Rating summary
| Movie |  | 2.5 |
| Video |  | 3.0 |
| Audio |  | 3.5 |
| Extras |  | 2.0 |
| Overall | | 2.5 |
The Bride Comes Home Blu-ray Movie Review
Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov October 19, 2021
Wesley Ruggles' "The Bride Comes Home" (1935) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include exclusive new audio commentary by author and film critic Lee Gambin as well as vintage trailer for the film. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
It is impossible to take
The Bride Comes Home seriously because it vehemently refuses logic. There is a short sequence in it where the father of the bride even openly warns that using logic is bound to wreck her life. Really? People that are madly in love sometimes do silly things, we know this, but they do not permanently expunge logic from their lives. To speculate that logic is one of the great poison pills that wrecks lives is just an utterly odd notion to promote even in a screwball comedy.
Claudette Colbert’s character, Jeannette Desmereau, has spent virtually her entire life living in luxury and suddenly realized that because her elderly father (William Collier Sr.) is penniless she may have to get a job to help put food on the table. She is willing to sacrifice herself, but her childhood friend, Jack Bristow (Robert Young), has just offered a permanent solution to her family’s financial problems. If Jeannette marries Jack, who is about to inherit a small fortune, she will be set for life. The offer is great, but Jeannette does not love Jack. She can like him for being the great friend he has always been, but loving him? She can’t cheat her heart, and right now her heart is insisting that Jack isn’t right for her.
Shortly after Jack officially becomes a millionaire, Jeannette is hired as an assistant editor by his former bodyguard, Cyrus Anderson (Fred MacMurray), who has become the senior editor of a brand new magazine for men that no one cares about. The magazine is a gift from Jack to Cyrus for all the troubles the former created for the latter in years past while having a good time in the city. Jack will pay all of the magazine’s business expenses, while Cyrus will be free to shape up his image and hopefully make it profitable.
Jeannette and Cyrus’ relationship gets off to a rocky start, but then they warm up to each other, fall madly in love, and eventually decide to start a family. At first stunned by the unexpected development, then annoyed by it and shortly after feeling inspired by it to finally do what it takes to convince Jeannette to become his wife, Jack vows to expose the true nature of his former bodyguard and explain why he can’t be ‘the one’ for her. His plan works as intended and Jeannette agrees to marry him instead, but on the night when they are supposed to make their union official a series of strange developments force the bride to begin reevaluating her latest ‘final decision’ yet again.
There is nothing in Wesley Ruggles’ film
The Bride Comes Home that has not been done better by other screwball comedies from the prewar years. Indeed, its lack of imagination is so striking that once its characters are established you will need ten, possibly fifteen minutes to realize that all it has to offer is simply a series of cliched situations.
What makes the film truly disappointing, however, is the notable struggle of its stars to sell their characters as authentic human beings. Indeed, at times what takes place before Ruggles’ camera is just plain bad acting. MacMurray, in particular, completely mishandles the emotions of the feisty bodyguard and as a result quickly evolves into one of the most annoying bachelors you would ever see in a screwball comedy. What sane woman would want to marry such an imbecile? And yet, somehow, he finds a way to melt Colbert’s heart and together they discover true love.
Right. Of course, inability to determine how to properly judge the two men have the potential to permanently redirect her life is just as insulting.
The Bride Comes Home was lensed by Leo Tover, whose resume includes such vastly superior films like
The Heiress,
Hold Back the Dawn, and
The Snake Pit.
The Bride Comes Home Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.36:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Bride Comes Home arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.
The release is sourced from a pretty rough master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. I don't know when it was prepared, but the surface of the visuals has some very particular patterns that were quite common on masters that were prepared on old telecine equipment. To be perfectly clear, I am not speculating that this is how the master was prepared, what I am pointing out is that it does not have the type of proper grain structure that is usually present on newer masters. There are other anomalies as well. For example, a lot of the visuals can have a slightly blurry/watery appearance -- which by the way is directly related to the patterns I mentioned above -- so on a larger screen delineation and depth can be quite underwhelming. The good news is that there are no traces of problematic digital corrections, like digital sharpening or contrast boosting. However, in darker areas there is still quite a bit of black crush, so most fine nuances are lost. Image stability is good, but there are some shaky transitions. There are various blemishes, black spots, and scratches that are often easy to spot. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).
The Bride Comes Home Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.
I did not have trouble following the dialog. However, from time to time there is noticeable 'thinning' and even some minor background distortion that can affect clarity. Dynamic balance is decent, but this is another area where meaningful improvements can be made. Occasionally, in the upper register you will notice light hiss, but I did not find it distracting.
The Bride Comes Home Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
- Trailer - vintage broadcast trailer for The Bride Comes Home. In English, not subtitled. (2 min).
- Commentary - this new audio commentary was recorded by author and critic Lee Gambin exclusively for Kino Lorber's release of The Bride Comes Home.
The Bride Comes Home Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
We all know that when two people fall madly in love sometimes they do silly things -- this is one reason why being in love is such a special experience. But they don't permanently expunge logic from their lives. The Brides Comes Home seems willing to seriously argue the opposite, and to prove its case tells such an utterly unbelievable romantic story that I barely finished it. I am sorry, but I just don't believe that a sane woman can have her heart melted by an imbecile like the one Fred MacMurray plays. Kino Lorber's release of The Bride Comes Home is sourced from a pretty rough master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. If you are a fan of any of the stars that made the film and absolutely have to have the release in your library, consider picking it up only when it is heavily discounted.
