The Gay Bride

Easy to see why Lombard was the highest paid actress in Hollywood at one time. Breathtakingly beautiful and with a wonderful sense of humor. That said, The Gay Bride is a fun movie but very much on the modest side. An amusing trifle about a heartless, gold-digging chorus girl bent on marrying one gangster after another, only to see them wiped out before she can get her hands on the cash. Chester Morris, a gangster's book-keeper, the one true love interest - whom of course she despises because he has no money. Amusing sparks struck between the two that provides the main thrust of the comedy. The great Zasu Pitts in a wisecracking supporting role. Not a great movie but a few good laughs - and a chance to see Lombard at her most luminous. Worth the time.

This is a really good script and Chester Morris really hold his own in this screwball comedy.

Love classic film and there are numerous great, some classic even, examples of films that mix comedy, drama and crime mystery. But my main reason for seeing the film was Carole Lombard (before she became the wife of Clark Gable), a lovely very talented actress who died tragically far too young with so much more to give, in her only film for MGM.

It may not be one of Lombard's best films, and it doesn't contain one of her overall best performances (not a knock against her), and would hesitate in calling it great. Instead it is an uneven but interesting and entertaining film, that would have been better if the story was more focused. There was a lot of potential, considering the cast and that the script was penned by successful playwrights that were far from inexperienced. Potential that could have been lived up to more, not a complete squandering by all means though.

The best thing is the cast. Lombard looks luminous and is both witty and charming. Chester Morris is a terrific male lead and perhaps gives the best performance in the role, he has great comic timing and has the right amount of intensity. He and Lombard work wonderfully together, with their banter snappy and their delivery and chemistry sparkling. The supporting cast on the most part also fare well, Leo Carrillo enjoys himself in his role as does ZaSu Pitts in her too short screen time.

Visually, the production values are stylish and elegant. Much of the script is tight and witty, with plenty of laugh out loud funny moments, and the story does compel on the most part and never dull if more in the comedy-oriented parts. It's all competently, if slightly uninspiredly, directed.

However, the material is a little on the slight side, with there not being quite enough to fill the length (the film is not a long one). The story generally could have been more focused, tonally it is a bit of a mishmash of comedy and crime melodrama. The comedy elements fare much better.

While intriguing and with moments of suspense, the crime melodrama lacks surprises and can get preposterous, with some silly character decisions. Nat Pendelton also came over as rather colourless in an indecisively written dim-witted role.

All in all, uneven but worth the look for Lombard and Morris especially. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Carole's busy cleaning out her new husband, the always oafish Nat Pendleton, under the watchful but none-too-concerned eye of 'Office Boy' (who makes these names up?) played energetically by Chester Morris. You don't have to be a neurosurgeon to see how this one ends up. Several of her husband's cronies have eyes for her and Chester pretty much sits back and makes with the Jimmy Cagney-type wisecracks until he's inevitably needed to save Carole from the mess she's created. Car nuts will like the scene at the Mercedes dealer where she's buying a 1934 540K Roadster (deliberately paying too much) and cringe over Pendleton testing the bulletproof aspects of his armored limo. Made at the dawn of the infamous Production Code, THE GAY BRIDE is a lot like Warner's pre-code program entries only with MGM's added element of class. Carole's a pro and Chester Morris rates an 'A' for effort.

Carole Lombard knocks off the men in sequence: Nat Pendleton, Sam Hardy, Leo Carrillo. Gangsters all, they fall for her and endow her with all their worldly goods -- which, given repeal and the downturn in business isn't as much as she hopes -- and then they knock off each other.

The speculation is this started off a a racy movie, but was castrated by the Production Code. Lombard is fairly erratic. The careful modulation needed for her character isn't there, and while she's very good in her scenes with Zasu Pitts, director Jack Conway can't get her to tone it down with her scenes with Pendleton and Chester Morris. Morris, however, is terrific throughout.

Conway directs this for speed. He certainly gives it his all, but it falls a little flat.