Wedding Present (1936)

When Charlie Mason is promoted from irresponsible reporter to hard-nosed city editor, it costs him his girlfriend, ace reporter Rusty Fleming. After he hears she's engaged to another, he quits and tries to win her back.

Director:

Richard Wallace

Writers:

Joseph Anthony (screenplay), Paul Gallico (based on the story by)

Stars:

Joan Bennett, Cary Grant, George Bancroft

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Joan Bennett	...	Monica 'Rusty' Fleming
Cary Grant	...	Charlie Mason
George Bancroft	...	Pete Stagg
Conrad Nagel	...	Roger Dodacker
Gene Lockhart	...	Archduke Gustav Ernest
William Demarest	...	'Smiles' Benson
Inez Courtney	...	Mary Lawson
Edward Brophy	...	Squinty
Purnell Pratt	...	Howard Van Dorn
Douglas Wood	...	Willett
George Meeker	...	Gordon Blaker
Damon Ford	...	Mike Haley
Lois Wilson	...	Laura Dodacker
Mary Forbes	...	Mrs. Dodacker
George Offerman Jr.	...	Sammy Smith

Storyline

Charlie Mason and Rusty Fleming are star reporters on a Chicago tabloid who are romantically involved as well. Although skilled in ferreting out great stories, they often behave in an unprofessional and immature manner. After their shenanigans cause their frustrated city editor to resign, the publisher promotes Charlie to the job, a decision based on the premise that only a slacker would be able crack down on other shirkers and underachievers. His pomposity soon alienates most of his co-workers and causes Rusty to move to New York. Charlie resigns and along with gangster friend Smiles Benson tries to win Rusty back before she marries a stuffy society author.

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Plot Keywords:

prank | female reporter | royalty | newspaper | funny gangster | 

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Taglines:

Miss Big Brown Eyes would rather race to a fire than trip to the altar and Cary is the lad who tuned the fire-gongs to the Wedding March.

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 October 1936 (USA)

Also Known As:

Bonne blague

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

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Quotes

Marriage License Clerk: [Reviewing a marriage license] Do you solemly swear that the statements are?... Say! What's the matter with you? You've got the day of your birth down here August 4, 1934. That makes you two years old!
Charlie: That;s right. Next year I'll be eligible for the Kentucky Derby... and if you were marrying a girl like mine, you'd feel that young yourself.

User Reviews

'Almost Married'

Wedding Present was the second of two films Cary Grant co-starred with Joan Bennett and the last one of his original Paramount contract. He would not return to Paramount until 1955 when he did To Catch A Thief for Alfred Hitchcock.

Grant and Bennett play a couple of free spirits who happen to be reporters on a Chicago paper and while they get the stories, they are bad for discipline and the bane in the existence of their editor George Bancroft. In fact the couple almost get married as the film begins, but Grant's clowning around pushed the deadline past the official closing time and you know how officious some civil servants can be. They stay 'almost married' for most of the film.

But Grant gets promoted to city editor when a harried and harassed Bancroft quits and he turns into a hardnose. So much so that he fires Bennett when she tries to break up the city room. That leaves Grant disillusioned and he quits and follows Bennett to New York where she has now taken up with and is about to be married to stuffy Conrad Nagel, a fate worse than death in Cary's eyes.

Some have compared this film to His Girl Friday. But there is a vast difference, the humor in that classic derives from the fact that Grant in that film is all business and will do anything to keep Rosalind Russell on the job and on the story. In this one the good time is the virtue prized above all others.

Paramount gave Grant and Bennett a great supporting cast in this topped by William Demarest, a New York gangster who Grant saves from drowning in Lake Michigan. Demarest is looking to pay him back and in the end really does come through for him.

Screwball comedy fans will love the ending as an inebriated Grant and Demarest decide to give Bennett a Wedding Present. What they do is for the viewer to see, but I promise they pull all the stops out.

This was a good picture to leave Paramount with and enter into superstardom with the next set of roles Grant would have as a free lance artist.