The Bride Wore Boots ** (1946, Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Cummings, Diana Lynn, Patric Knowles, Peggy Wood, Robert Benchley) – Classic Movie Review 6767

Director Irving Pichel’s 1946 comedy stars Barbara Stanwyck as Southern heiress Sally Warren, a horsey woman married to Jeff (Robert Cummings), a writer who hates horses, so their marriage goes very bumpy.

Sally runs a horse farm but Jeff is a Civil War historian and lecturer, which bores her. However, Jeff buys her a horse called Albert as a Christmas gift. And this particular pony loves Jeff so, when Albert’s jockey is thrown, he jumps on the saddle to try to win the race.

The comedy plot is as thin and saddle-worn as it sounds, so it is left to the stars to fill in the gaps between the laughs, which they do as reliably as ever.

However, Stanwyck really did deserve better and more substantial than this soppy stuff, though Cummings seems more at ease and in his element.

Also in the cast are Diana Lynn as Mary Lou Medford, Patric Knowles as Lance Gale, Peggy Wood, Robert Benchley as Uncle Todd Warren, Willie Best, Natalie Wood as Carol Warren, Gregory Marshall [aka Gregory Muradian] as Johnnie Warren, Mary Young, Frank Orth, Charles D Brown, Richard Gaines, James Millican, Minerva Urecal and Milton Kibbee.

The Bride Wore Boots is directed by Irving Pichel, runs 86 minutes, is released by Paramount, is written by Dwight Mitchell Wiley, is shot in black and white by Stuart Thompson, is produced by Seton I Miller, is scored by Frederick Hollander and designed by Hans Dreier and John Meehan.

Surprisingly, it proved Stanwyck’s last comedy film, oddly so because she was so good at it and the movies were so popular. Later she said: ‘I’ve always got my eye out for a good comedy. Remember Ball of Fire and The Lady Eve? But they don’t seem to write that kind of comedy any more – just a series of gags.’

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6767

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