MartinHafer This review is for the version without the Charles Laughton sequence, as this was the one shown by Turner Classic Movies recently.The film stars and was co-produced by Burgess Meredith. Considering that he mostly got supporting roles after this and only a few other producer credits, it is probably safe to assume this film was responsible for this.The film consists of various small films that are tied together by an overall theme. You see, Meredith wants to get a job working as a reporter and each time he interviews someone, their story is dramatized. The question he asks each of the people is "how did a child influence your life?". Surprisingly, the vignettes have various big-name Hollywood stars, such as Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda and Dorothy Lamour--perhaps Meredith and his wife/co-star Paulette Goddard got a lot of their friends to be in the film.The first stars Fonda and Stewart. It's about a small-time traveling band that is stranded and puts on a talent show to get the money to get their bus fixed. However, the contest is fixed, as the mayor only let them put on the show if his son (who is a no-talent) is given the award. The film features Alfalfa Switzer (from Our Gang) as the no-talent as well as a surprise cameo at the end by big band leader, Harry James. The film is supposed to be kooky and was an odd waste of the talents of Stewart and Fonda, as the acting and writing were too broad to be taken seriously.The next stars Dorothy Lamour and Victor Moore (an odd combination). They are both struggling actors who have a run-in with a bratty child actor. The kid deliberately ruins their scene they are working for in the film and she thinks this is funny. However, when Moore and Lamour are fired, the kid feels bad and vows to help them with a screen test. The producers love Lamour but are less thrilled about Moore. In the end, however, she hires Moore as her agent. The segment ends with a long dance number. Yes, it did relate to Meredith's question but the style seemed odd and ended very abruptly. Also, the song and dance number seemed out of place.The final segment starred Fred MacMurray and William Demarest (who, you may remember, co-starred together on "My Three Sons" on TV). The film begins with the two being thrown out of town by the cops. The are a couple of grifters in search of some new pigeons (i.e., con-men who want to cheat some unsuspecting people). Oddly, their first potential victim is a little kid with a piggy bank! The kid turns out to be a devilish little prankster, as he makes their lives miserable. In many ways, the story is a lot like a slight reworking of O. Henry's "The Ransom of Red Chief" and the film makers neglected to credit him for the story idea. It is fun watching the kid tormenting the two men but I just wished they'd stuck closer to the original story or just made a film of the O. Henry story--and not all the rest of the vignettes.In the end, Meredith writes his human interest story and goes to see the editor--at which point, the response is not at all what Meredith had expected! But it all works out fine in the end.Overall, not a terrible idea for a film but the film never worked because the first two stories didn't work out well. The biggest negative is bad writing and the only good part was stolen from a famous writer (William Sydney Porter, also known as O. Henry). It's a curious film and is watchable but don't expect it to be much more than a time-passer.

moonspinner55 Down-on-his-luck newspaper ad-man, working the lost-and-found desk, creates a reporting opportunity for himself wherein he polls everyday citizens with an innocuous yet potentially interesting question, "What affect has a child had on your life?" (this is immediately rectified to 'baby' when posed to two jazz musicians). In the prologue, co-producer and star Burgess Meredith is awfully pushy trying to ingratiate himself to the audience; he and Paulette Goddard make for a curious married couple (to say the least), but they're not around enough to cause too much damage. Still, this overlong compendium involving stammering music-partners, a would-be movie actress, and two traveling showmen fails to touch upon anything personal or provocative. It is initially nice to see Henry Fonda and James Stewart sharing the screen, yet their comedic episode is silly and annoying. Production vales high, cast is game, but there are so few laughs that one may think the filmmakers were actually trying for something meaningful. Sadly, there is no substance or depth on display. *1/2 from ****

robertllr This three-vignettes-in-a-frame movie is not all bad. Indeed, the first segment features Henry Fonda and James Stewart in a brilliant comic pas de deux which leaves you wondering why they didn't become a cinematic pair. Given that the plot-ette they work with is unremarkable, their joint performance is even more of a miracle and a treat. Also fun is the little jazz score, which features not only Stewart doing his own tasteful piano comping, but also a guest appearance by Harry James, who not only provides the behind-the scenes music of the trumpet-playing "babe" but actually puts his mug in as well.The second story is a bit weaker, though Dorothy Lamour does a song and dance number that sends up contemporary Hollywood clichés in a wittily sophisticated manner.The last sequence, however, is truly lame: the pacing is slow and all the actors (especially child actor David Whorf) are annoying. The zany Hugh Herbert nicely finesses a small role but his little performance can't save the segment.The frame itself is also uninspired, but not so deadly that it drags the film down.Had the last two segments been as marvelous as the first, this entire movie would have been a classic. But in any case, you simply must see it for the Steward-Fonda collaboration. They command the film from the moment the camera turns on them and never disappoint.

bkoganbing 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.