The Bride Came C.O.D.
Directed by William Keighley
Written by Kenneth Earl, M. M. Musselman, Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein
1941/USA
Warner Bros.
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Sheriff McGee: One of you’s gonna get married and the other one’s going to jail, so you really got a lot in common.[/box]
Bette Davis proves a flair for comedy in this enjoyable outing with James Cagney.
Bandleader and publicity hound Allen Brice (Jack Carson) announces his engagement with Joan Winfield (Davis), whom he has known for only four days, from the stage. When the news hits the papers, Joan’s father (Eugene Pallette) is determined to stop the marriage. Allen hires pilot Steve Collins (Cagney) to fly the couple to Las Vegas for the wedding but Steve’s plane is about to be confiscated for failure to make the payments. He hatches a scheme with Joan’s father to kidnap her to Amarillo for a fee that will allow him to keep the plane.
Instead, Joan tries to parachute out of the plane and Steve crash lands during his attempt to keep her inside. They land in the middle of the desert where they find a old prospector (Harry Davenport) living in a ghost town. Multiple misunderstandings, fights, and hijinks ensue before the inevitable ending. With William Frawley as the sheriff.
This is essentially a Wild West version of It Happened One Night with quite a bit more slapstick. I have seen Cagney in comedy parts before but I was particularly impressed with Davis’s timing. She falls into a cactus quite expertly!
Trailer
