Quick Summary: Cute, short, and available for free, but ultimately leaves you unsatisfied.

Title: A Bride for Henry

Release: 1937

Director: William Nigh

Starring:

Anne Nagel (Sheila)

Warren Hull (Henry)

Henry Mollison (Eric)

When Sheila's fiancé Eric fails to show up for their wedding, she hits upon an unlikely solution - marrying someone else to make him jealous. She settles on her lawyer and old friend, Henry. Since Henry secretly loves Sheila, he agrees to the wedding. Sheila and Henry leave on the already-arranged honey moon, but Eric shows up hoping to win back his bride.

With a plot like that, A Bride for Henry has plenty of opportunities for comedic misunderstandings, witty dialogue, and all those things usually summed up by the phrase 'hilarity ensued'. Unfortunately, while the movie has its funny moments, on the whole it's a little disappointing. A lot of potentially comic material is ignored in favour of making the film as short as possible; it runs only 58 minutes including credits and titles.

The acting is acceptable, as is the filming. The music ranges from surprisingly pleasant (the breakfast version of "Cielito Lindo") to extremely annoying (the seemingly-endless rendition of the "Wedding March" from Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream suite, which plays over the opening credits). The costumes are worth mentioning - Sheila is beautifully dressed throughout. She wears several evening gowns that would not look out of place at a formal event even today.

Unfortunately, the film just isn't very funny. The dialogue is pedestrian, plenty of comic opportunities are ignored, and there are long scenes where not a lot seems to happen. The treatment of the plot is somewhat awkward, hurrying through many of the important questions. For instance, we never find out why nobody seems to be shocked by the immorality of "fake" marriages. I found that this awkwardness, and the lack of genuinely funny moments, detracted from my enjoyment of the movie.

While I don't think this movie has wide appeal, fans of mild-mannered screwball comedies may want to check it out. Whether you're a fan or not, the price is right; it is in the public domain and can be streamed or downloaded from the internet archive here: https://archive.org/details/bride_for_henry

Originally Written: August 31, 2011

The internet archive download can also be accessed using the external link.