Just so...so bad

Highly Overrated But Still Good

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

After "It Happened One Night" ran away with the top five Oscars for 1934, every major and minor studio picked up the theme of a runaway heiress for comedy romances. While none could match the sub-genre prototype, several very good and funny films followed over the next several years. "The Bride Came C.O.D." was a good one at the tail end of the depression-era, but it doesn't rank among the best. The challenge each new version had after "One Night" was to come up with a different plot that would work. The plot for this one was different and pretty good. But the screenplay was quite weak. I agree with those reviewers who noted the fine supporting cast performances all around. James Cagney and Bette Davis were giants of the screen for sure, and they did well in their roles here, as Steve Collins and Joan Winfield. They played comedy off one another very well. But what was lacking was any chemistry for romance. Indeed, the script didn't seem to be leading there until near the very end. In the very good films of this genre, the romance develops slowly, in little noticeable bits. But there's no sign of romance in this film until very close to the end. Comedies don't have to be believable, but if they aren't, they have to have lots of funny stuff about them – zaniness, crazy antics, rapid-fire zingers and repartee. This film has very little of that – only a couple of zany situations with the bride and pilot, Joan and Steve. So, a better screenplay would have helped a lot. Maybe the romance wouldn't have been believable, still, but at least we'd have more laughs to make up for that. My point is that when the romance seems believable, it does a whole lot to raise one's enjoyment of the whole film. "One Night" is the classic, of course, but there are any number of other very funny films with believable romantic plots. The wonderful Warner's troop of supporting actors contributed a great deal to this film. Eugene Palette, Harry Davenport and Jack Carson were especially good in their roles as Lucius Winfield, Pop Tolliver and Allen Brice, respectively. Carson was a versatile actor who often had big secondary roles in films. He couldn't break into the leading man roles, but his performances were often better and contributed as much or more to some films than the leading actors. I never thought about that decades ago when watching these films for the first time. It's one of those things one becomes more aware of with some years and lots of film time under the belt."The Bride Came C.O.D." is an enjoyable film that most viewers should find amusing. The cast seemed to enjoy making it.

When Meryl Streep first became humorous in "She Devil", everybody was shocked that the star of "Sophie's Choice" and "Out of Africa" could be funny. Why? They didn't remember Bette Davis in this or "June Bride", Joan Crawford in "Love on the Run" or "They All Kissed the Bride", Katharine Hepburn in "Bringing Up Baby" or "The Philadelphia Story" or Barbara Stanwyck in "The Lady Eve" or "Christmas in Connecticut"? Even a "drama queen" can get loose every once in a while, and here, Bette makes her drama queen society débutante one of the funniest characters in screwball comedy history. Opposite James Cagney (away from gangster or serious tough guy roles, although his pilot is a bit of a tough guy), Davis is trying to escape her tyrannical father (Eugene Palette) to elope with staid radio star Jack Carson, and Cagney is hired by pops to kidnap her. Thanks to Davis's interference, the plane crashes in the desert, and Cagney and Davis fight, fall in love, feud over her freedom, and end up in many hysterically funny predicaments. One of those concerns Cagney's reaction to a slap across the face he receives from the temperamental Ms. D.Everything explodes into riotous humor when they encounter the reclusive Henry Travers who lives in an abandoned ghost town where even the ghosts seem to have skipped out. Travers, who loves people as long as he's nowhere near him, at first thinks that Cagney is guilty of her kidnapping, but soon learns otherwise, and Cagney is free to try to tame the shrewish Bette who isn't about to admit she is gaining feelings for her abductor. They end up in abandoned coal mine where, thanks to Davis's attempt to escape, the entrance is blocked, and Cagney teaches her a hysterical lesson. Then, Carson and Palette arrive, along with cop William Frawley, and everything ends up in a farcial delightful conclusion where Davis meets her biggest desert nemesis once again: an ill-place cactus that keeps greeting her in a most inconvenient place.While Davis had done comedy before ("The Golden Arrow" and "It's Love I'm After"), this was the real first time where she got to let her hair down and play dirty, and she is very funny. Cagney uses his dancing talents as his comic timing seems almost choreographed, and Travers is a delight with his lovable reclusive grouch getting to be sentimental with such reflections as his love of weddings so great he married three times just to go through the ceremony. Palette, Carson and Frawley also offer amusing performances, but it is Davis, Cagney and Travers who are given the funniest material. While the heyday of screwball comedy was slowly winding down, this is one of the better later ones, if not quite Preston Sturges still a delightfully entertaining romp in the cactus patch.

Much better and much more fun than expected. I actually think it's slightly underrated. While it's nowhere approaching the best of either stars (Jimmy Cagney and Bette Davis) wonderful careers, this is certainly no blotch on their resumes and is quite a lovely screwball comedy. Davis is the heiress getting married to a guy who's just after her money (Jack Carson), and Cagney is the pilot who has been charged by her father to kidnap her and stop the wedding. Sparks fly when furious Bette and cocky Cagney find themselves stuck in the Californian desert together after the plane is wrecked. The leads play roles that you would normally find the likes of Cary Grant and Carole Lombard inhabiting at the time, so it really is interesting to see them in something unusual. Once you get over that Bette is not playing one of her great roles in Regina Giddens or Margo Channing, and Cagney is not Cody Jarret, you'll be fine.Plus it's fascinating to see two of the most dynamic, energetic and often dominating actors of the time fight it out. They have a curious sort of chemistry, borne out of both of them exuding so much of their own trademark charisma and mannerisms. The plot is a little thin, but there are plenty of funny situations to be had and Davis could actually do comedy, so there you go, she's the best and she rules. William Keighley directs in solid workman-like style, and the result is a film that should be better appreciated. It's no great classic but it is well worth seeing.

Sure it had been done once or twice before, and it was done a dozen times following... but this one is a classic on merit alone.Davis and Cagney were the top two Warner's actors at the time and had fought their own respective legal battles with the studio in the years prior, as well as being very good friends.This film catches them at the tops of their game, just being allowed to be silly and have fun in a movie no one really expected much out of.The formula works and though the pacing isn't the best, hang-in because it's worth it.Saturday afternoon popcorn film.