There's much more to They All Kissed the Bride than the silly and misleading title would lead one to believe. Some brief background on the production seems necessary, since this is the movie that Carole Lombard was slated to make before her tragic death. So her husband's former co-star Joan Crawford then offered to replace her, and actually donated her salary for the role to the American Red Cross. I'm certain that Crawford felt she was "slumming it" at Columbia after so many years at MGM, but the studio did fine by their treatment of her.
This was another Crawford movie which was totally unfamiliar to me, and was part of a recent "June Brides" marathon run on TCM. I started to watch it with some trepidation, but soon found myself really enjoying this lively little romance which contains some genuinely big laughs. The plot seems lifted almost from Sam Wood's The Devil and Miss Jones from the previous year, only with the sexes reversed. Crawford plays the president of her family's trucking firm, and is a hard-headed businesswoman who suffers no fools even in her somewhat non-existent private life. Melvyn Douglas is a muck-raking journalist exposing the ruthlessness of Crawford's company policies, but one who always makes time for a little fun often fueled by cocktails. After a series of mistaken identities, Douglas takes Crawford on a journey of self discovery thanks to "the proletariat." Yeah, the plot may be predictable and there are a few dead ends for some of the supporting characters, but the main result is a pleasant and humorous -- if somewhat slight -- experience. In fact there is one scene where Crawford dances an outrageously wild jitterbug with Allen Jenkins that's worth the price of admission alone. It makes the one done by Bette Davis in Thank Your Lucky Stars look like a cakewalk! And certainly Joan Crawford rises to occasion here, and fills the role of a romantic leading lady here in a comedy that's close to screwball. She looks fantastic, and wears the highest of 1940's fashions with great panache. She also proves that she could be as light and cheery as her many contemporaries who were more famous for their comedic ability.
And finally, I don't think I'm giving away a spoiler, but Joan Crawford never dons a wedding gown in this. Apparently it's her younger sister who's the titular Bride, and her wedding occurs in the first half hour, and she subsequently disappears on a honeymoon. So here's one that's not only for Joan Crawford completists, but for all fans of classic 40's comedy.
This was another Crawford movie which was totally unfamiliar to me, and was part of a recent "June Brides" marathon run on TCM. I started to watch it with some trepidation, but soon found myself really enjoying this lively little romance which contains some genuinely big laughs. The plot seems lifted almost from Sam Wood's The Devil and Miss Jones from the previous year, only with the sexes reversed. Crawford plays the president of her family's trucking firm, and is a hard-headed businesswoman who suffers no fools even in her somewhat non-existent private life. Melvyn Douglas is a muck-raking journalist exposing the ruthlessness of Crawford's company policies, but one who always makes time for a little fun often fueled by cocktails. After a series of mistaken identities, Douglas takes Crawford on a journey of self discovery thanks to "the proletariat." Yeah, the plot may be predictable and there are a few dead ends for some of the supporting characters, but the main result is a pleasant and humorous -- if somewhat slight -- experience. In fact there is one scene where Crawford dances an outrageously wild jitterbug with Allen Jenkins that's worth the price of admission alone. It makes the one done by Bette Davis in Thank Your Lucky Stars look like a cakewalk! And certainly Joan Crawford rises to occasion here, and fills the role of a romantic leading lady here in a comedy that's close to screwball. She looks fantastic, and wears the highest of 1940's fashions with great panache. She also proves that she could be as light and cheery as her many contemporaries who were more famous for their comedic ability.
And finally, I don't think I'm giving away a spoiler, but Joan Crawford never dons a wedding gown in this. Apparently it's her younger sister who's the titular Bride, and her wedding occurs in the first half hour, and she subsequently disappears on a honeymoon. So here's one that's not only for Joan Crawford completists, but for all fans of classic 40's comedy.