The Wedding March (1928)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Erich von Stroheim

Writers:

Harry Carr (writer)
Erich von Stroheim (writer)

Release Date:

6 October 1928 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A young impoverished aristocrat falls in love with an inn-keepers daughter, but has to marry money.

Plot Keywords:

Love | Parade | Vienna | Choir | Procession

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Erich von Stroheim	...	Nicki / Prince Nickolas von Wildeliebe-Rauffenburg
Fay Wray	...	Mitzi / Mitzrl Schrammell
Matthew Betz	...	Schani Eberle - the Butcher
Zasu Pitts	...	Cecelia Schweisser
George Fawcett	...	Prince Ottokar von Wildeliebe Rauffenburg
Maude George	...	Princess Maria - Nicki's mother
George Nichols	...	Fortunat Schweisser - the Industrialist
Dale Fuller	...	Katerina Schrammel - Mitzi's mother
Hughie Mack	...	Eberle - the Wine-grower
Cesare Gravina	...	Martin Schrammell - Mitzi's father
Sidney Bracey	...	Navratil
Anton Vaverka	...	Emperor Franz-Josef
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Archduke Leopold of Austria	...	(uncredited)
Albert Conti	...	Imperial Guard (uncredited)
Claire Delmar	...	(uncredited)
Peggy Eames	...	(uncredited)
Ray Erlenborn	...	Altar boy (uncredited)
Carey Harrison	...	Imperial Guard (uncredited)
Danny Hoy	...	Mountain Guide (uncredited)
Hans Joby	...	Imperial Guard (uncredited)
Arthur Lubin	...	Mountain Guide (uncredited)
Madlyn Mougin	...	Prince Ottocar's Maid (uncredited)
Harry Reinhardt	...	Imperial Guard (uncredited)
LaVerne Rooney	...	Extra (uncredited)
Don Ryan	...	Archibishop (uncredited)
Ferdinand Schumann-Heink	...	Imperial Guard (uncredited)
Mme. Ernestine Schumann-Heink	...	(uncredited)
Alec C. Snowden	...	Black Brothel Servent (uncredited)
Carolynne Snowden	...	Black Girl in Brothel (uncredited)
Lucille Van Lent	...	Nicki's Maid (uncredited)
Wilhelm von Brincken	...	Imperial Guard (uncredited)
Carl von Haartman	...	Imperial Guard (uncredited)
Lurie Weiss	...	Cecilia's Maid (uncredited)
Lulee Wilson	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Erich von Stroheim

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Harry Carr		writer
Erich von Stroheim		writer

Produced by
Jesse L. Lasky	....	executive producer
Pat Powers	....	producer
Adolph Zukor	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Louis De Francesco		(uncredited)
J.S. Zamecnik		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Roy H. Klaffki		(co-cinematographer)
Ray Rennahan		(Techicolor camera)
Hal Mohr		(uncredited)
Ben F. Reynolds		(uncredited)
Buster Sorenson		(uncredited)

Film Editing by
Frank E. Hull
Josef von Sternberg		(uncredited)
Erich von Stroheim		(uncredited)
Paul Weatherwax		(uncredited)

Art Direction by
Richard Day		(uncredited)
Erich von Stroheim		(uncredited)

Costume Design by
Max Rée
Richard Day		(uncredited)
Erich von Stroheim		(uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Louis Germonprez	....	assistant director
Edward Sowders	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Hal Mohr	....	camera operator
Ben F. Reynolds	....	camera operator (as Ben Reynolds)

Editorial Department
Julian Johnson	....	subsequent editing

Music Department
John Leipold	....	music arranger (uncredited)

Other crew
Albert Conti	....	military advisor
D.R.O. Hatswell	....	military advisor (as Donald Overall-Hatswell)
Archduke Leopold of Austria	....	technical advisor (uncredited)
Wilhelm von Brincken	....	technical advisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation

Distributors

• Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation (1928) (USA) (theatrical)
• Paramount Home Video (1987) (USA) (VHS)
• Paramount Pictures

Also Known As:

Hochzeitsmarsch (Austria) (Germany) [de]
A Marcha Nupcial (Portugal) (original subtitled version) [pt]
Bryllupsmarchen (Denmark) [da]
Häämarssi (Finland) [fi]
La marcha nupcial (Spain) [es]
La symphonie nuptiale (France) [fr]
Luna di miele (Italy) [it]
Pulmamarss (Estonia) [et]
Sinfonia nuziale (Italy) [it]

Runtime:

113 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Color (Two-strip Technicolor) | Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System) (musical score and sound effects) | Silent

Filming Locations:

Selig Studio - 1845 Allesandro Street, Edendale, Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation

Trivia:

Director Trademark: [Erich von Stroheim] [ambulance]Mitzi is carried away in an ambulance after she is injured at the cathedral ceremony.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Hollywood" (1980)

Soundtrack:

PARADISE (The Love Theme)

A stately affair

History paints Erich Von Stroheim as the great misunderstood genius, the `footage fetishist' whose grandiose films were too ahead of their time & too ambitious for producers with their `nickel and dime' mentalities. Irving Thalberg emerges as a major villain in this saga, sacking him first from Universal in the midst of shooting Merry Go Round, then hacking apart his masterpiece Greed over at MGM before sacking him again from The Merry Widow. By 26/7 Von Stroheim was running out of major studios to work for. Fortunately Merry Widow was a hit and he won backing from Pat Powers at Paramount for a two part epic critique of royalty. Only the first part survives, an executive changeover at Paramount occurred and new boss, B.P. Schulberg, took fright at the expense and failure of Part 1 and quickly dumped Part 2 on the European market where it vanished permanently. Von Stroheim was ostracized by the major studios and after two further abortive projects (Queen Kelly and Walking Down Broadway) he never directed again.

Whilst it's impossible not to feel sympathy with a man whose vision was too much for the industry of his time, the films themselves are often overloaded with details and appear stiff and pedantic when compared with the contemporary work of Vidor, Murnau, Lubitsch, Von Sternberg or DeMille. A good example of this is the scene where Fay Wray first sees Von Stroheim's prince. Partly filmed in 2-color Technicolor, this is a pleasure on the eyes, but an incident which should play out in 3 or 4 minutes is here stretched out to about 15. That would be fine if it was an isolated incidence or a dramatic high point, but this is the pacing Von Stroheim employs throughout. Whilst the result is impressive and strangely hypnotic, `Von Stroheim' time feels much slower than real time and the two hours of this film felt closer to three. Mannered as this is in a silent film, this style would've been painful indeed if attempted in sound.

Von Stroheim's direction reminds me of the theatrical producer Gordon Craig who in the early 20th century attempted to reproduce realism on stage with fully plumbed and working interior sets, real trees, gravel and soil for outside settings etc, even utilising giant tanks of water in which to stage shipboard scenes. Real objects are on stage, yes. but doesn't this miss the point of an audience engaging with players and text to create their own realism? Another result of this is an oddly dehumanizing one, as our attention is distracted from the interplay of characters by the piling on of detail. That for me is the basic problem with Von Stroheim Not to say Von Stroheim wasn't a great film maker, as Greed definitely proves. But I can't help feeling the cutting helped Greed more than hurt it. The recent TCM restoration, while fascinating and something to be grateful for, only serves to illustrate this, and in Wedding March we see just how indulgent the Von could become.

Choosing himself as leading man didn't help either. In The Merry Widow, John Gilbert was able to engage the audience through his charm and charisma. However here, Von Stroheim's impoverished Prince looks rather villainous and appears both cold hearted and kinky - not an endearing combination. He mostly gives a statue-like performance and only Fay Wray, vibrantly fresh and beautiful, engages us emotionally.

Admittedly the story becomes more gripping in the last half hour or so, and the ending (a surprisingly bitter one) made me wish the 2nd Part had survived.

It's definitely worth seeing, both as cinema and for what it tells us of this fascinating figure, but once is enough.