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 worked together in Jimmy the Gent in 1934, and had wanted to find another opportunity to work together.
The screenplay was written by twins Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein, from a story by Kenneth Earl and M. M. Musselman. 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 K. Winfield, and popular womanizing band leader Alan Brice after a whirlwind courtship of only four days. Steve Collins, who runs a small air charter service, is engaged to fly them from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Nevada. Steve's owes the finance company $1,112.77 ($24,900 in 2025) by midnight, or will lose 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 rings Winfield back, offering to scuttle the elopement and deliver his daughter to him, unmarried, in Amarillo, Texas. They agree on a freight charge of $10 a pound C.O.D for whatever she weighs, enough at Joan's estimated 115 pounds for Steve to pay off. Both Alan and the broadcaster are tricked out of the airplane, and Steve takes off. The press reports the bride as kidnapped, and the story blares across nationwide headlines.
Joan asks Steve how much he is asking for ransom, offering to top it. Steve rebuffs her $5,000, insisting 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 parachute is both on backwards and unfastened. He swerves the plane wildly to keep her from jumping, then crash lands near the ghost town of Bonanza, 60 miles from civilization.
The Los Angeles DA instructs Sheriff McGee to find the kidnapper and arrest him for stealing the plane from the finance company. Meanwhile Joan and Steve camp out uneasily overnight.
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 of the abduction on the radio, he marches Steve at gunpoint into the town jail. Tolliver and Joan set out in his old 1920s jalopy, which breaks down within sight of Bonanza.
The pair hear on the news that a search team has been dispatched. When Tolliver learns that Joan's father hired Collins to stop the elopement, he lets Collins out of jail, determined to help him return Joan to her father.
Aware the search team has spotted her and that a rescue will be forthcoming, Joan escapes into an abandoned mine, followed by Steve, who become trapped together by a cave-in. When Joan falls asleep, Steve finds a way out and enjoys a meal with Pop, then returns to Joan without disclosing the exit. Believing that they are going to die, Joan re-examines her frivolous life, second-guessing her hasty elopement with Alan. Steve tells her he loves her, but when they kiss she tastes that he has been eating, realizes she's been deceived, and is outraged. Exiting the mine they find that Alan has tracked them down, accompanied by a Nevada judge, and the California sheriff is there with a state arrest warrant. To prevent Steve's arrest, Tolliver lies and tells the sheriff that Bonanza is in Nevada, making his search warrant "invalid" while setting up any marriage by a Nevada judge as a sham.
Steve does all he can to encourage the bogus wedding, stalling for time until Joan's father arrives. The "newlyweds" get airborne, but when Joan sees a souvenir labeled “Bonanza, California,” she recognizes the ploy and parachutes out to be reunited with Steve. They get married with her father's approval and honeymoon in Bonanza. After celebrating, Joan weighs in at 118 pounds, good money enough for Steve to save his airplane.
William Hopper as Keenan's Pilot (credited as DeWolf Hopper)
Production
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.[1] Cagney insisted on having his brother, William, produce the film, with his success shooting Captains of the Clouds (in progress, and released in 1942) proving that he could move from acting to producing.[2] After their work on The Strawberry Blonde (1941), the Cagneys also brought in Julius and Philip Epstein to "invigorate" the script.[3][4] Davis wasn't the first choice for the Joan Winfield part, as Ann Sheridan, Ginger Rogers and Rosalind Russell were considered before the coveted role was earmarked for Olivia de Havilland.[5] With the backing of Hal Wallis, however, Davis got the part.[6][7]
Principal photography took place in Death Valley, California, in January 1941. It proved problematic when temperatures soared, script problems went unresolved, and Davis needing to have 45 quills pulled out of her rear when she jumped out of the aircraft instead of a stunt double and accidentally fell into a cactus, which was left in the film.[6]
The New York Times dismissed The Bride Came C.O.D. as "a serviceable romp."[8] 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."[6] Despite the critical reviews, the film was a popular favorite, and one of the year's top 20 box-office films.[6]
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."[9] She would also complain that "all she got out of the film was a derriere full of cactus quills."[6]
Twenty-first century reviews have been unfavorable, with Gene Siskel and George Perry describing the film as neither "memorable nor funny" in 2009,[10] but conceding that the two stars still are worth watching even in a forgettable formula feature. Film critic Dennis Schwartz declared in 2019, "At best it amounts to average fare."[11]
A year after the film's release, animator Chuck Jones spoofed the film in the Warner Bros.Conrad Cat cartoon, "The Bird Came C.O.D."[12]
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.
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