morrison-dylan-fan Despite having heard about her being one of the biggest actresses in the "golden age" of Hollywood,I have somehow never got round to seeing a film starring Bette Davis.With Easter coming up,I started talking to my dad about picking up a James Cagney DVD as a holiday present for a friend.Catching me by surprise,my dad revealed that he had recently picked up a Cagney title,co-starring Bette Davis,which led to me getting ready to catch a glimpse of Bette Davis for the first time.The plot:California-Desperate to fill his radio show up,presenter Tommy Keenan pushes bandleader Alan Brice to get married to his oil heiress girlfriend, (who he has been dating for 4 days!) Joan Winfield.Caught up in a whirlwind romance,Brice & Winfield agree to Keenan's suggestion that they hire a plane,and get married in Los Vegas.Broadcasting updates on his radio show,Joan's dad Lucius K. Winfield starts ringing everyone up,to find out what his daughter has gotten herself into.Spending the last 10 years attempting to pay the debt for his plane,pilot Steve Collins is delighted to receive a call offering him a large amount of money to take a young couple over to Los Vegas for their wedding.Getting set to fly off with Joan & Alan,Collins suddenly gets a call from Lucius K. Winfield,who offers to pay Collins as much as he wants,as long as he stops his daughter from getting married.View on the film:Walking across the screen looking glamorous,Bette Davis gives an excellent, hilarious performance Joan Winfield.Wrapped in jewelry,Davis turns Joan into a prime cut diva,with Davis showing Joan clutching all her wealth,as Joan slowly discovers that daddy can out bid his daughter on anything,which includes her becoming a wife.Along with the sleek diva cut,Davis also displays a tremendously relaxed manner towards looking very silly in the films perfectly executed physical Comedy scenes,as Davis jumps from failing to jump out of a plane,to getting cactus pins stuck in her bottom.Stopping Davis from going down the aisle,James Cagney gives a fantastic performance as Steve Collins,as Cagney keeps Collins blue collar attitude burning whilst casting a wicked grin across his face,as Collins outwits everyone at each turn.Joining Davis & Cagney, Harry Davenport gives a delightful performance as "Pop" Tolliver,thanks to Davenport hitting every one of his very funny one liners,and also acting as the perfect match to Cagney's slightly saner Collins.Keeping Joan & Alan constantly on the lookout for a road to their weeding,the screenplay by Kenneth Earl/M.M. Musselman/Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein moves at a lightning fast pace,which gives each of the characters a killer line that allows them to have their moment in the spotlight.Along with stuffing the film full of one liners,the writers also give the title a charming warmth,as Joan & Collins find their mad-cap caper to unexpectedly bring them closer together,as Collins sets his sights on getting the cash on delivery.

vincentlynch-moonoi A foreign friend once told me that he just didn't "get" James Cagney; "nobody acts like that." And I have to admit that the performances where I most enjoy Cagney are where he plays off his typical character -- "Yankee Doodle Dandy", for example. This is one such film. We don't usually associate Cagney with comedy, and he seems a bit relaxed here...and it's delightful. Similarly, we usually think Bette Davis as a dramatic actress, and she shines here because her character is spunky and irreverent, and there are just enough opportunities for her to display her sharp tongue. She, too, is delightful. William Frawley, Eugene Palette (with his barrel voice and barrel body) and Stu Erwin are great additions to the cast, but one of my favorite character actors -- Harry Davenport (as in the doctor in "Gone With The WInd") really shines here as a character quite different from what he usually plays. Jack Carson should have been a bit disappointed with his role...sort of wasted, although essential to the story line.The plot is screwball, so somewhat unbelievable, but this is a film to savor for the performances (particularly the chemistry between Davis and Cagney) and the setting (a busted gold mine town). Highly recommended.

phd12166 Baffling how this, of all Davis and/or Cagney movies is set on the side burner. It's a riot! Cagney does indignant acts to Davis that make for the charms of both lead actors to be brought out. The public already new that Cagney could play well in comedies; but, with Bette Davis usually performing such serious characters, the surprise is how Davis pulls of playing in this comedy so well. She's really at the mercy of the script that Cagney riotously acts out.Davis is playing a runaway daughter of a tycoon; Cagney plays the plotting private pilot who has schemed to take her home to Daddy for a meager dividend. The hilarity begins when Davis realizes she's been hijacked by Cagney and attempts to parachute out of his airplane.After recently viewing this several times, for the first time, it because curious to me why Bette Davis wasn't cast in many more comedies. Was there anything she couldn't do? (She even sang and did more comedy in a dance during her starlit spot in, "Thank Your Lucky Stars!").

krdement This film was a big disappointment.I take the opposite view of the critics. This is not a case of the material not being up to the level of the actors; here the actors (Bette Davis and James Cagney) are simply not up to the level of the material. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert were every bit as big as Davis and Cagney, and look how It Happened One Night turned out - an all-time classic. With a very similar story, Davis proves that she has no talent for comedy (good thing for her that this is just about the only comedy she ever attempted!) Davis' one-note performance oozes petulance, but none of the nuances of Colbert's acting in It Happened One Night. Cagney, who was a great comedy actor, just seems out-of-sync with his costar, Davis. The script provides some decent lines and gags, but the delivery seems better suited to drama than comedy.Part of the problem is the soundtrack, which, like the delivery of Davis and Cagney, seems more suitable to a light drama than a comedy.Jack Carson, who played similar roles throughout his career, has more capably handled very similar material. In a fairly typical supporting role Eugene Palette delivers a respectable performance. In a slightly different role as an old west relic, Harry Davenport, is very good. But in one of his poorest performances, William Frawley is quite irritating. His character's constant references to fictional cops are a poor effort at irony. I really love every one of these performers, and it is a shame that, as an ensemble they achieve no more chemistry and no better result than The Bride Came C.O.D.