THE BRIDE COMES HOME (1935)

After her 1934 annus mirabilis (IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT; CLEOPATRA; IMITATION OF LIFE), Claudette Colbert hit the top-ten list in 1935 & ‘36, more often than not in reliable (rather than inspired) romantic comedies like this, playing the default character home studio Paramount had developed for her: wealthy society type suddenly gone cash poor.  In those Depression days, it served as a have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too persona, giving Colbert by design or accident a perfect excuse to look richly chic yet still relatable to the masses.  It could even, on occasion, rise to greatness (see Preston Sturges’s THE PALM BEACH STORY/’42).  Here, it’s pleasantly serviceable.  Waking up to a cut staff in the family manse, Claudette goes job hunting.  Clueless and skill-less about the workforce, her ace in the hole is longtime beau Robert Young.  He’s starting up a Men’s Magazine with a 3.5 mill. inheritance and current bodyguard/former journalist Fred MacMurray as editor.  (Baby boomers note: this ain’t your MY THREE SONS MacMurray, but a nearly unrecognizable stud.  Young also very fit & toned.  Colbert, of course, famously looked nearly the same - wonderful - over six decades on stage & screen.)  The gimmick, as if you hadn’t already guessed, is that Young has been proposing to Colbert since they were eight, but as soon as the bickering starts between MacMurray & Colbert, she only has eyes for Fred.  (And you thought Paramount would let M-G-M loan-out leading-man Young prevail over two long term contract stars?  Journeyman director Wesley Ruggles runs a smooth show, but more distinctive contributions come via cinematographer Leo Tover's dark glowing interiors and from costume designer Travis Banton.*

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK:   To see Paramount go off auto-pilot on this kind of romantic trio: Ernest Lubitsch & Ben Hecht’s reworking of Noël Coward’s DESIGN FOR LIVING/’33 with Gary Cooper, Fredric March & Miriam Hopkins.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2010/01/design-for-living-1933.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *While Columbia was too cheap to splurge on Banton for Capra’s IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, Colbert did make it happen at Universal in John Stahl’s IMITATION OF LIFE.