The Gay Bride * (1934, Carole Lombard, Chester Morris, Zasu Pitts) – Classic Movie Review 6,758

MGM’s 1934 crime and romantic comedy film The Gay Bride stars Carole Lombard in the kind of role she was great in as gold-digging chorus girl.

Director Jack Conway’s 1934 MGM crime and romantic comedy film The Gay Bride stars Carole Lombard in the kind of role she was great in and made her own as Mary, a money-grubbing, gold-digging chorus girl who comes up against a tatty, canoodling crook, gangster Shoots Magiz (Nat Pendleton) who is supporting her musical as producer, and weds him for his money although she cannot stand him. Luckily for her, handsome bodyguard Jimmie ‘Office Boy’ Burnham (Chester Morris) is determined to win her finally.

But, alas, Conway’s movie, based on Charles Francis Coe’s story Repeal, is a hugely disappointing MGM vehicle for the normally vivacious Lombard, who seems subdued to the point of hardly being here.

The Gay Bride isn’t gay at all. Instead it is a sour, misjudged film that leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. The mix of laughs and gangster movie is promising but the fun it promises is not there because Bella Spewack and Samuel Spewack’s screenplay runs out of invention and laughs very early on.

Also in the cast are Chester Morris, ZaSu Pitts, Leo Carrillo, Sam Hardy, Walter Walker, Joe Twerp, Frank Darlen, Herbert Evans, Bobby Watson, Norman Ainsley, Fred Toones, Willie Fung and Mary Carr.

The Gay Bride is directed by Jack Conway, runs 80 minutes, is made and released by MGM, is written by Bella Spewack and Samuel Spewack, is shot in black and white by Ray June, is produced by John Considine Jr, and is scored by Jack Virgil, with Art Direction by Cedric Gibbons.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6,758

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