The Well Groomed Bride
Cast & Crew
Sidney Lanfield
Olivia Dehavilland
Ray Milland
Sonny Tufts
James Gleason
Constance Dowling
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
In San Francisco, in the spring of 1945, United States Navy lieutenant Dudley Briggs is promised a promotion by ship's captain Hornby and a two-week leave if he can procure a magnum of French champagne before the launching of the U.S.S. Vengeance the next morning at dawn. In a liquor shop, Dudley loses the last magnum in the city to a beautiful young woman named Margie, who is about to be married to Army lieutenant Torchy McNeil, an Oregon football star, whom she has not seen in two years. Dudley accompanies the couple to their hotel, and after numerous unsuccessful attempts to steal the magnum, arranges a meeting between Torchy and Torchy' ex-girl friend, Rita Sloan. When Margie catches them together, she calls off the wedding and goes out with Dudley to teach Torchy a lesson. Torchy follows Margie and Dudley onto the Richmond Ferry and when Torchy insists a marriage must have only one quarterback, Margie gives him the magnum and again breaks up with him. On the ferry, Dudley admits to Margie that he is in love with her, but she suspects he only wants the champagne. Their date is interrupted when Hornby, who has arranged for Margie to christen the ship, has them arrested. Meanwhile, Margie's father arrives for her wedding and, finding Torchy in Margie's robe, has him brought to the Provost Marshal on a charge of insanity. Hornby has Torchy released in order to convince him to forfeit the magnum. After Hornby inadvertently mentions Dudley's girl friend in front of Margie, she is certain Dudley does not love her. Margie's father, however, believes Dudley loves Margie and suggests that she return the magnum to Dudley to see if he still wants her. Rita and Torchy at first refuse to give up the magnum, but when they see the ship about to be christened with a tiny bottle, they are so overcome with patriotism that they change their minds. Torchy makes a perfect pass with the magnum, and Margie christens the ship. Margie then receives a telegram from Dudley instructing her to meet him with the biggest bottle of champagne she can find so they can marry.
Director
Sidney Lanfield
Cast
Olivia Dehavilland
Ray Milland
Sonny Tufts
James Gleason
Constance Dowling
Percy Kilbride
Jean Heather
Jay Norris
Jack Reilly
George Turner
Tom Fadden
Don Beddoe
William Forrest
Tony Hughes
Nestor Paiva
Frank Faylen
Tom Dugan
William Edmunds
Roberta Jonay
Noel Neill
Luke Chan
Larry Thompson
Frank Orth
Eddie Laughton
Billy Lechner
Beverly Thompson
Jean Carlin
Donald Kirke
William Meader
William Halligan
Dick Rush
Tom Dillon
James Millican
Dale Van Sickel
Ted Mapes
Jack Shea
William Moss
Eddie Hall
William Haade
Roger Creed
Charles Mayon
Clark Eggleston
Stan Johnson
Walter Wilson
Minerva Urecal
Lyle Latell
Alice Keating
John Harmon
Crew
Claude Binyon
Hans Dreier
Farciot Edouart
Edith Head
Earl Hedrick
Gordon Jennings
Wallace Kelley
Fred Kohlmar
Paul Lerpae
Joel Moss
Wallace Nogle
Gerd Oswald
Otto Pierce
Oscar Rudolph
Robert Russell
Robert Russell
John F. Seitz
William Shea
Kenneth Swartz
Roy Webb
Wally Westmore
Philip G. Wisdom
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
This film's working title was Night Before. According to a Hollywood Reporter news item, Paramount originally planned to make a picture under the title The Well Groomed Bride in 1942, with Joseph Sistrom assigned as associate producer. Manny Seff and George Beck were said to be writing the screen story and Melvyn Frank and Norman Panama were to write the screen adaptation. It is unlikely that the work of any of the above writers were reflected in the 1945 picture of the same title. It was the last film producer Fred Kohlmar made for Paramount before moving to Twentieth Century-Fox. The film also marked the return to the screen, after a two and a half year absence, of Olivia De Havilland, who had successfully sued Warner Bros. for release from her contract (see Devotion above).
