Merrily We Go to Hell (1932) review

Fueled by whiskey, newspaper columnist (and aspiring playwright) Jerry Corbett (Fredric March) starts a conversation with meek but wealthy Joan Prentice (Sylvia Sidney), they agree to meet up later but he can't be anywhere on time (due to his boozin') and still get married (even though her Father offers him $50k to "walk away"), he briefly gets sober and sells a play to Broadway that's a success ... but the star of the show is his old flame Claire Hempstead (Adrianne Allen) that he dreams about (he still has a framed photo of her in his room!).  It's clear that these two should not be together from the very beginning but it proceeds to go on like a trainwreck in slow motion (with plenty of mediocre dialogue): when he openly (and disgracefully) has an affair with Claire, she decides to be a "modern wife" and goes on a "date" with Charlie Baxter (Cary Grant) ... but of course that doesn't help the marriage at all (which it almost never does) and they separate (until he hears she's had a child).  The forced ending suggests they can make it work long-term ... but not as long as Hennessy keeps making adult beverages.  The key takeaway: a broken nose does heal faster than a broken heart.