The Wedding Night

Buy This Item The Wedding Night by MGM (Video & DVD)  Available from Amazon  $12.99  on 11-28-2008     One of the lesser-known satisfactions in Gary Cooper's career is this 1935 King Vidor film, an offbeat blend of romance, comedy, and tragedy. It begins in screwball territory: Cooper plays a novelist whose partying ways have stalled his career and made his new manuscript unpublishable. He and wife Helen Vinson like the high life (any resemblance to Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald is probably intentional), and she doesn't stick around while he tries to write a new book in a quiet Connecticut country house. The isolation puts him into proximity with a heartfelt young immigrant girl (Anna Sten), whose Polish community provides a subject for his new book.<p> If you think Cooper was a merely the <I>High Noon</I> guy, a lanky Western hero, this is one of the movies (among many) that dispel the idea: his utter naturalness is a gold standard for a certain kind of movie-star acting. Directing him on the set the first day, Vidor worried about the star's mumbling and forgetfulness with dialogue. "Imagine my amazement," Vidor later wrote, "when I watched our first day's work on the screen and observed and heard a performance that overflowed with charm and personality." Anna Sten was another issue: the Russian actress had been brought to the U.S. with great fanfare by producer Samuel Goldwyn, because he wanted to have his own foreign Garbo/Dietrich under contract. Her cool presence failed to generate audience interest, and Goldwyn gave up on her after <I>The Wedding Night</I>. She's a problem, but Cooper keeps it going, and the movie itself is unexpectedly warm. <I>--Robert Horton</I> Reader Reviews Gary Cooper delivers one of his most gentle, understated performances in THE WEDDING NIGHT (directed in 1935 by King Vidor, and based on a story by Edwin H. Knopf). He's perfectly paired with Anna Sten, the lovely Russian actress who never quite fulfilled her potential in Hollywood. Struggling New York writer Tony Barrett (Gary Cooper) moves back to his family home in Connecticut. There, he becomes friends with a group of Polish emigrees, in particular Manya (Anna Sten). Quite soon, the friendship of Tony and Manya blossoms into a forbidden romance, until the re-appearance of Tony's wife (Helen Vinson) and the wedding plans set by Manya's tradition-bound family threaten to tear them apart... For fans of Gary Cooper, THE WEDDING NIGHT will provide another side of the versatile actor, who managed to effortlessly shift between drama, comedy and western roles in his early career. Anna Sten is heartbreaking as Manya, a character which might well have become too sweet or sentimental in the hands of a lesser actress. Russian-born Anna Sten was brought to Hollywood by producer Samuel Goldwyn, who attempted to groom her as a leading lady to rival the likes of Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. She made her American debut in 1934's "Nana"; THE WEDDING NIGHT is arguably the best film Sten appeared in during her relatively-brief Hollywood career. Precious few of her movies have surfaced on DVD (We Live Again and Exile Express are the only ones that I know of apart from THE WEDDING NIGHT). It's wonderful having this superb movie on DVD. It's been released as part of the MGM Movie Legends series along with three more Gary Cooper favourites (The Adventures of Marco Polo, Ball of Fire, and Casanova Brown).

The Wedding Night Available from Amazon Price: $12.99 Updated on 11-28-2008.

SPONSORED LINKS