Bride by Mistake

This Norman Krasna story -- with one of his typical fairytale-like plots -- was filmed in '34 as "The Richest Girl in the World" with Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea. And this one works as well as the first one did because Laraine Day is just as perfect for this role as Miriam Hopkins was. Hopkins played the role a bit dowdier -- or maybe it's just that Laraine Day can't help shining like an incandescent bulb on camera!

Poor little rich girl Norah Hunter can't find a man who will love her just for herself, as opposed to her vast wealth. Used to allowing her personal assistant to pose as herself in public she decides to try out this "prince and the pauper" style switch in her private life as well and see if the man she's falling for can love her for herself alone.

In both films it's a tightwalk characters and audience tread as the "he loves me--he loves me not" twists and turns wrench us gently this way and that like an old fashioned roller coaster. The supporting cast in this later film have more fleshed out roles -- and comic bits -- than the original and play them with verve.

The plot was made contemporary for the WWII era by making the love interest a pilot and surrounding the radiant Day with handsome enlisted men who have both manners and dispositions which practically no one in our culture seems to carry anymore.

Krasna was always trying out variations on the "no one knows I'm really rich or a princess or a star or whatever -- and will they love me just the same??" theme. But there's something perfectly simple and charming about this particular variation. So much so that two delightful romantic comedies were made of it. And why not -- it's great fun!

Soon after this film began, I had remembered seeing this story before in the form of "The Richest Girl in the World" with Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea. Aside from a few updates here and there (such as making the leading man an Army Air Corps flier recuperating from some unnamed illness or injury), the story is the same. There is a super-mega-rich lady (Laraine Day) who is a bit of a recluse. And, to shield her identity, her personal assistant (Marsha Hunt) poses as the rich heiress. However, when a dashing officer (Alan Marshall) begins to show attention to both Day and Hunt, Day is smitten--but unsure who he will choose--the one with the money or her (who actually has all the money). It's all very slight plot-wise and I still think the original is better--and more original! But the actors all do a good job (particularly Edgar Buchanan in a supporting role) and it's a nice pleasant diversion--a decent romantic comedy with some nice laughs and a very game cast.

By the way, while Alan Marshall looked quite nice in the film, he was an inexplicable choice as he was an Australian. Why this guy would be in the US military and not the Australian one is a puzzler...though the same could be said for many of Errol Flynn's films as well!

I have been watching a lot of old movies recently on TMC and this is one of the best movies I have seen in a long time Yes its old Yes its Sortof Campy but i really enjoyed it, i first saw Alan Marshal in "Married and in love" and something about his cheesy charming act was entertaining, So i watched this film also. I am of an entirely different generation born in the 80's there is something timeless about this film, Screwing up everything with love is relatable, i wont give away the ending because the film keeps you guessing till the end and from what I've seen from that era that uncertainty of the plot for the audience is a rarity.

Well this is a good one i recommend it to anyone

Laraine Day stars with Alan Marshal, Marsha Hunt, and Allyn Joslyn in "Bride by Mistake," from 1944. This is a rehash of "The Richest Girl in the World" and maybe a few other films.

Day plays the world-famous heiress Norah Hunter, but no one sees her. Her secretary Sylvia (Hunt) poses at her at ship christenings, etc.

Sylvia is engaged to Phil Vernon (Joslyn), and she gives her notice so that she can be with him, as he is changing jobs and leaving town. Norah is due to marry soon and decides to move up the wedding so that Sylvia and Phil can attend. It doesn't work out because that night, her boyfriend dumps her. She's too rich. Like I suppose that happens.

When Norah meets Captain Anthony Travis, she's interested, but she doesn't want him knowing who she is - he might fall for her because she has money. She tests him by throwing Sylvia at him. And it turns into a big mess.

Pleasant comedy, with Day totally radiant and beautiful. I don't know why MGM couldn't come up with more for her to do - instead she was constantly loaned out. Marsha Hunt is delightful as Sylvia, and the rest of the cast is very good.

Enjoyable.

Laraine Day is so rich that her fiance walks out on her; he can't stand living in a goldfish bowl. When she falls for pilot Alan Marshall (who gives a performance suggesting that Errol Flynn was intended for the role), she switches roles with Marsha Hunt, who is her public-appearance double.

It's a wartime remake of THE RICHEST GIRL IN THE WORLD, and pretty good. The supporting cast all hit their marks, including Allyn Joslyn as Miss Hunt's husband, Edgar Buchanan as Miss Day's mother-henning advisor, and Slim Summerville as Miss Day's perpetually bemused factotum. Under the direction of Richard Wallace, the situations strain the bounds of credibility without ever quite breaking them, and a couple of the gag sequences, like when Miss Day sets off the watering system to drench Marshall and Miss Hunt, are quite funny.

Marsha Hunt never quite achieved stardom. Between a turn on the Blacklist, and, in her own words, "I never learned how to sell Marsha Hunt," she has had a long, if not stellar career. Still, she's still alive at 103 as I write this, one of the few survivors of wartime Hollywood.