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I can see why some people who admire the actor's dramas might complain. Gone with the Wind, it ain't. But it wasn't trying to be, and you do get a host of Hollywood legends, all in top form, doing exactly what they did best.

Airplane lovers will also appreciate the potpourri of period light passenger aircraft, and the scenery and sets are top notch.

The chemistry between Cagney and Davis is great, there's no scene stealing and it's just plain fun to watch. It's kind of sad to hear the treatment it received at the time from both the actors and critics. I wish they'd made ten more. Light-hearted and easy on the soul. One of my all time favorites.

Side note: I met Bette Davis in a store in Westport, CT and she quizzed me about a reversible blender we were both looking at. I was picking one up for my friend Mary. She was very nice--and smoking of course.

Though Bette Davis dismissed this film as a piece of fluff it was an entertaining piece of fluff. For the one and only time in her career Davis entered the world of screwball comedy. This film is the sort of stuff that Cary Grant and Carole Lombard would have been right at home with.

Davis is paired for the second and last time with James Cagney. During the mid Thirties she and Cagney did a film called Jimmy the Gent which was not memorable for either of them. The Bride Came C.O.D. was far better material.

Davis is a young heiress who is being pursued by bandleader Jack Carson and columnist Stu Erwin who wants the story of their elopement. Cagney owns a small charter aviation company and the finance company man in the person of Ed Brophy is pursuing him. This is after Carson has chartered Cagney's plane.

Knowing that Davis's father Eugene Palette wants the marriage stopped at any cost, Cagney hits upon a mad scheme to kidnap Davis and fly her to Palette. He does it, but her antics forces a crash landing in the desert near a ghost town, inhabited only by Harry Davenport.

It gets pretty wild after that with everyone in the cast and his brother descending on that ghost town for their own agendas. Cagney and Davis worked very well with each other and Cagney was one of the few actors she didn't have a disparaging remark about.

It's entirely possible that players more experienced in the screwball comedy genre might have made The Bride Came C.O.D. a classic. But Cagney and Davis and the marvelous cast of some of the best supporting players around, made a pretty funny film in any case.

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.

Enjoyable screwball comedy with Bette Davis and James Cagney, helped out by a great supporting cast that includes Eugene Palette, Jack Carson, George Tobias, William Frawley, Harry Davenport, and many others. WB movies back in the day were more often than not defined by their supporting players. They had a premium stable of actors to choose from and many times they're more enjoyable to watch than the leads.

Davis has a lot of fun with this role and, while her comedic talents were always so-so, she shines here. This is also one of the movies where she looks prettiest and curviest. One dress in particular fits her just right.

The movie isn't perfect. It drags a bit more than a screwball comedy should. Davis and Cagney, while having nice comedic timing, don't really have much romantic chemistry. So the inevitable conclusion to a film like this might be a bit hard for some to buy. Still, I recommend it to any Bette Davis or James Cagney fan. Also to any fan of WB films from the 1930s and 40s.

I quite liked THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D. It's an obvious riff on the screwball structure established by the much superior IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, but Cagney and Davis really make it so much better than it could have been without their personas and chemistry there to liven things up. If you love the Warner Bros. acting stable of this period, then you're in for a good time.

The plot isn't clever or original, but I laughed quite a lot. Considering how hard it is to get me to laugh aloud when watching a movie, that alone makes this an achievement.