Thursday, September 29, 2011

Joan Crawford and Melvyn Douglas in They All Kissed the Bride (1942)

Obscurity factor: 9

Margaret J. Drew (Crawford) is a driven, determined business woman running her late fathers trucking company. Her style of management is autocratic and dictatorial and she's not one for a soft touch when it comes to employees or anyone else for that matter. The only obstacle to mounting profits is the pesky, pro-labor journalism of Michael Holms (Douglas). She sets about dealing with him as she does everything else, with a strong arm and offense. A chance encounter with him, however, leaves her weak in the knees, and is complicated by the fact that she's not aware who he is. She has him arrested on a trumped up charge, thinking he is an unwelcome rival for her sisters attentions and soon finds herself vulnerable to a potential lawsuit. In trying to negotiate a settlement, she allows herself to be wooed by Holms and the inevitable happens - they fall in love. Will the differences in class and intervening circumstances keep the two apart or will love conquer all?
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Though not a brilliant example of the Screwball Comedy genre, this film has many bright spots and it's fun to see Crawford mix the hard bitten career woman of her WB years with the light-hearted comedy style of her MGM years. Look for Roland Young and Billie Burke (Topper and his wife) as Drew's attorney and mother.

This film has yet to be released on DVD and is harder to find online than hens teeth at the moment. It was given a VHS release and copies can still be found on Amazon.

Obscurity factor: 9 (not on DVD, available on VHS, not available online at all at the moment, occasionally screened on TV)

3 comments:

  1. I would like to see this. However, what a strange turn-of-events in the plot. I can't imagine someone falling in love with someone who had them arrested on a trumped-up charge!

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  2. Joan supposedly stepped into doing this very quickly after Carole Lombard's sudden death, as a favor to Carole or someone at Columbia - cute movie!

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  3. Yes, and she donated her entire salary to charity.

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