The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941)
Directed by William Keighley

Film Review

The Bride Came C.O.D. may not be the most sophisticated of screwball comedies, but it scores very highly on the fun-o-meter, with James Cagney delivering plenty of laughs, mainly at the expense of his co-star, Bette Davis.  It's not the first time the two actors appeared together - they had previously worked alongside one another in the 1934 film Jimmy the Gent - but it would be their last. 

Cagney is famous for man-handling his female co-stars in his films - a trend he began when he thrust a grapefruit half into Mae Clark's face in The Public Enemy (1931).  Here, Bette Davis gets the full Cagney treatment, including headbutt, fireman's lift, catapult onslaught, and, best of all, having cactus spines plucked from her derriere.  The sight of Cagney and Davis smooching isn't quite so appealing, but, like most things in life, one has to take the rough with the smooth.   Yes it's silly, yes it's predictable and ludicrously contrived, but, in spite of all that, The Bride Came C.O.D. is well worth seeing - a mad, mad romp that is guaranteed to brighten any dreary day.

Film Synopsis

In the hope of landing himself a nationwide publicity coup, bandleader Alan Brice persuades his fiancée, the heiress Joan Winfield, to elope with him so that they can get married.  Knowing that Joan's father Lucius will do anything to stop the marriage from taking place, they intend getting wed in another state.  For this reason, they hire pilot Steve Collins to fly them to Amarillo.  When Lucius Winfield hears about the planned elopement, he offers Steve a large sum of money in return for his errant daughter.

Heavily in debt, this is not an offer that Steve can turn down, but as the adventure gets under way he soon discovers that he has taken on far more than he bargained for.  Getting Alan out of his plane is the easy part of the assignment.  When Joan then slips through his fingers, Steve is forced to go after her.  Arriving in a deserted mining town, they manage to get themselves trapped in an old mine.  Faced with the prospect of imminent death, Joan feels impelled to re-evaluate her life, and it is then that Steve realises he loves her...