A Noiva Caiu do Céu

When I watch a movie, I like to laugh, and that's why this is my favorite movie of all time.

It's the only pairing of James Cagney and Bette Davis, and the sparks do fly. You might call this a variation on the theme of "It Happened One Night." James Cagney plays a cargo pilot asked to aid in an elopement that would result in a disastrous marriage for an heiress. Her father offers him payment if he delivers her home unmarried. The ending is predictable, but the journey to it is not. Great fun.

Oh, I know there are so many other "important" and wonderful movies out there. I love a lot of them. But rarely has one tickled and surprised me the way this one did.

Let others favor the big famous movies. I'll take this little gem.

I'm surprised that more people haven't recognized its charm.

This is a pretty obvious take on "It Happened One Night" except in a post gangster pre war era, narrow and short lived as that era was.

Joan Winfield (Bette Davis) is a spoiled heiress who is about to elope and marry bandleader Allen Brice (Jack Carson) after having known him for only four days. They are going to fly to Las Vegas on Steve Collins' (James Cagney's) plane, if the finance company doesn't repossess the plane first. As such, Joan's wealthy father (Eugene Pallette), who hates Brice, agrees to pay Collins the money he needs to keep the finance company at bay if Collins delivers Joan to Amarillo unmarried. Collins manages to take off with Joan and without Allen Brice, but the plane crashes in the desert when the engine stalls. Fortunately, they are near an almost abandoned mining town. Complications ensue, one of which being that nobody knows where they are.

This is definitely an odd one - a definite B effort from Warner Brothers with their two biggest A list stars of the time. There is so much slapstick that it resembles a Looney Tunes cartoon. I half way expected Davis and Cagney to erupt into a "Duck Season! Rabbit Season!" exchange at some point. And after the pair make it to the abandoned mining town with the lone but friendly inhabitant, the script literally goes in circles for about an hour waiting for the energetic and reinvigorated conclusion.

Anything with Davis and/or Cagney is worth seeing, and maybe that was why Jack Warner didn't put much effort into this one. Because he realized that too.

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.

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.