The Bride Goes Wild

Bumpy film with good stuff strewn about here and there, but it's far from a seamless ride. Doesn't often add up to more than it's various parts until the peculiarly funny ending. The leads are swell and Hume Cronyn, as an effete fussbudget, is a surprise. Richard Derr, a gorgeous hunk of man-meat if there every was one, plays a klutz.

June Allyson doing her thing. This time, she's a down-home gal and ace illustrator who wins a contest for her artwork to be used in a new children's book penned by the beloved Uncle Bumps, a modern-day Hans Christian Andersen. Turns out Uncle Bumps is really a hard-drinking, free-wheeling bachelor who dislikes children--yet he is so taken with this uptight artist once he meets her, he attempts to woo her under an alias. Why? It doesn't matter, for this is a vehicle for Allyson and Van Johnson (movie favorites at the time), and the script treats their characters like human bumper-cars just to keep star-watchers on their toes. Johnson's ruse is soon exposed, forcing him to emulate an honorable guy--which includes 'borrowing' an orphan to pose as his son. June threatens to dislodge him from the ranks of celebrity by reporting him to her cousin, a banner of controversial books and plays (she actually seems to proud to know such a person). Throw in an obnoxious hometown beau waiting in the wings, a wedding overcome with ants, and Hume Cronyn as a publisher on the brink of a nervous breakdown, and you have all the ingredients for a laughless family fracas done with neither style nor merit. *1/2 from ****

The movie's more a collection of sometimes funny schtick than a satisfying whole. The premise of Johnson being a rather obnoxious author of children's books shows promise, especially when he tangles with prudish illustrator Martha (Allyson). In order to win Martha back Greg (Johnson) schemes with publisher Mc Grath (Cronyn) to adopt a kid (Jenkins) who turns out to be a little hellion. As they say, complications ensue. On the whole, the film's series of skits tends to crowd up without building comedic impact. For example, the climactic car ride appears more frantic than funny.

Johnson manages the madcap pretty well, while Allyson gets a straight-man role unfortunately subverting her usual sparkle. At the same time, that required restraint undercuts the pairing of its usual compelling chemistry. Of course, buck-toothed Jenkins steals the film with little boy antics for which he was so well suited. Still, his frustrated desire to be adopted does provide a poignant note. However, for me, seeing Cronyn in a slapstick role takes some getting used to since I identify him with the scary Nazi-like warden in the prison classic Brute Force (1947). He was quite an actor.

On the whole, the comedy's a decent time-passer with enough set-ups to generate a few laughs from most anyone. But a well-crafted, efficient slice of madcap, it's not.

John McGrath (Hume Cronyn) is a publisher of children's books. Teetotaler Martha Terryton (June Allyson) wins a contest to illustrate a book. Problem is that drunken author Greg Rawlings (Van Johnson), under the name Uncle Bumps, hasn't started writing. He is taken with Martha. He recruits juvenile delinquent Danny to play his son.

The meet-cute is rather suggestive visually especially for the time. There is good potential. The story is a bit episodic. There's a whole section where the kids pretend to be Indians. I thought the book would be a good way to structure the story. Rawlings can write Danny into the book as the fake family has some adventure. The story slowly meanders and loses a little bit steam.

"The Bride Goes Wild" is the fourth of six movies that Van Johnson and June Allyson were in, and one of five in which they were the leads. Their films ranged from drama, suspense and action to comedy romance. They were best in the last, and this is the best comedy they made.

Except for an occasional barb or slight jab, the comedy in this film isn't built around clever and funny dialog. Instead it has a variety of antics and humorous situations, including pratfalls by Johnson. In one scene, Johnson's Greg Rawlings has miscue after miscue with a nemesis character of Bruce Johnson, played by Richard Derr. Johnson's Rawlings has a pen name for the children's story books he writes -- "Uncle Bumps." Well, in this one scene with Derr, he has more lumps than bumps. He gets hit in the forehead by a gold ball, his fingers get smashed in his typewriter, he hits his head on a table, he has a door shut on his face, the typewriter carriage returns and smacks him in the face as he's getting up off the floor, he trips and falls over his typing chair, he steps on a golf ball and does a pratfall, and has a door bang into his head as he's lying on the floor.

This is one of those films with a title that leads one to wonder what the moviemakers were smoking at the time. June Allyson plays Martha Terryton, an artist who has been selected by a panel of children to be the next illustrator for a new book planned for Uncle Bumps. Rawlings snookers the country girl Martha into having a cup of coffee with him, and after several Tasmanian Coffees, Allyson plays one of the best performances on film of a happy inebriate. She's very good, very realistic, and very funny.

Hume Cronyn plays John McGrath, the publisher of the leading children's author in America (Uncle Bumps). Una Merkel plays his secretary, Miss Doberly. They mix well and add to the comedy. Arlene Dahl is Tillie Smith Oliver and Lloyd Corrigan plays Pops - booth of whom provide for some humorous moments. The other main character is Danny, the "meanest" boy in the orphanage. But looking at Jackie Jenkins with his two prominent front teeth and face full of freckles, one has to stretch to see him as mean. He is a practical joker, however, for some added light humor.

The plot is a good one and the screenplay keeps the film moving with considerable action. So, while it's not a laugh-a-minute comedy, it has a running sense of humor with some funnier injections in places that raise this well above the average comedy. It's a film that the whole family should enjoy.

Hollywood made several movies in the mid decades of the 20th century with themes of publishers bailing and and/or sobering up problem authors. While those were all fictional, the frequency of the theme in films leads one to think that perhaps that was a difficult situation with some publishers of the period.

Here are some favorite lines from this movie.

John McGrath, "See if the idol of young America has made any more of those speeches against children."

John McGrath, "Off the record, your bull was the best by far." Martha, "Oh, thank you. I just tried to think as a child thinks."

John McGrath, "Greg, you've got to grow up. You're Uncle Bumps. You okayed your pen name. You agreed to be wholesome, edifying and lovable. Greg, you're an institution. Children adore you. Their parents trust you. "

Martha Terryton, "What you need is a cup of coffee." Greg, "Oh, you're so right. A cup of coffee, then home to my typewriter. I wonder if I could." Martha " Well of course you can. Greg, "Oh, but you wouldn't have a cup with me?" Martha, "Oh, I... I'm afraid not." Greg, "That's always the way isn't it? One needs a helping hand, a grain of sympathy - one gets advice. Talk is cheap."

Greg Rawlings, "You're going too far, McGrath. McGrath, "You blew in her ear, I didn't."

Pops, "Is he a friend of yours?" Greg, "Off and on."