merrily We Go to Hell

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.