Neglected film: THEY ALL KISSED THE BRIDE (1942)

Not every woman will surrender

This wartime comedy was produced by Columbia Pictures in mid-1942. Lead actress Joan Crawford was a replacement for Carole Lombard who died in January while the script was being readied for production. Lombard had been freelancing, though she had made several hit comedies for Columbia in the 1930s.

Her most recent picture, TO BE OR NOT TO BE, was a success at United Artists; and this was to be her follow-up. Lombard was also being lined up for a comedy at her old stomping grounds, Paramount, which would have teamed her with former costar John Barrymore. But Barrymore also died, so that story was sold to Republic Pictures and became THE CHEATERS (1945) with Ona Munson taking Lombard’s part.

THEY ALL KISSED THE BRIDE had initially been titled HE KISSED THE BRIDE. Columbia borrowed Crawford from her home studio MGM. This was the first time in ten years that Crawford’s services had been loaned out— the last time had been RAIN (1932) for UA, which was a flop. In the intervening period, Crawford had made 19 features at Metro…some of them huge successes like THE WOMEN and others dismal failures like THE GORGEOUS HUSSY and THE ICE FOLLIES OF 1939. But she was still an important star, and she could handle the paces of a romcom, despite being assigned to the role on such short notice.

Crawford would only make two more films at MGM after this, before she left and moved over to Warner Brothers. This project probably gave her a nice break from the politics back at MGM. She donated her salary to the Red Cross in Lombard’s memory; and with her casting approval, Melvyn Douglas was chosen as her costar. Douglas’ contract was split between Columbia and MGM, and he had previously collaborated with Crawford on two earlier pictures, THE SHINING HOUR (1938) and A WOMAN’S FACE (1941), both melodramas. 

In this particular story, Crawford is portraying a shrewd lady executive who runs a trucking company. For every success she enjoys in the business world, she seems to experience setbacks in love. The idea for the screenplay is that a woman cannot really be happy unless she gives up a career outside the home and settles down. Of course, today, most consider that a lot of nonsense. 

Incidentally, feminist film scholar Molly Haskell presented a double feature on TCM about ten years ago that included this picture. The other title was FEMALE (1933) starring Ruth Chatterton, a Warner Brothers precode with a similar theme. At the end of both movies, the lady exec gives up her lucrative business career and is inexplicably content to become a stay-at-home wife.

In real life, Joan Crawford would continue to star in movies and on television for many years. In 1955 she married PepsiCo executive Alfred Steele. When Al Steele died in 1959, he bequeathed his stock in Pepsi to his widow; and until the early 1970s, Crawford served on the company’s board of directors. She was a woman who could have it all.