Movie review – ‘The Wedding March” (1928) ***1/2 (warning: spoilers)

Fay Wray is absolutely lovely, even more so than in King Kong, as the poor woman who eyes dashing lieutenant Eric Von Stroheim (well he’s meant to be dashing – he’s got bug eyes and a monocle, but apparently that made hearts a flutter in 1914 Vienna, or his cinematic recreations of them, anyway). However Von Stroheim is a lazy spend thrift seriously sort on cash so his parents arrange a marriage with a crippled daughter (Zasu Pitts) of a filthy rich manufacturer.

 

It's a simple story most notable for its images – Von Stroheim’s messy bedroom after a big night – the maid discovers a bra, then goes to pash him as he wakes up in bed; the sumptuousness of the imperial parade during Corpus Christie; the decadence of a party thrown by Von Stroheim’s parents (he gets drunk with a dude in a brothel); the faces of the old people (Von Stroheim’s walrus like dad, the big tub of guts who knows Fay Wray, the organ grinder moustache of Fay Wray’s aspiring lover); the impressive sets. It looks amazing.

 

It's also very cynical and matter of fact about lust and money – no wonder Billy Wilder loved Von Stroheim. The most poignant character is Pitts who knows she’s not that good looking and Von Stroheim doesn’t like her – but goes along with it (I liked it how she seems to genuinely lover her dad). 

 

There’s no happy ending – Wray marries a brute to stop him killing Von Stroheim at the wedding, Von Strohei goes off with his new wife. It’s 1914 so half the cast will presumably be killed/injured, the rest will become poor.