"The Bride Comes Home" is another Claudette Colbert picture in what has become the traditional Colbert manner. It tells the story of a pugnacious girl (Claudette Colbert) and an aggressive man (Fred MacMurry) who fight and love one another. It is amusing in a rather mild way, but it does not have the robust humor of "It Happened One Night." Each of the pictures in the cycle that has followed the latter triumph has been less light, and more dependent on tenuous plots and slapstick humor. However, the two stars, with the assistance of Robert Young, make all they can of the material with which they have to deal, and persuade the spectators that they are whiling away pleasant hours.

Claudette Needs a Ride

Far be it from the Moviegoer's mind to carp too much at any of Miss Colbert's pictures, for he derives great pleasure merely from looking at her. Nevertheless, he wishes the movie moguls would give her a break and present her with a really good vehicle. In "The Bride Comes Home," she cannot ride along smoothly and easily, but has to carry the vehicle herself--which seems like very bad logic.

Glory, Noise, and Harmony

On the stage Phil Spitainy leads an orchestra of "glorious girls," whose number seems to hover between forty-eight and sixty, according to various advertisements. Be they all glorious or not, and whatever their number, they can make a powerful lot of noise, particularly in the trumpet section. However, some of the arrangements are excellent, as is the harmonizing vocalization. This department would like to recommend to your careful consideration a soloist with a flower in her hair and a nice set of pipes (not the music-goes-round-and-round vocalist, who, incidentally, is not bad at her stunt, if you can still stand the song.) Sevitsky and the Elida Ballet make their usual enjoyable contributions to the entertainment.