User Reviews

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.

I quite liked THE BRIDE CAME C.O.D. It's an obvious riff on the screwball structure established by the much superior IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, but Cagney and Davis really make it so much better than it could have been without their personas and chemistry there to liven things up. If you love the Warner Bros. acting stable of this period, then you're in for a good time.

The plot isn't clever or original, but I laughed quite a lot. Considering how hard it is to get me to laugh aloud when watching a movie, that alone makes this an achievement.

Sure it had been done once or twice before, and it was done a dozen times following... but this one is a classic on merit alone.

Davis and Cagney were the top two Warner's actors at the time and had fought their own respective legal battles with the studio in the years prior, as well as being very good friends.

This film catches them at the tops of their game, just being allowed to be silly and have fun in a movie no one really expected much out of.

The formula works and though the pacing isn't the best, hang-in because it's worth it.

Saturday afternoon popcorn film.

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.

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.

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.

Bette Davis and Jimmy Cagney had been teamed once before in "Jimmy the Gent", also a comedy. That picture and this one are two of the relatively rare Bette Davis comedies. Jimmy the Gent was pleasant and fast moving, and featured the two stars relatively early in their career's. Here, they are both at the top of their game, and they elevate the mediocre material into something fast paced, fun, and easy to watch. It's a real pleasure to see two of the screen's greatest stars together. Nothing great, but definitely worth seeing for fans of the stars or of screwball comedies of that era.

I can see why some people who admire the actor's dramas might complain. Gone with the Wind, it ain't. But it wasn't trying to be, and you do get a host of Hollywood legends, all in top form, doing exactly what they did best.

Airplane lovers will also appreciate the potpourri of period light passenger aircraft, and the scenery and sets are top notch.

The chemistry between Cagney and Davis is great, there's no scene stealing and it's just plain fun to watch. It's kind of sad to hear the treatment it received at the time from both the actors and critics. I wish they'd made ten more. Light-hearted and easy on the soul. One of my all time favorites.

Side note: I met Bette Davis in a store in Westport, CT and she quizzed me about a reversible blender we were both looking at. I was picking one up for my friend Mary. She was very nice--and smoking of course.

Bette Davis, in her autobiography The Lonely Life, didn't have to much good to say about this film. It's true the critics thought that this film was beneath the talents of Davis and Cagney, but time proves otherwise. Some films just seem to age like a bottle of fine wine which makes this movie play better today than it did when it was first released. So, the story goes, our Bette was doing a lot of tear jerker's and I guess Warners thought it was time for her to take a breather and do a light comedy for a change of pace. What's amazing is that here we have two Acadamy Award winners playing hoke and camp with La Davis spending most of her time falling on top of cactus plants and screaming! The musical score by Max Stiener is just fine and dandy and the funniest part in the film is when Davis deiced she's going to run away from Cagney in an automobile that hardly can run after Henry Davenport locks Cagney up in the town jail. So, she and Davenport get in the car. The car starts down the hill with the song In My Merry Oldsmbile being played and Cagney laughing so bad that you have to laugh with him as the car makes all kinds of noise and sputtering when it finally turns over, and I'm surprised that somehow they didn't find a way for our Bette to fall on top of another cactus plant! Even though Davis said that they really didn't like making this movie, it seems to me, when viewing it, that Davis and Cagney, with the rest of the cast were having a lot of fun making it! You could never remake this film and make it work today. I mean, who would you get to play the roles? Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston? But, on second thought, it would be hilarious to see Aniston falling on top of cactus plants!

After "It Happened One Night" ran away with the top five Oscars for 1934, every major and minor studio picked up the theme of a runaway heiress for comedy romances. While none could match the sub-genre prototype, several very good and funny films followed over the next several years. "The Bride Came C.O.D." was a good one at the tail end of the depression-era, but it doesn't rank among the best. The challenge each new version had after "One Night" was to come up with a different plot that would work. The plot for this one was different and pretty good. But the screenplay was quite weak.

I agree with those reviewers who noted the fine supporting cast performances all around. James Cagney and Bette Davis were giants of the screen for sure, and they did well in their roles here, as Steve Collins and Joan Winfield. They played comedy off one another very well. But what was lacking was any chemistry for romance. Indeed, the script didn't seem to be leading there until near the very end. In the very good films of this genre, the romance develops slowly, in little noticeable bits. But there's no sign of romance in this film until very close to the end. Comedies don't have to be believable, but if they aren't, they have to have lots of funny stuff about them – zaniness, crazy antics, rapid-fire zingers and repartee. This film has very little of that – only a couple of zany situations with the bride and pilot, Joan and Steve.

So, a better screenplay would have helped a lot. Maybe the romance wouldn't have been believable, still, but at least we'd have more laughs to make up for that. My point is that when the romance seems believable, it does a whole lot to raise one's enjoyment of the whole film. "One Night" is the classic, of course, but there are any number of other very funny films with believable romantic plots.

The wonderful Warner's troop of supporting actors contributed a great deal to this film. Eugene Palette, Harry Davenport and Jack Carson were especially good in their roles as Lucius Winfield, Pop Tolliver and Allen Brice, respectively. Carson was a versatile actor who often had big secondary roles in films. He couldn't break into the leading man roles, but his performances were often better and contributed as much or more to some films than the leading actors. I never thought about that decades ago when watching these films for the first time. It's one of those things one becomes more aware of with some years and lots of film time under the belt.

"The Bride Came C.O.D." is an enjoyable film that most viewers should find amusing. The cast seemed to enjoy making it.

Not a great movie but enjoyable. There is not much to say about this, situational comedy with 2 main characters at each other's throats. Silly plot and lack of story is just an excuse for Cagney and Bette to go at it, but it has moments...like when he headbutts her I burst out laughing, did not see it coming. Supporting cast is also good. People say Bette weakness was comedy, but I disagree, she was great in passive comedy roles, being a punchbag for comedic actor work. Cagney and her work well together and seem to have great fun doing it. It's a shame they didn't do more than 2 movies and something more memorable.

This movie didn't win any prizes for innovative plotting, nor should it have. It's plot is the same as that of "It Happened One Night" with a few added details and variations. Eugene Palette phones in his role as the crusty but sympathetic father of the would-be bride. Despite the lack of originality in the plot, Bette Davis and James Cagney find a totally unexpected comedic chemistry in this rare teaming of Warner Brothers biggest male and female stars. This is the movie that made me a Bette Davis fan. The patter is snappy, the supporting cast is excellent (particularly Jack Carson as the narcissistic, smarmy, would-be groom), and the movie works despite the hoary plot.

This was fairly entertaining film with so-so comedy, good enough for one viewing with the two big-name actors in the lead: James Cagney and Bette Davis. But multiple looks diminish this and it becomes just too dated and corny. It doubt if it's a film either Cagney or Davis would brag about having on their resumes.

Cagney and Davis did play off each other pretty well with some good dialog, to be fair. I also enjoyed Harry Davenport as the ghost town hotel owner. He didn't get a big enough billing for the role he played. Eugene Pallete, Jack Carson, George Tobias and Stuart Erwin also contributed and all were fine except Carson, who was just plain stupid.

I figured the movie would be worth watching based on the cast. But I had some reservations about Ms. Davis because I've not enjoyed some of her other works. Well, was I ever surprised! Not only was the acting, including Ms. Davis', superb from EVERYONE, but so was the dialog and the story! Unpredictable, entertaining and hilarious at just the right moments.

This is really a very good, very funny comedy, thanks largely to James Cagney , who could evidently play any sort of role wonderfully. He's great here as a poor pilot trying to hold on to his plane.

The plot, to the extent that there is one, is yet another variant on *It Happened One NIght*, the story of a spoiled young heiress who is kept from marrying a playboy she doesn't really know well by some Average Joe who hopes to make a few bucks by bringing her back to her wealthy father. Gable is great in that role in the original , but Cagney is every bit as good in this knockoff.

Eugene Pallette gets the Walter Connolly role as the wealthy father, but it isn't developed as well here.

Unlike in *It Happened One NIght*, which was filmed in 1934, we don't get a chance to see the America of its time here, and that is a real loss.

But what we do get are some funny if obvious situations, and a very funny James Cagney. That's definitely worth watching the movie for.

Bette Davis and James Cagney were two of the most revered actors and dynamic personalities on the Warners Brothers lot during Hollywood's golden era, so it was inevitable that they team in a movie. This was actually their second pairing after a minor Michael Curtiz comedy, 1934's "Jimmy the Gent", but the mystery of their 1941 reunion directed by William Keighley is why they decided to do such a predictable screwball farce. The novelty value of their casting may be enough to engender interest in the 2007 DVD release, one of five Cagney movies packaged as "James Cagney - The Signature Collection". The slapstick-oriented story is a rehash of Frank Capra's classic "It Happened One Night", this time with Bette Davis playing the headstrong heiress running away from her wealthy father to marry a vainglorious cad.

It's intriguing to see Davis play broad comedy since she seems to make little distinction between this and the intense approach she takes with her memorable dramatic roles of the period like "The Letter" and "The Little Foxes". As spoiled Texas oil heiress Joan Winfield, she manages to be funny almost in spite of herself. The silly plot has her father hiring pilot Steve Collins to kidnap Joan in order to bring her back home to Amarillo. The volatile combination of Joan's petulance and Steve's irascibility causes them to crash-land in the middle of the desert on the California-Nevada border. They end up in a ghost town inhabited only by a crotchety prospector, and needless to say, shenanigans ensue when Joan attempts to get back to civilization. Cagney is amusing but surprisingly subdued as Steve, perhaps in a gallant attempt to hand the picture to Davis. It's a nice attempt, but the lack of romantic chemistry between the two stars dilutes what could have been a breezy if still forgettable concoction. They would have been far more palatable as the battling reporters in Howard Hawks' "His Girl Friday".

Concerted efforts at slapstick are heavy-handed, especially a running gag with Davis landing her behind in various cactus plants, though one quick bit stands out - when Cagney kisses Davis, she responds with a characteristic slap, and his unexpected counter-response is knocking his forehead against hers like a coconut. The screenplay by the usually reliable Epstein brothers, Julius and Philip ("Casablanca") is snappy but just not funny enough to sustain the threadbare story, this despite a first-rate supporting cast - Eugene Palette in familiar blowhard mode as Joan's father, Jack Carson as her shallow bandleader fiancée, William Frawley ("I Love Lucy") as the smart-mouthed local sheriff, and Harry Davenport as the prospector. There are two quick cartoons and two vintage shorts included in the DVD to approximate a 1941 viewing experience at the neighborhood theater.

Too much shouting. Boring story. Miscast of BD. Waste of time. Not funny.