The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

. . . in for $80 million, James Cagney's mercenary bachelor pilot "Steve Collins" decides during THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D. If you study the portion of this movie from 9:54 to 11:46, you'll see that it's clear (at least as crystal as the censors would allow in 1941) that Steve is an experienced gigolo, servicing many society ladies of a certain age under the pretense of providing "flying lessons." (Yes, all this decades before Erica Jong's FEAR OF FLYING novel was in print!) Warner Bros. is so discreet that they don't provide cast names or end credits to the trio of slumming dames pictured in this segment. But there's a clear implication that Steve's got hangars full of satisfied female clients. The contrast between Steve's first-shown "date" and his eventual wife "Joan Winfield" (Bette Davis, playing "age 23" here for at least her tenth year running) is stunning. What does homely Joan have that knock-out Ms. No Name lacks? About $80 million worth of Texas oil field profits, that's what! And Steve is a guy who knows which side of his bread to butter. This flick is the male precursor to PRETTY WOMAN.

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.

I had always avoided this flick because I love both its stars and had read and heard not-so-flattering things about it. Finally caught up with it on the beautiful DVD transfer, and was either laughing or smiling from beginning to end, and believe me that's a rarity! How nice to see all those naysayers proved wrong. Granted, this is one of the most contrived and tortured "meet cute" setups in screwball history, but the plot mechanics are dispensed with quickly and it's all Cagney and Davis at their most sparkling from there on. I actually think it's best to watch this not knowing what happens, so I'll just say WATCH IT if you have a liking for either -- or both -- of these stars. And the Epstein-brothers' script is hilarious; it should be studied by today's comedy writers.

Baffling how this, of all Davis and/or Cagney movies is set on the side burner. It's a riot! Cagney does indignant acts to Davis that make for the charms of both lead actors to be brought out. The public already new that Cagney could play well in comedies; but, with Bette Davis usually performing such serious characters, the surprise is how Davis pulls of playing in this comedy so well. She's really at the mercy of the script that Cagney riotously acts out.Davis is playing a runaway daughter of a tycoon; Cagney plays the plotting private pilot who has schemed to take her home to Daddy for a meager dividend. The hilarity begins when Davis realizes she's been hijacked by Cagney and attempts to parachute out of his airplane.After recently viewing this several times, for the first time, it because curious to me why Bette Davis wasn't cast in many more comedies. Was there anything she couldn't do? (She even sang and did more comedy in a dance during her starlit spot in, "Thank Your Lucky Stars!").