I WAS A MALE WAR BRIDE (DVD/CARY GRANT) DVD

I Was a Male War Bride
Howard Hawks directed this classic farce about how love attempts to triumph over military red tape after the close of World War II. Capt. Henri Rochard (Cary Grant) is a French officer who is assigned to put a stop to a black market operation in occupied Germany with the help of Lt. Catherine Gates (Ann Sheridan), an American WAC. While their initial meetings are hardly harmonious, in time Rochard and Gates find that opposites really do attract, and they fall in love. The two decide to get married, which seems simple enough, but the moment Gates receives orders to return to the United States and Rochard wants to join her, they soon discover just how complicated the U.S. Army can make things. While the Army has a strict protocol for dealing with "war brides," there is no similar routine for men who marry female Army personnel, so in order to follow his new wife into the States, Rochard has to disguise himself as a WAC. From this moment on, nearly everything that happens to Rochard is an affront to his dignity and/or his patience, from his inability to share a bunk with his new bride to his discovery that Army regulations prevent him from driving a motorcycle (Gates has to take the handlebars, while her husband is forced to ride in a sidecar). As more than one writer has pointed out, while Grant gives a deft comic performance, it's a bit of a stretch to imagine that he's French (but probably no more than to imagine that anyone would really believe that he's a woman). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Cast Cary Grant as Capt. Henri Rochard Ann Sheridan as Lt. Catherine Gates Randy Stuart as Mae William Neff as Capt. Jack Rumsey Eugene Gericke as Tony Jewitt Kenneth Tobey as Seaman Ruben Wendorf as Innkeeper's Assistant Lester Sharpe as Waiter John Whitney as Trumble Robert Stevenson as Lieutenant Alfred Linder as Bartender David McMahon as Chaplain Joe Haworth as Shore Patrol

Crew Lyle Wheeler - Art Director Albert Hogsett - Art Director Howard Hawks - Director James B. Clark - Editor Cyril Mockridge - Composer (Music Score) Lionel Newman - Musical Direction/Supervision Ben Nye, Sr. - Makeup Osmond H. Borradaile - Cinematographer Norbert F. Brodin - Cinematographer Sol C. Siegel - Producer Thomas K. Little - Set Designer Walter Scott - Set Designer Fred Sersen - Special Effects Roger Heman - Sound/Sound Designer George Leverett - Sound/Sound Designer Leonard Spigelgass - Screenwriter Hagar Wilde - Screenwriter Charles Lederer - Screenwriter Henri Rochard - Book Author

I Was a Male War Bride
I Was a Male War Bride doesn't reach the zany heights of earlier Cary Grant-Howard Hawks entries such as His Girl Friday, but that's hardly cause for complaint -- hardly anything is quite as good as the classic Friday. Bride is a thoroughly enjoyable, sometimes hilarious romantic comedy; it's just that the laughs don't come non-stop as they do in the very best of Hawks' work. Bride is a bit gentler -- and, it must be admitted, in the first half ever so slightly dull, as the film concentrates a bit too much on the on-location scenery and not on shifting the comedy into high gear. Once Bride gets going, though, the earlier bumps are easily forgiven. For his part, Grant is in top form, demonstrating once again what an invaluable farceur he was, and how irreplaceable he is in so many of his films. His co-star, Ann Sheridan, doesn't quite rise to his level, but she does do much more than adequately and in a number of moments truly shines. One does wish that there was a tiny bit more chemistry between the stars; it's definitely there, but it just falls a little short of being as natural and unforced as one desires. It's also a bit of a drawback that Hawks and his writers didn't set some of Sheridan's material up in a more sympathetic light, as Gates comes across as slightly mean toward Rochard at times -- and unnecessarily so. Still, these are small complaints and they don't keep Bride from being breezy, enjoyable and appealing. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
 

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General Specifications: Language Options: English Subtitle Options: English, Spanish Sound Processing: DD1: Dolby Digital Mono DD2: Dolby Digital Stereo Additional Features: cc Theatrical trailer Silent, behind-the-scenes documentary DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1: Pre-1954 Standard MPAA Rating: NR DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 105 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- 1. Main Titles [1:56] 2. The Way to Heidelberg [3:05] 3. Goodbye, Lt. Gates [1:34] 4. Gates Help Out [2:10] 5. She's Your Man [6:05] 6. Motorbike Buddies [1:42] 7. Henri Gets High [1:33] 8. Stright Down the River [1:15] 9. Trying to Be Friendly [3:47] 10. Lost [2:42] 11. Liquor & Liniment [3:16] 12. Roommates [3:04] 13. Henri's Disguise [1:06] 14. The Floor Show [7:33] 15. Meet Mr. Schindler [1:39] 16. Saying Something Nice [2:28] 17. Love in a Haystack [:16] 18. Red Tape [2:51] 19. Getting Anxious [3:14] 20. Three Ceremonies [4:16] 21. A Lot Married [2:28] 22. Back to Heidelberg [1:17] 23. No Place to Stay [3:01] 24. Section 271 [2:29] 25. Female Trouble [1:44] 26. The War Bride [1:57] 27. No Bed for the Bride [1:04] 28. Out in the Night [1:18] 29. Taking on the Navy [:43] 30. Meet Mrs. Rochard [:42] 31. Goodbye, Florence [5:11] 32. Honeymoon in the Brig [1:09]