La mariée du dimanche

I found this film quite interesting, especially given the current mania for home makeover shows on TV. Bette Davis plays a magazine editor who, for each monthly issue, completes a home makeover for one lucky family. For the June issue, she will make over a family home in Indiana for their daughter's wedding. The catch - her writer is a new hire and a former lover, played by Robert Montgomery. Looking for a "scoop," he uncovers the real romance his goal-oriented editor misses. There's a wedding alright, but not necessarily the one that was planned...

Despite an odd pairing of Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery (which still sort of worked for me somehow) and a very disappointingly engineered ending, I quite enjoyed this film, especially Bette Davis' portrayal of the middle aged career woman.

This movie surprised me. Typically, although I adore Bette Davis in dramas, I don't usually care for her in comedies. And, I don't care for Robert Montgomery at all...but I liked him very much here. But to me, this is not a comedy per se, although there is a lot of humor in it.

Robert Montgomery plays a foreign correspondent who reluctantly accepts a job under his former flame -- Bette Davis. He still loves her, she doesn't still love him...at least not at first. They go to Indiana to cover a "typical American wedding," but it turns out not to be quite so typical.

Another thing I rarely find funny in films are drunk scenes. Here, however, Robert Montgomery is hilarious as a drunk.

Aside from strong performances by Davis and Montgomery, this film has an extremely strong cast. Fay Bainter is wonderful, as always, although I would have wished her part was more substantial. You'll recognize Tom Tully, but perhaps for his roles in John Wayne-type films...much different here as the father of the bride(s). And you'll recognize Mary Wickes and Marjorie Bennett.

While this won't find a place on my DVD shelf, I did truly enjoy it. I think you will, also.

This is a delightful film, one of my favorites. There is a brief scene that is not to be missed, between Bette Davis (as Linda), Mary Wickes (as Rosemary) and Tom Tully (as Mr. Brinker), in which Linda and Rosemary are discussing "Mrs. Brinker's bust" as Mr. Brinker looks on. The audience knows what they're talking about, but poor Mr. Brinker does not, and his expressions and reaction are hysterically funny. The whole film is definitely worth seeing. Robert Montgomery drunk on cider is also not to be missed.

A rare Betty Davis film that's funny. She works well playing off of Robert Montgomery. Biting, witty, satirical dialogue is very funny between the two. I would never imagine these two actors together, but in this film, it works! Could have been a cloying, icky sweet film but isn't. Wonderful supporting players (Mary Wickes, Sandra Gould, Jerome Cowan, Fay Bainter). Wish someone would write films like this again, films for smart people. Alas, we are left with monosyllabic grunts most of the time. For a break, rent this film!

The funny thing is, Bette Davis made other films with just about all of them - Fay Bainter, Mary Wickes, and Betty Lynn (she was Thelma Lou on the Andy Griffith Show). George O'Hanlon as the magazine cameraman was Joe McDoakes in a series of Warner Brothers shorts.

But this is the first and only pairing of Robert Montgomery and Bette Davis. Montgomery, as Carey Jackson, dumped Bette Davis, as Linda Gilman, without even telling her, when three years before when he started thinking they were getting too serious. So he's been writing in Europe, but then his magazine's office closed and he's back in New York. He ends up on the staff of Home Life, edited by Linda.

Linda is over Carey, but she insists he realize she is the boss or she will fire him. She is afraid he will look for "angles" in every straightforward assignment she gives him. She is not wrong. This is a great and nuanced performance by Davis, and she actually does well as the 30 something independent sophisticate, making it in what was very much a man's world at the time. Carey, by his maneuvers, is not over Linda physically, but that seems to be as far as it goes for him, and he gets very annoying with his antics. As much as I like Montgomery, it seems like that would be difficult to do, but he manages to pull off making me dislike his character because he is so smarmy.

The bulk of the film is set in Indiana as Linda's staff are there to do a feature article about a wedding. It's basically a "bunch of fish out of water" story with the New York sophisticate magazine staff trying to make the homespun Brinker house fit for a layout in their magazine with the sexual tension between Linda and Carey playing out along with the fact that all is not right with the romance between the bride and groom to be.

The supporting cast is fine and the dialogue sparkles with wit, but it really cries out for the zaniness of Loy and Powell in the lead and a director like Leo McCarey to get it to where it is a first class screwball comedy. Instead we have Bretaigne Windust in the director chair, who mainly directed television and to date doesn't even have a bio section on this website. And that is unusual among directors.

If it ever comes your way I'd give it a chance, just because it is a somewhat unjustly forgotten item in Bette Davis' filmography.