The Bride's Bereavement; or, The Snake in the Grass

My review was written in July 1985 after watching the film on Masquers' video cassette, sold by direct mail order.

Silent film star Charles Ray toplines as a slightly over-age young hero in the short subject, Robert F. Hill's "The Bride's Bereavement or The Snake in the Grass" (1932). He is framed for murder but escapes from jail to save his wife from the clutches of the dastardly, moustache-twirling villain (Alan Mowbray in fine form).

It's a satirical spoof of a 19th century barnstorming drama, made with talent from Los Angeles' Masquers' Club, which was produced at RKO Radio Pictures during the Depression as a fundraising project -out of circulation for over 50 years.

The Masquers Club was formed as an actors' club in Hollywood. In the 1930s they produced several short comedies featuring many of their members, spoofing popular genres, with the profits going to charity. This spoof of old-time melodramas was one of them.

Full-blood melodramas were dying out and this spoof is, judging by the scripts of real melodramas, as well as the filmed versions of several starring Tod Slaughter is, believe it or not, staged and performed straight. Actually comedy bits rely on some advanced editing techniques and absurd sound effects.

Fans of old movies will take some pleasure in the long list of veteran movie actors who appear on screen, led by Charles Ray and Aileen Pringle. Alan Mowbray, whose credits include straight roles, exhibits a lot of strength as a farceur.

Charles Ray reappears from obscurity to star as a gormless hero, who, due to the schemes of Allen Mowbray, loses his wife Aileen Pringle and his freedom. Will Ray escape from jail, and relieve THE BRIDE'S BEREAVEMENT?

This is one of a series of shorts by a Hollywood gang called the Masquer's Club, which assembled a peculiar array of stars for each short. The one thing they didn't get was any funny jokes. Ex-Big Silent Star Charles Ray goes through his paces, without giving the slightest hint of why he was a star in the first place. Mowbray does OK with the villain part, but as a double dealing skunk, he's no Tod Slaughter.

This one is obscure. Save some time and keep it that way.