Die Braut des Monats

The funny thing is, Bette Davis made other films with just about all of them - Fay Bainter, Mary Wickes, and Betty Lynn (she was Thelma Lou on the Andy Griffith Show). George O'Hanlon as the magazine cameraman was Joe McDoakes in a series of Warner Brothers shorts.

But this is the first and only pairing of Robert Montgomery and Bette Davis. Montgomery, as Carey Jackson, dumped Bette Davis, as Linda Gilman, without even telling her, when three years before when he started thinking they were getting too serious. So he's been writing in Europe, but then his magazine's office closed and he's back in New York. He ends up on the staff of Home Life, edited by Linda.

Linda is over Carey, but she insists he realize she is the boss or she will fire him. She is afraid he will look for "angles" in every straightforward assignment she gives him. She is not wrong. This is a great and nuanced performance by Davis, and she actually does well as the 30 something independent sophisticate, making it in what was very much a man's world at the time. Carey, by his maneuvers, is not over Linda physically, but that seems to be as far as it goes for him, and he gets very annoying with his antics. As much as I like Montgomery, it seems like that would be difficult to do, but he manages to pull off making me dislike his character because he is so smarmy.

The bulk of the film is set in Indiana as Linda's staff are there to do a feature article about a wedding. It's basically a "bunch of fish out of water" story with the New York sophisticate magazine staff trying to make the homespun Brinker house fit for a layout in their magazine with the sexual tension between Linda and Carey playing out along with the fact that all is not right with the romance between the bride and groom to be.

The supporting cast is fine and the dialogue sparkles with wit, but it really cries out for the zaniness of Loy and Powell in the lead and a director like Leo McCarey to get it to where it is a first class screwball comedy. Instead we have Bretaigne Windust in the director chair, who mainly directed television and to date doesn't even have a bio section on this website. And that is unusual among directors.

If it ever comes your way I'd give it a chance, just because it is a somewhat unjustly forgotten item in Bette Davis' filmography.

As a Hoosier who has lived most of my life in New York, who enjoys both Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery, and was in the mood for a romantic comedy (my local theater had sold out on the Bullock-Grant comedy this evening), I thought this was good. There are a number of funny scenes (including the mistaken understanding regarding the "bust").

I do grow a little tired sometimes of the absurdity of everyone marrying within a few hours on seeing someone they like - very much a 1930s-1940s movie fiction (and never reality) - yet I kind of hoped it would happen here.

In reference to the comment below about Robert Montgomery taking a 15 year old over his lap - she's actually supposed to be 18! And I therefore thought he had mixed feelings in doing it!

The dialogue here is often very extraordinary - the writer goes on flights of fancy that will make you want to rewind! This is also not a movie whose ending will please the feminists - but that's life.

All in all, a good movie with a good plot, fine performances, and enough quite funny scenes to make it enjoyable.

That's the way film critics would characterize "June Bride", but that doesn't give due diligence to a movie that's first class in several respects. The outstanding cast is what puts this picture over, and the pairing of Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery was inspired. Always thought Montgomery was one of our best actors, capable of drama, war movies or comedy and does not disappoint here. I liked him ever since "Private Lives" (1931) opposite Norma Shearer. Sophisticated and urbane, like William Powell.

Bette Davis is a curious choice for the female lead as comedy was not her strong point, but she is good here and works well off Montgomery. Contrary to some reviewers above I thought the chemistry between the two was good. It also has an excellent supporting cast headed by Fay Bainter and Tom Tully. I thought the script was delicious and kept waiting for the next sharp riposte between the two principals, but the ending is unworkable in 2016 due to its chauvinistic tone. It worked in 1948, but how long ago those days seem now.

A rare Betty Davis film that's funny. She works well playing off of Robert Montgomery. Biting, witty, satirical dialogue is very funny between the two. I would never imagine these two actors together, but in this film, it works! Could have been a cloying, icky sweet film but isn't. Wonderful supporting players (Mary Wickes, Sandra Gould, Jerome Cowan, Fay Bainter). Wish someone would write films like this again, films for smart people. Alas, we are left with monosyllabic grunts most of the time. For a break, rent this film!

This is a delightful film, one of my favorites. There is a brief scene that is not to be missed, between Bette Davis (as Linda), Mary Wickes (as Rosemary) and Tom Tully (as Mr. Brinker), in which Linda and Rosemary are discussing "Mrs. Brinker's bust" as Mr. Brinker looks on. The audience knows what they're talking about, but poor Mr. Brinker does not, and his expressions and reaction are hysterically funny. The whole film is definitely worth seeing. Robert Montgomery drunk on cider is also not to be missed.