Tutti baciarono la sposa

Though They All Kissed The Bride dated a bit with the outbreak of World War II, it still holds up well today. Joan Crawford did a very fine job stepping in for Carole Lombard as the trucking company CEO who gets brought down romantically by the charming Melvyn Douglas.

It's easy to see why Harry Cohn wanted Douglas in the part, the film is a domestic version of Ninotchka. Douglas is a crusading reporter writing an article about the abuses in a trucking company where they seem not to have heard of the Wagner Act. Joan Crawford is the daughter of the firm's founder who steps in to run the place after dad's demise.

Don't let her sex fool you, she's all business until she meets up with Melvyn Douglas. In fairness to her, Crawford is stepping up to the plate with an apparently scatterbrained Billie Burke for a mother and a princess débutante in Helen Parrish as a sister not capable of doing much of anything.

In an eerie parallel in real life, after her fourth husband Alfred Steele from Pepsi Cola died, Crawford went into the business world with a vengeance and her years in Hollywood turned out to be a training ground for that new field of endeavor.

Best moment is Crawford and Allen Jenkins winning a jitterbug contest when she goes to the company banquet incognito.

Though I can see this film would have suited Carole Lombard better, Joan Crawford does just fine in this bright comedy.