Cast:
Gary Cooper (Tony Barrett), Anna Sten (Manya Novak), Ralph Bellamy (Fredrik Sobieski), Helen Vinson (Dora Barrett), Sig Ruman (Mr. Jan Novak), Esther Dale (Mrs. Kaise Novak), Leonid Snegoff (Sobieski), Eleanor Wesselhoeft (Mrs. Sobieski), Milla Davenport (Grandmother), Agnes Anderson (Helena), Hilda Vaughn (Hezzie Jones), and Walter Brennan (Bill Jenkins) Directed by King Vidor (#987 - Show People, #1015 - Bardelys the Magnificent, and #1369 - Duel in the Sun)
Review:
It is entirely possible that certain directors will fade away in relevance with the passage of time no matter what one does or says. This is especially apparent when you consider the moods of certain folks when it comes to watching "black and white" movies or perhaps hearing directors (dork or not) talk about not knowing who directed certain famous movies. The best way to respond is to educate oneself in making suitable choices and not let silly reasoning win the day. Movie Night is here to spotlight directors until death, so one might as well try to give a spotlight to as many filmmakers as possible. So let us go with King Vidor and a semi-compelling story in a semi-compelling movie, which was actually released in the latter part of a career that lasted over four decades. He was a Galveston native that honed an interest in cameras from a young age, going from photographing them for portraits to serving as an amateur newsreel cameraman. The very first person to give him a chance to do films for places beyond his home was a judge-turned-humanitarian-turned-filmmaker Willis Brown, where he made a handful of short films all about juvenile delinquents and their rehabilitation (the irony is that Brown was actually a guy who falsely claimed to be a lawyer and was called out on it). Anyway, The Turn in the Road (1919) was his first feature film (which he wrote and directed), and he basically never stopped from there, making at least one film for various studios that ranged from Brentwood Film Corporation all the way to United Artists. Vidor was the kind of man who put forth his own "Creed and Pledge" about what he would do as a filmmaker...in 1920, one that believed in the motion picture in carrying a message to humanity that ended with him making an "endeavor to draw upon the inexhaustible source of good for my stories, my guidance and my inspiration." Time has probably been kind to the question about if he achieved his goal or not.
Oh right, there is a film to talk about. The Wedding Night was written by two folks: Edwin H. Knopf wrote the original story that was then turned into a screenplay by Edith Fitzgerald (Knopf based his story on the exploits of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda, since he was a close friend of Knopf). The story that goes with the film is the last real attempt to make Anna Sten a mainstream name. She was born in Kiev in the Russian Empire (the place where she was born is now what you would call Ukraine) and she had studied theater before becoming an actress for Soviet and German films in the mid 1920s. Samuel Goldwyn discovered her when trying to find an actress of his own that could be promoted in the same way as Greta Garbo (Swedish-born, but I think you get the idea) and decided to sign her to a contract along with extensive training. The result was three films: Nana (1934), We Live Again (1934), and this. They actually promoted her as "The Passionate Peasant", which is, um, interesting when coming in the era of the Depression, and it probably doesn't help that Goldwyn's attempt to make her a star became a punchline in Cole Porter's famed "Anything Goes" song. None of the films were particularly successful, and the result was that Goldwyn released her from the contract. Over the next 27 years, she would make eleven appearances in films (some with the involvement of her husband Eugene Frenke, who was a producer and director for a couple of years) but she was never as prominent as she was with these films.
The film is actually decent, but I am sure you can figure out how it wasn't exactly destined for stardom. It is actually a fairly well-shot film (done by Gregg Toland), one with fair sensitivity towards the inevitability of a doomed strike of love that, well, you know can only go one of two ways. For the most part, Cooper shines over the rest of the cast in a semi-balanced exploration of what it means to be a writer trying to dig out of the muck and also the differences that arise from a Polish family and someone like Cooper's character. It isn't just a man finding a story in what he is watching around him, it is a man that finds himself in that very story that may or may not be too involved with his own mythmaking. So yes, Cooper outshines them when it comes to plain-spoken honesty for a name right in the middle of becoming more than just a name on certain films (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, his first Academy Award nominated film, came out the following year), and while I can't say he makes a great "drunken writer", I will say that he trembles his way towards romance with enough conviction to carry things to where they need to go. Ruman and Vinson basically act as the plugs against the idea of the two together, whether that involves traditional coarseness in the former or cloying sensibility in the latter, which is fine. Bellamy makes a quality adversary in affections, in that it is clear where he fits and doesn't fit within an would-be arranged marriage with certain goals. Stem seemingly acts better when placed in quiet moments where one can just watch her react to what is around her rather than, say, heavy dialogue. That isn't saying anything about her accent or anything to do with chemistry, it just means that some actors do better than others when it comes to the line between actor and character played by an actor. It is mildly convincing to see her with Cooper, but one is either invested in the sheer inevitability of who these people are and what must be, or they find it very mild stuff, or perhaps just a trifle, which I guess means that those 83 minutes will either tug on your curiosity or just pass through, and I firmly sit in the middle. It is a nice little film, but that is all it ends up being, just one that you can say warm things about for a time and await further curiosities that either will pique your interest in something else similar or perhaps better. You can't go wrong within certain choices in directors or actors in the 1930s if you know where to go.
Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.
