In keeping with the Weekend Movie theme of romantic comedies, Cinema Sunday goes back to 1941 screwball comedy called The Bride Came C.O.D.
This movie stars James Cagney as an airplane pilot and Bette Davis as a runaway heiress. Neither one of these film stars are known for comedies, especially involving the word "screwball".
But here we are.
Pilot Steve Collins (James Cagney) is hired to help bandleader Alan Brice (Jack Carson) and heiress Joan Winfield (Bette Davis) elope to Las Vegas.
Joan's father Lucius outbids Alan for Steve's services to separate the two would be lovebirds and fly Joan back to Daddy.
Joan does not like this plan and tries to jump out of Steve's plane. Some hijinks ensue which leads to Steve crashing the plane somewhere in the American Southwest desert.
Joan and Steve make their away across the desert to a ghost town called Bonanza where they meet the town's lone resident, "Pop" Tolliver.
Joan escapes into an abandoned mine and Steve follows her.
They are trapped by a cave-in and believing that they are going to die, Joan re-examines her frivolous life with great regret.
Steve admits he loves her and- Wait! When did THAT happen?
They get out of the mine to find that Alan has tracked them down, accompanied by a Nevada judge.
Except Bonanza is not in Nevada, it's in California.
Joan and Alan get "married" and fly off in Alan's plane.
Lucius show up after Joan and Alan fly off.
Realizing her marriage is invalid, Joan parachutes out of Alan's plane to be with Steve because she loves him or some junk?
Joan and Steve get married with her father's approval and they honeymoon in Bonanza.
Legally sanctioned hetero-normative missionary intercourse has been achieved!
OK, how the hell did Bette Davis wind up in a screwball romantic comedy?
For the role of Joan...
- Ann Sheridan said no.
- Ginger Rogers said no.
- Rosalind Russell said no.
- Olivia de Havilland said no.
Looking to change up her persona from the usual serious dramas she was associated with, Bette Davis said yes.
For her trouble, Bette Davis wound up with 45 quills in her ass when she fell on a cactus while shooting on location in Death Valley. Principal photography was done there in January 1941 but Death Valley is hot as hell at anytime of the year.
While known for playing pugilistic bad guys in crime dramas, the role of Steve wasn't too far off the James Cagney archetype. Just with less violence and less crime.
If the plot of "heiress seeks to marry a playboy of whom her father disapproves, only to end up with a charming working man" seems familiar, it's basically the plot of It Happened One Night which I posted about last year.
The reviews of The Bride Came C.O.D. were less than glowing. Archer Winston in The New York Post wrote: "Okay, Jimmie and Bette. You've had your fling. Now go back to work."
Bette Davis herself was less than kind in her recollections of the film, sarcastically saying, "it was called a comedy." She would also complain that "all she got out of the film was a derriere full of cactus quills."
If Bette Davis and the critics were less than kind, The Bride Came C.O.D. was popular with the public, becoming a top 20 hit in 1941.
A year later, animator Chuck Jones spoofed the film in the Warner Bros. Conrad Cat cartoon, "The Bird Came C.O.D."
The Bride Came C.O.D. is serviceable enough as mild entertainment, notable mostly for watching Bette Davis doing something beyond her normal serious roles.
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