Too much of everything

Better Late Then Never

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Jessie Matthews has a couple of nice songs to sing and she dances briefly, but There Goes The Bride can hardly be considered one of her better films.Jessie is cast as a young bride who runs away on the eve of her wedding, a wedding that she's being hammerlocked into by her father because she's marrying some guy her dad does business with. More of a merger than a marriage. She runs off to the continent, but has her bag and money stolen and worse is accused of being a thief herself. Her accuser is Owen Nares and with that old Matthews charm worms her way into his house. That part gets rather silly and unreal. Topping it all off everybody thinks she's Nares intended and Carol Goodner who is the intended isn't at all pleased with that.It all gets sillier and sillier. I wish they had given Jessie Matthews a few more songs and dances, that might have made the film better. David Niven is supposed to be in this film, more than likely in the party scene. Tried to spot him and thought I might have.There Goes The Bride isn't a horrible film, but Jessie Matthews had much better to come.

This British film begins with a father practically selling his daughter to a man in order to make a big business deal take place. Not too surprisingly, the bride soon runs away—after all, there appears to be no romance whatsoever—just a sleazy business deal.Shortly after this interesting start, the film falls apart for me. That's because the runaway bride is now on a train and it sure looks as if she's trying to rob a man. So what does the man do when he awakens? Does he call the police? Well, considering she refuses to account for what she was doing or who she was, his actual course of action in the film makes absolutely no sense—none. Instead of turning her in, he takes her with him and gives her 24 hours to tell him who she is! When she does tell him the truth, she inexplicably gets him to agree not only NOT to turn her in but hide her for 24 hours—at which point, he new husband will be on his way to South America. Who thought this was a viable plot for a movie?! Certainly not any sane person and the film completely lost me at this point. A radical rewrite was needed, as the plot simply made no sense at all and the film was a waste of time.

Jessie Matthews made one wonderful film (Evergreen) and several lightweight, moderately amusing ones. But this is an utter atrocity. She is given very little opportunity to dance (she was a nice enough singer, but an exquisite dancer), and no dancing partner.The leading man, Owen Nares, looks and acts like a stuffed shirt, and the plot is not just lightweight but so ridiculous that one becomes irritated by its contempt for the audience. Jessie plays a bride who runs away on the day of her wedding because she never wanted to marry the groom (a wedding would help her father financially). She has to dodge people who are looking for her and will forcibly make her return and go through with the wedding. What kind of sense does this make? A forced marriage is invalid, and forcibly taking someone from where they are is kidnaping. And why would the groom want to marry a woman who doesn't want him? Owen Nares at first mistake her for a thief and threatens to call the police, then decides to keep her with him, in his home (he has no sexual designs on her, and is insulted when she suggests he might). This makes as little sense as the rest.Despite what the other commenters say, there are no funny lines. The script is as dull as it is inane. The whole thing seems to come from the world of very primitive musical comedy in which people would act in a silly or naughty way, even if it made no sense, and men would get excited by seeing girls show their legs.

"There goes the Bride" is essentially and simply a farce (albeit one set -- for no very clear reason -- in France). As such, the plot makes about as much sense as in any other of the many films in which the heroine proves herself irresistible by making the leading man's life a complete misery; and it contrives to be considerably less irritating than most of them.As the pert and wilful Annette, Jessie Matthews is all big eyes and eloquent reaction; it is interesting to note that she has already established the character without any real dialogue to speak of until after the first few scenes. In fact, for an early sound film this shows a notable willingness to tell its story through visuals in addition to the laughs obtained by an often genuinely funny script; there were moments when the audience were literally shouting with laughter.It has to be said that Miss Matthews, in her first leading screen role, sometimes overacts. If she were not already in possession of top billing one might assume that she is doing her best here to steal the show! However, it is hard to say where the actress's cinematic inexperience begins and the impudent Annette's 'putting on an act' ends; certainly her charm is more than enough to excuse any exaggeration. Conversely, Owen Nares has been criticised for lack of charisma, although I couldn't see it -- I did notice one or two flat line readings on his part that sounded as if they should have gone for a retake.All in all I found this surprisingly good entertainment: undemanding fluff in a polished production that manages to be witty without being annoying, ridiculous without stupidity, and sneaks in a good deal of conscious naughtiness into the bargain. I'm frankly amazed that this apparently rated a 'U' rather than an 'A' ('Adult') certificate on release, as I'd have thought parts of it were quite risqué!