"The Bride Came C.O.D" is sustained by the performances of James Cagney and Bette Davis, who both manage to overcome a weak screenplay. Both actors manage to demonstrate a talent for light comedy. The laughs aren't exactly plentiful but at least the film isn't depressing or melancholic. Cagney and Davis have brilliant on- screen chemistry and they should have been paired up more often and in better movies. Davis is a rich socialite who is about to marry a famous and rather pompous musician - Jack Carson. They are about to fly to another state so they can be married in secret. Her father doesn't particularly care for the planned marriage and wants to stop it. Cagney as a pilot, is employed to keep Davis from tying the knot but things don't exactly go according to plan! The scenes of Cagney and Davis alone in the desert and then spotting a seemingly deserted town are probably the best in the film. Although the film isn't a very long one, it outstays its welcome about 20 minutes before the end. A lot of the film is tiresome and the comedy "Torrid Zone" is much better (also with James Cagney).

When Meryl Streep first became humorous in "She Devil", everybody was shocked that the star of "Sophie's Choice" and "Out of Africa" could be funny. Why? They didn't remember Bette Davis in this or "June Bride", Joan Crawford in "Love on the Run" or "They All Kissed the Bride", Katharine Hepburn in "Bringing Up Baby" or "The Philadelphia Story" or Barbara Stanwyck in "The Lady Eve" or "Christmas in Connecticut"? Even a "drama queen" can get loose every once in a while, and here, Bette makes her drama queen society débutante one of the funniest characters in screwball comedy history. Opposite James Cagney (away from gangster or serious tough guy roles, although his pilot is a bit of a tough guy), Davis is trying to escape her tyrannical father (Eugene Palette) to elope with staid radio star Jack Carson, and Cagney is hired by pops to kidnap her. Thanks to Davis's interference, the plane crashes in the desert, and Cagney and Davis fight, fall in love, feud over her freedom, and end up in many hysterically funny predicaments. One of those concerns Cagney's reaction to a slap across the face he receives from the temperamental Ms. D.Everything explodes into riotous humor when they encounter the reclusive Henry Travers who lives in an abandoned ghost town where even the ghosts seem to have skipped out. Travers, who loves people as long as he's nowhere near him, at first thinks that Cagney is guilty of her kidnapping, but soon learns otherwise, and Cagney is free to try to tame the shrewish Bette who isn't about to admit she is gaining feelings for her abductor. They end up in abandoned coal mine where, thanks to Davis's attempt to escape, the entrance is blocked, and Cagney teaches her a hysterical lesson. Then, Carson and Palette arrive, along with cop William Frawley, and everything ends up in a farcial delightful conclusion where Davis meets her biggest desert nemesis once again: an ill-place cactus that keeps greeting her in a most inconvenient place.While Davis had done comedy before ("The Golden Arrow" and "It's Love I'm After"), this was the real first time where she got to let her hair down and play dirty, and she is very funny. Cagney uses his dancing talents as his comic timing seems almost choreographed, and Travers is a delight with his lovable reclusive grouch getting to be sentimental with such reflections as his love of weddings so great he married three times just to go through the ceremony. Palette, Carson and Frawley also offer amusing performances, but it is Davis, Cagney and Travers who are given the funniest material. While the heyday of screwball comedy was slowly winding down, this is one of the better later ones, if not quite Preston Sturges still a delightfully entertaining romp in the cactus patch.

Much better and much more fun than expected. I actually think it's slightly underrated. While it's nowhere approaching the best of either stars (Jimmy Cagney and Bette Davis) wonderful careers, this is certainly no blotch on their resumes and is quite a lovely screwball comedy. Davis is the heiress getting married to a guy who's just after her money (Jack Carson), and Cagney is the pilot who has been charged by her father to kidnap her and stop the wedding. Sparks fly when furious Bette and cocky Cagney find themselves stuck in the Californian desert together after the plane is wrecked. The leads play roles that you would normally find the likes of Cary Grant and Carole Lombard inhabiting at the time, so it really is interesting to see them in something unusual. Once you get over that Bette is not playing one of her great roles in Regina Giddens or Margo Channing, and Cagney is not Cody Jarret, you'll be fine.Plus it's fascinating to see two of the most dynamic, energetic and often dominating actors of the time fight it out. They have a curious sort of chemistry, borne out of both of them exuding so much of their own trademark charisma and mannerisms. The plot is a little thin, but there are plenty of funny situations to be had and Davis could actually do comedy, so there you go, she's the best and she rules. William Keighley directs in solid workman-like style, and the result is a film that should be better appreciated. It's no great classic but it is well worth seeing.

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!").