Mi plata por un marido

This Norman Krasna story -- with one of his typical fairytale-like plots -- was filmed in '34 as "The Richest Girl in the World" with Miriam Hopkins and Joel McCrea. And this one works as well as the first one did because Laraine Day is just as perfect for this role as Miriam Hopkins was. Hopkins played the role a bit dowdier -- or maybe it's just that Laraine Day can't help shining like an incandescent bulb on camera!

Poor little rich girl Norah Hunter can't find a man who will love her just for herself, as opposed to her vast wealth. Used to allowing her personal assistant to pose as herself in public she decides to try out this "prince and the pauper" style switch in her private life as well and see if the man she's falling for can love her for herself alone.

In both films it's a tightwalk characters and audience tread as the "he loves me--he loves me not" twists and turns wrench us gently this way and that like an old fashioned roller coaster. The supporting cast in this later film have more fleshed out roles -- and comic bits -- than the original and play them with verve.

The plot was made contemporary for the WWII era by making the love interest a pilot and surrounding the radiant Day with handsome enlisted men who have both manners and dispositions which practically no one in our culture seems to carry anymore.

Krasna was always trying out variations on the "no one knows I'm really rich or a princess or a star or whatever -- and will they love me just the same??" theme. But there's something perfectly simple and charming about this particular variation. So much so that two delightful romantic comedies were made of it. And why not -- it's great fun!

There certainly weren't any surprises in this fun movie, and you could practically predict the plot all the way through. Then bring in the absolutely gorgeous Laraine Day and the movie really has some energy in it. I love old movies and hadn't watched much of her, but I can see why she was so popular in her days. I have to say that I think Marsha Hunt is great too.

After Norman Krasna's Oscar-winning script for Princess O'Rourke turned into a box-office hit for Warners in 1943, RKO rehashed his similar rich-girl-masquerading-as-poor-girl story "Richest Girl in the World" for this film in 1944. The result is mixed, but Day is so lovely, supporting cast is lively, that it makes for a pleasant hour and a half. Day plays an heiress who's boyfriend dumps her because she's too rich (yeah, right.) Day switches places with her secretary, hoping to find true love that way, and complications ensue. Marsha Hunt and Allen Joslyn are particularly appealing as Day's Secretary and her new husband, forced to carry the charade to the point of breaking. A nice 40's wartime romantic comedy, not too taxing on the mind.

The Richest Girl In The World is given a remake and a slight update to reflect wartime conditions. Tycoon Laraine Day with her trusty Noah Dietrich type Edgar Buchanan is busy dedicating a new Liberty ship from one of her yards. But it ain't Laraine Day. It's Marsha Hunt pretending to be Laraine Day. One wonders why Howard Hughes never thought of this. Having someone double as him for all public appearances. Not that he couldn't have afforded it, even affording the plastic surgery if that was necessary.

Day has Barbara Hutton like worries. Can I ever know if I'm loved for me or my megabucks? Marsha Hunt might not be available any more for the deception as she wants to get married to Allyn Joslyn..

A flier played by Alan Marshal might be the answer.; She met him at a USO hall under an alias. I think you can figure the rest out.

Bride By Mistake is a good comedy product from the MGM B picture unit where the films come out like they had bigger budgets and bigger stars than they do. The film is impeccably cast and good performances all around.

To only have the problems of a Howard Hughes.

Laraine Day is so rich that her fiance walks out on her; he can't stand living in a goldfish bowl. When she falls for pilot Alan Marshall (who gives a performance suggesting that Errol Flynn was intended for the role), she switches roles with Marsha Hunt, who is her public-appearance double.

It's a wartime remake of THE RICHEST GIRL IN THE WORLD, and pretty good. The supporting cast all hit their marks, including Allyn Joslyn as Miss Hunt's husband, Edgar Buchanan as Miss Day's mother-henning advisor, and Slim Summerville as Miss Day's perpetually bemused factotum. Under the direction of Richard Wallace, the situations strain the bounds of credibility without ever quite breaking them, and a couple of the gag sequences, like when Miss Day sets off the watering system to drench Marshall and Miss Hunt, are quite funny.

Marsha Hunt never quite achieved stardom. Between a turn on the Blacklist, and, in her own words, "I never learned how to sell Marsha Hunt," she has had a long, if not stellar career. Still, she's still alive at 103 as I write this, one of the few survivors of wartime Hollywood.