The Bride Came C.O.D. is a 1941 American screwballromantic comedy starring James Cagney as an airplane pilot and Bette Davis as a runaway heiress, and directed by William Keighley. Although the film was publicized as the first screen pairing of Warner Bros.' two biggest stars, they had actually made Jimmy the Gent together in 1934, and had wanted to find another opportunity to work together.
The screenplay was written by Kenneth Earl, M. M. Musselman, and twins Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein. The basic plot owes much to It Happened One Night, in which an heiress seeks to marry a playboy of whom her father disapproves, only to end up with a charming working man.
Plot
A publicity-hungry broadcaster promotes the elopement between Joan Winfield, the daughter of Texas oil tycoon Lucius Witfield, and famous band leader Alan Brice. Steve Collins, who runs a small air charter service that is heavily in debt, is engaged to fly them from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. If Steve doesn’t come up with $1112.77 by midnight, however, the finance company will seize his airplane. Upon hearing on the radio of the upcoming elopement, Winfield calls his daughter at the airport to attempt to prevent it, accusing Alan of being a fortune-hunter. Steve calls the tycoon back, offering to prevent the elopement and take his daughter to him unmarried in Amarillo, Texas—for a price. They agree on a freight price of $10 a pound for whatever she weighs C.O.D. At an estimated 115 pounds, Steve will make enough to settle his debt. When the creditor returns to demand the key to his plan, Steve knocks him out cold. Tricking Alan out of the airplane by telling him that he has an urgent phone call from New York, Steve takes off with Joan. The press reports the bride as kidnapped, and the story makes headlines and news reports nationwide.
Joan asks Steve how much he is asking for ransom, offering to pay more. He tells her he is charging $1100—more or less—and she offers to pay him $5,000 to return her. Steve insists he cannot go back on the bargain with her father. When an irate Joan tries to jump out of the aircraft, Steve sees that her unfastened parachute is on backwards and swerves the plane to knock her off balance so she cannot jump. He crash lands near the ghost town of Bonanza, 60 miles from the nearest town.
The assistant DA instructs Sheriff McGee to find the kidnapper and arrest him for stealing the plane from the finance company (kidnapping is out of their jurisdiction). Meanwhile, at the crash site, Joan and Steve spend the night camping out, with Steve producing a picnic basket full of fattening food and encouraging Joan to eat.
The next morning, they encounter the ghost town’s lone resident, "Pop" Tolliver. Joan insists she is being kidnapped, but Steve contends it’s a lover’s quarrel. When Tolliver hears news of the kidnapping on the radio, he "arrests" Steve at gunpoint, locking him up in the town jail. Tolliver sets out with Joan in his old 1920s jalopy, which breaks down within sight of Bonanza.
Joan and Tolliver hear on the news that a search team has been dispatched. When Tolliver hears Joan’s father state that his daughter has not been kidnapped, but that he hired Collins to stop the elopement, Tolliver lets Collins out of prison, determined to help return Joan to her father.
Joan escapes into an abandoned mine, followed by Steve, and they are trapped by a cave-in for several hours. When Joan falls asleep, Steve finds a way out and enjoys a meal with Pop. On Pop’s advice, he returns to Joan in the mine without disclosing the way out. Believing that they are going to die, Joan re-examines her frivolous life, believing her engagement to Alan after knowing him only 4 days was hasty. Steve tells her he loves her, but when he kisses her, she tastes mustard on his lips, realizes he has deceived her, and is outraged. Exiting the mine they find that Alan has tracked them down, accompanied by a Nevada judge, and the sheriff has come to arrest Collins on a California arrest warrant. To prevent Steve’s arrest, Tolliver lies and tells the sheriff that Bonanza is in Nevada, making his search warrant invalid.
Still angry, Joan agrees to marry Alan. Steve does not object when the Nevada judge marries them, since the marriage is invalid. The "newlyweds" board another aircraft, but when Joan sees a souvenir labeled “Bonanza, California,” she figures out that they are not really married and parachutes out to be reunited with Steve. They get married with her father's approval and honeymoon in Bonanza. After celebrating, Joan weighs 118 pounds, for a C.O.D. payment of $1180, enough to pay off Steve’s debt.
The Bellanca F Rocket used in the film as Cagney's "kidnapping" aircraft
Both Cagney and Davis were interested in changing their movie personas, with Cagney moving away from the gangster-themed roles, while Davis had been seen only in serious dramas, and a romantic comedy was the way.[3] Cagney insisted on having his brother, William, produce the film, with his past success of Captains of the Clouds (1942) proving that he could move from acting to producing.[N 1] After their work on The Strawberry Blonde (1941), the Cagneys also brought in Julius and Phil Epstein to "invigorate" the script.[5][6] Davis wasn't the first choice for the Joan Winfield part, as Ann Sheridan, Ginger Rogers and Rosalind Russell were considered before the role was earmarked for Olivia de Havilland.[7] With the backing of Hal Wallis, however, Davis got the coveted role.[8][9]
Principal photography took place in Death Valley, California in January 1941, and was problematic as temperatures soared, the script problems were unresolved, and one of the stars actually fell into a cactus, with Davis having 45 quills pulled out of her rear.[N 2]
The New York Times dismissed The Bride Came C.O.D. as "a serviceable romp."[10] Reviewer Archer Winston in The New York Post succinctly put it: "Okay, Jimmie and Bette. You've had your fling. Now go back to work."[8] Despite the critical reviews, the film was a popular favorite, and one of the year's top 20 box-office films.[8]
For her part, in her later biographies and interviews, Bette Davis derided The Bride Came C.O.D., sarcastically saying, "it was called a comedy."[11] She would also complain that "all she got out of the film was a derriere full of cactus quills."[8]
A year later, animator Chuck Jones spoofed the film in the Warner Bros.Conrad Cat cartoon, "The Bird Came C.O.D."[12] More recent reviews have described the film as neither "memorable nor funny"[13] but said that the two stars still are worth watching even in a forgettable formula feature.[14]
Joan Crawford was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1925. Initially frustrated by the size and quality of her parts, Crawford launched a publicity campaign and built an image as a nationally known flapper by the end of the 1920s. By the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. Crawford often played hardworking young women who find romance and financial success. These "rags-to-riches" stories were well received by Depression-era audiences and were popular with women. Crawford became one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars and one of the highest paid women in the United States, but her films began losing money. By the end of the 1930s, she was labeled "box office poison".
Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television, and theater. Regarded as one of the greatest actresses in Hollywood history, she was noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic, sardonic characters and was known for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional comedies, although her greatest successes were her roles in romantic dramas. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, was the first person to accrue ten Academy Award nominations for acting, and was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute. In 1999, Davis was placed second on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female stars of classic Hollywood cinema.
Michael Curtiz was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed classic films from the silent era and numerous others during Hollywood's Golden Age, when the studio system was prevalent.
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid is a 1982 American neo-noir mystery comedy film directed, co-written by, and co-starring Carl Reiner and co-written by and starring Steve Martin. Co-starring Rachel Ward, the film is both a parody of and a homage to film noir and the pulp detective films of the 1940s. The title refers to Martin's character telling a story about a woman obsessed with plaid in a scene that was ultimately cut from the film.
Clara Lou "Ann" Sheridan was an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles in the films San Quentin (1937) with Humphrey Bogart, Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) with James Cagney and Bogart, They Drive by Night (1940) with George Raft and Bogart, City for Conquest (1940) with Cagney and Elia Kazan, The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) with Bette Davis, Kings Row (1942) with Ronald Reagan, Nora Prentiss (1947), and I Was a Male War Bride (1949) with Cary Grant.
George Brent was an Irish-American stage, film, and television actor. He is best remembered for the eleven films he made with Bette Davis, which included Jezebel and Dark Victory.
Ann Dvorak was an American stage and film actress.
Julius J. Epstein was an American screenwriter, who had a long career, best remembered for his screenplay, written with his twin brother, Philip, and Howard E. Koch, of the film Casablanca (1942), for which the writers won an Academy Award. It was adapted from an unpublished play, Everybody Comes to Rick's, written by Murray Bennett and Joan Alison.
John Elmer Carson, known as Jack Carson, was a Canadian-born American film actor. Carson often played the role of comedic friend in films of the 1940s and 1950s, including The Strawberry Blonde (1941) with James Cagney and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) with Cary Grant. He appeared in such dramas as Mildred Pierce (1945), A Star is Born (1954), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). He worked for RKO and MGM, but most of his notable work was for Warner Bros.
Ernest Jacob HallerASC, sometimes known as Ernie J. Haller, was an American cinematographer.
Winner Take All is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring James Cagney as a boxer. The film also features a single scene of George Raft conducting a band that had been lifted from Queen of the Nightclubs, an earlier film and lost film. Cagney and Raft would not make a full-fledged film together until Each Dawn I Die seven years later.
Way Back Home is a 1931 American Pre-Code drama film directed by William A. Seiter and starring Phillips Lord, Effie Palmer, Frank Albertson, and Bette Davis. The screenplay by Jane Murfin is based on characters created for the NBC Radio show Seth Parker by Phillips Lord.
Parachute Jumper is a 1933 American pre-Code black-and-white comedy drama film directed by Alfred E. Green. Based on a story by Rian James titled "Some Call It Love", it stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Bette Davis and Frank McHugh.
Fog Over Frisco is a 1934 American Pre-Code drama film directed by William Dieterle. The screenplay by Robert N. Lee and Eugene Solow was based on the 1932 mystery novel The Five Fragments by George Dyer.
Jimmy the Gent is a 1934 American pre-Code comedy-crime film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring James Cagney and Bette Davis and featuring Allen Jenkins. It was the first pairing of Cagney and Davis, who would reunite for The Bride Came C.O.D. seven years later.
June Bride is a 1948 American comedy film directed by Bretaigne Windust. The screenplay, which was based on the unproduced play Feature for June by Eileen Tighe and Graeme Lorimer, was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written American Comedy. The film starred Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery. The Warner Bros. release marked the screen debut of Debbie Reynolds, although her appearance was uncredited.
The Menace is a 1932 American pre-Code American crime drama film directed by Roy William Neill. The screenplay by Roy Chanslor, Dorothy Howell, and Charles Logue is based on the 1927 novel The Feathered Serpent by Edgar Wallace.
Bruce Lester was a South African-born English film actor with over 60 screen appearances to his credit between 1934 and his retirement from acting in 1958. Lester's career divided into two distinct periods. Between 1934 and 1938, billed as Bruce Lister, he appeared in upwards of 20 British films, mostly of the cheaply shot and quickly forgotten quota quickie variety. He then moved to the US, where he changed his surname to Lester, and found himself for a time appearing in some of the biggest prestige productions of their day, alongside stars such as Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn. Lester himself never achieved star-billing, but was said to have remarked that this at least meant that if a film was a flop, no blame ever fell on his shoulders.
Fehmer Christy "Chick" Chandler was an American film character actor who appeared in more than 130 films from 1925 through the mid-1950s. Chandler was known for his starring role as Toubo Smith in the Universal-produced 1955 syndicated television series Soldiers of Fortune.
Joan Winfield was an Australian-born actress and talented violinist, who appeared in Hollywood films in the 1940s, mostly in uncredited roles. She married director and writer John Meredyth Lucas in 1951.
References
Explanatory notes
↑ Captains of the Clouds in production in 1941, but released in 1942, was also an aviation-themed film, surprising, considering Cagney's fear of flying.[4]
↑ Davis was supposed to have a stunt double jump out of an aircraft, but accidentally fell into a cactus, and the scene was left in.[8]
Citations
↑ Dickens, Homer (1993). The Complete Films of James Cagney. Carol Publishing Group.
McGilligan, Patrick. Cagney: The Actor as Auteur. New York: A. S. Barnes and Co., Inc., 1975. ISBN0-498-01462-2.
Orriss, Bruce. When Hollywood Ruled the Skies: The Aviation Film Classics of World War II. Hawthorne, California: Aero Associates Inc., 1984. ISBN0-9613088-0-X.
Schickel, Richard and George Perry. Bette Davis: Larger than Life. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press, 2009. ISBN978-0-76243-688-0.
Sikov, Ed. Dark Victory: The Life of Bette Davis. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2007. ISBN0-8050-7548-8.
Warren, Doug and James Cagney. Cagney: The Authorized Biography. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986, First edition 1983. ISBN0-312-90207-7.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
