Wedding Present (1936)

Set in Chicago, two newspaper reporters (Cary Grant, Joan Bennett) are engaged to be married. But the bride to be is frustrated that the groom is a jokester and doesn't take anything seriously so she calls the marriage off. Based on a story by Paul Gallico (THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE) and directed by Richard Wallace (SINBAD THE SAILOR). This screwball romantic comedy seems promising and it starts off that way before going flat around the halfway mark. Cary Grant finally found his iconic persona and he's raring to go but he needs the right vehicle and this isn't it. It would come the next year with TOPPER and THE AWFUL TRUTH. With its newspaper background, this one seems like a weak dry run for HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940). Joan Bennett is up for it too but try as she might, there's no way she can surmount the anemic script and the clunky direction. The film's finale is pretty offensive unless you consider calling for fire engines and ambulances when there isn't any fire or accident funny! This isn't a pre-code film so I'm surprised that a gag about Grant going commando got past the censors. With George Bancroft, William Demarest, Conrad Nagel, Inez Courtney, Lois Wilson and Gene Lockhart.