Legend has it that June became the most popular month for weddings because Juno, for whom the month was named, was the Roman goddess of love and marriage. At any rate, with its radiant sunshine and lush natural beauty, this month is the ideal time for tying the knot. Juno surely would smile upon TCM's collection of cinematic brides presented over the course of two nights of movies featuring June weddings.

Double Wedding (1937) marked the seventh teaming of MGM's prize comedy couple, William Powell and Myrna Loy. In this romantic caper, Powell plays a free-spirited artist and Loy is a controlling career woman who is planning the marriage of her younger sister (Florence Rice) to a mild-mannered man (John Beal). Powell pursues the sister only so he can be close to Loy, and the entanglements are eventually resolved at a wedding ceremony where it's unclear for a time who will be marrying whom. Double Wedding succeeded at the box office, but it involved painful memories for Powell and Loy because Jean Harlow (his fiancée and her friend) died during the filming.

The Philadelphia Story (1940), Katharine Hepburn's triumphant comeback after being labeled "box office poison" in the 1930s, is Philip Barry's sparkling comedy about a socialite who is about to marry another man although she's still in a bitter entanglement with her ex-husband (Cary Grant). Oscars® went to costar James Stewart, playing the reporter covering the anticipated wedding, and to Donald Ogden Stewart for adapting Barry's stage play. MGM designer Adrian created Hepburn's flattering and very feminine wedding dress.

The Bride Came C.O.D. (1941) casts Bette Davis in an uncharacteristic screwball-comedy role, as a runaway heiress who enlists the aid of a pilot (James Cagney) in eloping with her bandleader boyfriend (Jack Carson). Cagney, of course, falls for Davis even though he accepts her marriage to Carson. But is the marriage legal? One of the funnier sequences has the would-be bride falling rearwards onto a cactus and Jimmy the pilot gallantly picking the spines out of her derriere.

It Had to Be You (1947), another screwball comedy, stars Ginger Rogers as a wealthy young woman with a history of leaving a series of bridegrooms stranded at the altar. Cornel Wilde has a dual role as Rogers' dream lover, an American Indian she imagines she meets on a train; and a real-life firefighter who comes into her life just as she's about to attempt yet another unpromising wedding. Rogers wrote in her memoir that "I loved the multi-wedding aspect of the film because I could wear four different wedding gowns, all of them designed by Jean Louis. Each gown was prettier than the one before."

The Bride Goes Wild (1948) was the third of five films teaming one of MGM's most popular romantic couples, Van Johnson and June Allyson, who were offscreen pals as well as frequent costars. In this farcical comedy Johnson plays an author of children's books who is secretly a lush and a womanizer, while Allyson is a prim artist who wins a prize that allows her to illustrate one of his books. The audience knows that the two are fated for each other, but various complications ensue including her planned wedding to someone else. The film reaches a climax at that wedding when an adorable urchin (Jackie 'Butch' Jenkins) brings it to a halt by spreading ants among the guests!

June Bride (1948) again finds Bette Davis in a rare comedy role as the editor of a women's magazine called Home Life. She finds herself working with an ex-lover (Robert Montgomery) to cover a wedding in a small Indiana town for the magazine's June issue. A series of humorous complications are capped by the decision of the bride (Barbara Bates) to elope with another man. In this case, the planned "June wedding" is happening during the winter so the magazine can appear on stands in early summer. The movie itself, however, didn't benefit from such careful planning, with June Bride arriving in theaters in October!

Father of the Bride (1950) casts a young Elizabeth Taylor as the radiant bride, Spencer Tracy as the father who agonizes over losing his daughter--and the expense of her wedding--and Joan Bennett as the understanding mom. This very successful family comedy brought Oscar® nominations for Best Picture, Actor (Tracy) and Screenplay (Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett). The movie benefited from publicity generated by Taylor's marriage to Nicky Hilton (her first of eight) just two days before the film's premiere. MGM designer Helen Rose fashioned Taylor's gorgeous wedding gowns for both the film and the real-life event.

High Society (1956) is a musical remake of The Philadelphia Story, with an original score by Cole Porter and new takes on the Hepburn/Grant/Stewart roles by Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra. As was the case with Elizabeth Taylor, a studio designer created both cinematic and real-life wedding gowns for Kelly. For her onscreen wedding, Helen Rose fashioned an A-line dress with intricate floral appliqués, accessorized by a floppy hat and white gloves that are still copied by brides today. For Kelly's marriage to Monaco's Prince Rainier later that same year, Rose designed an elaborate outfit featuring antique lace, multiple petticoats and hundreds of tiny pearls.

The Catered Affair (1956) continues the theme of Bette Davis in unconventional roles. In this comedy-drama she plays a Bronx mother of modest means planning a too-expensive wedding for her daughter (Debbie Reynolds). Thelma Ritter had played Davis's role in the original television version of the Paddy Chayefsky script, which was adapted for the big screen by Gore Vidal and directed by Richard Brooks. Costarring are Ernest Borgnine as the taxi-driver father, Rod Taylor as the groom and Barry Fitzgerald as an uncle involved in the family's conflicts. The movie marked a reunion of sorts for Davis and Reynolds, since the younger actress had made her film debut some eight years earlier with a bit role in the Davis vehicle June Bride.

The Graduate (1967), Mike Nichols' groundbreaking social comedy, made a star of Dustin Hoffman as a confused college graduate who falls in love with a beautiful young woman (Katharine Ross) while having an affair with her mother (Anne Bancroft). Nichols won an Oscar® as Best Director; other nominations went to Hoffman, Bancroft and Ross, along with those for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Cinematography. The wedding scene that highlights the picture's dramatic yet ambiguous ending was shot at a Methodist church in the town of La Verne, a suburb 30 miles east of Los Angeles.

by Roger Fristoe