The More the Merrier 1943

Benjamin Dingle arrives in Washington, D.C., posing as an adviser on the housing shortage, only to discover that his hotel suite won’t be available for two days. He spots a classified ad seeking a roommate and effectively persuades the reluctant young woman, Constance Milligan, to let him sublet half of her modest apartment. The morning after, as Connie heads off to work, Joe Carter is looking for a temporary room while he waits to be shipped overseas, and Dingle ends up renting him half of his own half, turning a cramped situation into a temporary shared home.

Connie’s discovery of the new living arrangement sparks a sharp clash, but she finds herself forced to accept the arrangement because she’s already spent the rent on both men. What begins as a practical accommodation quickly softens into a genuine attraction: Constance Milligan and Joe develop a tender connection, even though Connie is engaged to the ambitious bureaucrat Charles J. Pendergast. Dingle, ever the matchmaker with a soft spot for romance, believes Joe might be a better match for Connie than the stiff, career-focused Pendergast.

The situation intensifies when Dingle reads aloud from Connie’s private diary, revealing her thoughts about Joe. Connie catches them in the act and demands they both leave the apartment the next day, but Dingle takes full responsibility and retreats to his own hotel room, freeing up the space for Joe and Connie to remain for the moment. Joe, in a gesture of reconciliation, gives Connie a traveling bag as an apology, and she agrees to let him stay until his departure for Africa in a couple of days.

That evening, Joe asks Connie out for dinner. She agrees, with one caveat: she’ll go only if Pendergast doesn’t call her by eight o’clock. At the fateful hour, a neighbor’s delay pushes Connie and Joe toward a potential farewell, but Pendergast arrives as the clock ticks down. From his window, Joe spies on the couple with binoculars, joking to the neighbor that he’s a Japanese spy, a remark that underscores the comic tension of the moment.

Dingle doesn’t waste a moment. He arranges a dinner where he and Joe cross paths with Connie and Pendergast, then plays Cupid by inviting Pendergast back to his suite to discuss the housing shortage—setting up Joe and Connie to be alone together. After a quiet walk home, the pair exchange past hurts and confess a deepening love, sharing a kiss on Connie’s front steps. Inside, a sleepless Joe admits through the wall that he loves her, and Connie echoes the feeling, though she fears they will be torn apart when he leaves for Africa.

Their happiness is threatened when two brusque FBI agents arrive, suspecting Joe of being a Japanese spy. The couple insists that Dingle can vouch for Joe’s identity, and Dingle himself appears with Pendergast to back them up. The questions grow sharper as Pendergast discovers that Joe and Connie share the same address. To protect the reputation of everyone involved, Dingle admits he lied to protect Connie’s future, and the group scrambles to avert a scandal.

In a last-ditch bid to salvage the situation, Connie and Joe decide to wed quickly to secure a stable future before Joe ships out. They flee to South Carolina to obtain a faster license, return home, and share one last night together. The ever-practical Dingle anticipates the logistics of married life by orchestrating a plan: he brings in a little help from downstairs to remove the wall between the couple’s bedrooms, making a single, shared space more feasible. As the tale closes, Dingle quietly changes the apartment door sign to read “Mr. and Mrs. Sgt. Carter,” sealing a union born from wit, affection, and a willingness to bend rules for love.