Bette Davis (Linda Gilman), Robert Montgomery (Carey Jackson), Fay Bainter (Paul Winthrop), Betty Lynn (Boo Brinker), Tom Tully (Brinker), Barbara Bates (Jeanne Brinker), Jerome Cowan (Carleton Towne), Mary Wickes (Rosemary McNally), James Burke (Luke Potter), Raymond Roe (Bud Mitchell), Marjorie Bennett (Mrs Brinker), Ray Montgomery (Jim Mitchell), George O'Hanlon (Scott Davis), Sandra Gould (Miss Rubens), Esther Howard (Mrs Mitchell), Jessie Adams (Mrs Lace), John Vosper (Stafford), Jack Mower (Varga), Lottie Williams (Woody), Mary Stuart (plane hostess), Ann Kimbell, Barbara Wittlinger (girls on sleigh ride), Raymond Bond (minister), Patricia Northrop, Alice Kelley, Debbie Reynolds (Boo's girlfriends).
Directed by BRETAIGNE WINDUST. Screenplay by Ranald MacDougall. Based on the play Feature for June by Eileen Tighe and Graeme Lorimer. Photographed by Ted McCord. Musical score and direction by David Buttolph. Miss Davis' wardrobe by Edith Head. Art direction by Anton Grot. Edited by Owen Marks. Set decorator: William Wallace. Make-up: Perc Westmore assisted by Eddie Voight. Special effects directed by William McGann, photographed by Hans F. Koenekamp. Curlicue decorations: Harry Platt. Assistant director: Sherry Shourds. Sound recording: Robert B. Lee. Producer: Henry Blanke. Copyright 13 November 1948 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Strand: 29 October 1948. U.S. release: 13 November 1948. U.K. release: 20 June 1949. Australian release: 2 February 1950 (sic). 8,747 feet. 97 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Much to her chagrin, Linda Gilman (Bette Davis), editor of a slick women's magazine, learns from her publisher, Carleton Towne (Jerome Cowan), that Carey Jackson (Robert Montgomery), a wandering war correspondent who once wanted to marry her, has been hired as her assistant. Aware that Carey's anti-feminist ego will make him resign his new job, Linda assigns him to a story she knows he will dislike: accompanying her and a crew to the Brinker home in Indiana where she intends doing a layout for the June issue about a wedding in a typically middle-class home.
NOTES: "Feature for June" was never produced on Broadway.
COMMENT: For all their hot-shot image, showmen tend to be a pretty conservative bunch. Here's Bette Davis making her first comedy for seven years. So what do the showmen/exhibitors do? They run scared. Super-enthusiastic reviews, but how will Mr and Mrs Blow take to Bette in a comic cut-up? Better play safe. Don't risk June Bride on Saturday night.
Maybe the exhibitors were right. Maybe "June Bride" is too clever for the masses. True, the plot is developed in a heavily telegraphed, predictable way, but it's an ingenious premise all the same. And while the acid satire of its opening sequences are not matched in the rest of the movie, the players do keep it interesting right up to the final curtain. All the players (most pointedly Tom Tully) are worth watching, and it's good to see Mary Wickes making the most of the double entendres.
Anton Grot's masterly art direction deserved at least an Oscar nomination — but didn't get one.
OTHER VIEWS: This ingratiating comedy is an obvious variant on The Man Who Came to Dinner. Thanks to a witty script, skillful direction, fine production values and above all a wonderfully agreeable assembly of seasoned players, there's plenty of life in the old farce yet. — G.A.
Bette Davis hated working with Bob Montgomery on "June Bride". She complained that he hogged the camera and crabbed her close-ups. There is certainly no evidence of this in the finished film. If anything, Bette seems to have the best of the lighting and the most of the close-shots. Not that this matters much anyway, as both principals are miscast. Especially Bette. With an unbecoming hair style, dowdy clothes and far too emphatic make-up, she looks a sight; whilst her impassioned acting is far more suited to heavy melodrama than light comedy. At times she seems to be declaiming from some long-outmoded textbook on the Rights of Women.
Surly, boorish Montgomery is only slightly less unattractive. At least his appearance looks more normal and the fact that he seems out of place is at least explained in the script. But his egotistical air, combined with his patent lack of charm, will hardly endear an audience, or warm any viewers to get sympathetically involved in his affairs.
Some of the support players are not over-engaging either. In particular, Betty Lynn.
Although director Windust does his best to keep things moving, what emerges is little more than a photographed stage play. And for all the technical expertise, the comedy for the most part seems forced and artificial. — JHR writing as Tom Howard.
Directed by BRETAIGNE WINDUST. Screenplay by Ranald MacDougall. Based on the play Feature for June by Eileen Tighe and Graeme Lorimer. Photographed by Ted McCord. Musical score and direction by David Buttolph. Miss Davis' wardrobe by Edith Head. Art direction by Anton Grot. Edited by Owen Marks. Set decorator: William Wallace. Make-up: Perc Westmore assisted by Eddie Voight. Special effects directed by William McGann, photographed by Hans F. Koenekamp. Curlicue decorations: Harry Platt. Assistant director: Sherry Shourds. Sound recording: Robert B. Lee. Producer: Henry Blanke. Copyright 13 November 1948 by Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Strand: 29 October 1948. U.S. release: 13 November 1948. U.K. release: 20 June 1949. Australian release: 2 February 1950 (sic). 8,747 feet. 97 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Much to her chagrin, Linda Gilman (Bette Davis), editor of a slick women's magazine, learns from her publisher, Carleton Towne (Jerome Cowan), that Carey Jackson (Robert Montgomery), a wandering war correspondent who once wanted to marry her, has been hired as her assistant. Aware that Carey's anti-feminist ego will make him resign his new job, Linda assigns him to a story she knows he will dislike: accompanying her and a crew to the Brinker home in Indiana where she intends doing a layout for the June issue about a wedding in a typically middle-class home.
NOTES: "Feature for June" was never produced on Broadway.
COMMENT: For all their hot-shot image, showmen tend to be a pretty conservative bunch. Here's Bette Davis making her first comedy for seven years. So what do the showmen/exhibitors do? They run scared. Super-enthusiastic reviews, but how will Mr and Mrs Blow take to Bette in a comic cut-up? Better play safe. Don't risk June Bride on Saturday night.
Maybe the exhibitors were right. Maybe "June Bride" is too clever for the masses. True, the plot is developed in a heavily telegraphed, predictable way, but it's an ingenious premise all the same. And while the acid satire of its opening sequences are not matched in the rest of the movie, the players do keep it interesting right up to the final curtain. All the players (most pointedly Tom Tully) are worth watching, and it's good to see Mary Wickes making the most of the double entendres.
Anton Grot's masterly art direction deserved at least an Oscar nomination — but didn't get one.
OTHER VIEWS: This ingratiating comedy is an obvious variant on The Man Who Came to Dinner. Thanks to a witty script, skillful direction, fine production values and above all a wonderfully agreeable assembly of seasoned players, there's plenty of life in the old farce yet. — G.A.
Bette Davis hated working with Bob Montgomery on "June Bride". She complained that he hogged the camera and crabbed her close-ups. There is certainly no evidence of this in the finished film. If anything, Bette seems to have the best of the lighting and the most of the close-shots. Not that this matters much anyway, as both principals are miscast. Especially Bette. With an unbecoming hair style, dowdy clothes and far too emphatic make-up, she looks a sight; whilst her impassioned acting is far more suited to heavy melodrama than light comedy. At times she seems to be declaiming from some long-outmoded textbook on the Rights of Women.
Surly, boorish Montgomery is only slightly less unattractive. At least his appearance looks more normal and the fact that he seems out of place is at least explained in the script. But his egotistical air, combined with his patent lack of charm, will hardly endear an audience, or warm any viewers to get sympathetically involved in his affairs.
Some of the support players are not over-engaging either. In particular, Betty Lynn.
Although director Windust does his best to keep things moving, what emerges is little more than a photographed stage play. And for all the technical expertise, the comedy for the most part seems forced and artificial. — JHR writing as Tom Howard.