The Well Groomed Bride is a 1946 American romantic comedy film directed by Sidney Lanfield and starring Olivia de Havilland, Ray Milland, and Sonny Tufts. Written by Claude Binyon and Robert Russell, the film is about a man and a woman who fight over the last bottle of champagne left in San Francisco—he wants it to christen a new aircraft carrier, and she wants it as the centerpiece for her upcoming wedding reception. During the course of their fierce battle over the bottle, the two fall in love. This was de Havilland's first film after a two-year legal battle she waged against Warner Bros. regarding her rights under her contract.

Plot

In the spring of 1945 in San Francisco, United States Navy lieutenant Dudley Briggs is promised a two-week furlough and a promotion by his ship's captain if he can acquire a bottle of French champagne by the next morning to be used in launching of the U.S.S. Vengeance, the Navy's newest aircraft carrier. Dudley heads to a liquor store and finds the last magnum of French champagne in the city—champagne having become rare during the war. Unfortunately, he loses the bottle to a beautiful young woman named Margie Dawson, who is about to be married to Army lieutenant Torchy McNeil, an Oregon football star, whom she has not seen in two years. Margie plans to present the bottle as the centerpiece for her upcoming wedding reception.