I Was a Mail Order Bride is a 1982

1982 in film

-Events:* March 26 = I Ought to Be in Pictures, starring Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret and Dinah Manoff is released. Manoff would not appear in another movie until 1987's Backfire.* June = PG-rated film E.T...

 made-for-tv romantic comedy film

Romantic comedy film

Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...

 directed by Marvin J. Chomsky

Marvin J. Chomsky

Marvin J. Chomsky is an American television and film director. He has also worked as a producer. He is a cousin of academic Noam Chomsky....

.

Plot

Kate Tosconi is a journalist in her early 20s working in Chicago for a women's magazine called Contemporary Woman Magazine. Having a special interest for trains, she is enthusiastic to do an article on rail transport. However, her boss Dottie Birmington only allows her to do the piece if she also does an article on mail-order bride

Mail-order bride

Mail-order bride is a label applied to a woman who publishes her intent to marry someone from another country. This term is considered offensive by some people. The mail-order bride industry is the economic trade of contracted domestic partnerships, often between citizens of different countries or...

s. She reluctantly places an advertisement, which is responded by Robert Fitzgerald.

Robert is a successful business man in L.A. who constantly competes with his business partner Joe Kimbel. For his latest bet, Robert is challenged to take in a mail-order bride and not have sex with her for two weeks. Soon, Kate packs her bags and travels to Los Angeles, where she takes an immediate interest in Robert. She notices that he is a nice guy and feels guilty about using him for an article. They eventually fall in love with each other and Kate cancels the article.

While drunk one night, Robert is taken home by Kate. She attempts to seduce him, but he falls asleep. The next day, she jokes about having had sex with him. Robert, thinking he has lost the bet, admits to the whole truth. Kate is furious about having been a part of a bet and refuses to believe his claims that he has fallen in love with her in the meantime. She immediately returns home and writes an offensive article on Robert. When he reads the article, he is outraged and sues her for libel.

In court, they are initially mad at each other, but they soon realize they still love each other. Robert wins the case, after which Kate has to give him a written apology. After doing this, she returns home. Robert, however, is encouraged by Kate's father to go after her and he is able to climb on the train. In the end, they kiss each other.

Cast

• Valerie Bertinelli
  Valerie Bertinelli
  Valerie Anne Bertinelli is an American actress, best known for her roles as Barbara Cooper Royer on the television series One Day at a Time , Gloria on the television series Touched by an Angel and Melanie Moretti on the sitcom Hot in Cleveland .- Early years :Bertinelli was born in Wilmington,...
  
   as Katarina 'Kate' Tosconi
• Ted Wass
  Ted Wass (actor)
  Ted Wass , is an American actor and director. Goodman School of Drama graduate Wass made his Broadway debut in the 1976 production Grease...
  
   as Robert Fitzgerald
• Kenneth Kimmins
  Kenneth Kimmins
  Kenneth Kimmins is an American actor, best known for his roles as Doctor Klein on Lois and Clark and Howard Burleigh, the Athletic Director of Minnesota State University on the hit TV show, Coach.Kimmins was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Charlotte and Edward F...
  
   as Joe Kimbel
• Karen Morrow
  Karen Morrow
  Karen Morrow is an American singer – actress best known for her work in musical theater. Her honors include an Emmy Award and a Theatre World Award, and an Ovation Award and five Drama-Logue Award nominations....
  
   as Eve Whister
• Holland Taylor
  Holland Taylor
  Holland Virginia Taylor is an American actress of film, stage and television. Her notable television roles include Ruth Dunbar in Bosom Buddies, senator's wife Margaret Powers on Norman Lear's The Powers That Be, Judge Roberta Kittleson in The Practice and Evelyn Harper in Two and a Half...
  
   as Dottie Birmington
• Sam Wanamaker
  Sam Wanamaker
  Samuel Wanamaker was an American film director and actor and is credited as the person most responsible for the modern recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London...
  
   as Frank Tosconi
• Jack Collins
  Jack Collins (actor)
  Jack Collins, , is a stage, film, and television actor. He played Mike Brady's boss, Mr. Phillips, in the television series The Brady Bunch, and Peter Christopher's boss, baby-food manufacturer Max Brahms, in the short-lived sitcom Occasional Wife.-Filmography:*The Brady Bunch * The Other * The...
  
   as Archibald Trucker
• Jason Bernard
  Jason Bernard
  Jason Bernard was an American actor who starred in movies and on television.-Career:Bernard was born in Chicago, Illinois...
  
   as Judge
• Judith Baldwin
  Judith Baldwin
  Judith Lee Baldwin is an American film and television actress who replaced Tina Louise in the role of Ginger Grant in Rescue From Gilligan's Island and The Castaways on Gilligan's Island . Baldwin amassed 46 screen credits between 1969 and her leading role in 2005's Every Secret Thing.- Early...
  
   as Rita Kimbel

Reception

Reviewer Fred Rothenberg wrote that the film was "a standard television vehicle" and "totally implausable, halfway diverting". He furthermore complained about Wass and Bertinelli's character's "charade reminiscent in style, but not substance", and continued: "The premise is weak but has enough fluffy charm to sustain early attention. It's never an intelligent farce, though, opting for pie-in-the-face philosophy rather than cleverness. [..] One major problem of the film is that this unconventional farce too quickly forgets the building relationship for the dissolving one."