A Noite Nupcial

I had heard about this film and about how underrated it was,then last week i saw a copy of it on ebay on VHS PAL UK.I was really surprised as i didn't think it had ever been released in the UK.It must be one of the rarest videos in Britain as sadly not many people have heard of it.Luckily i won it for just over £3 not bad eh.So if any one else is interested in buying a copy,there must be others available in Britain,if you really look around.I couldn't wait to watch this film,and i must say i wasn't disappointed.Its starts off a mildly amusing story that suddenly gets sadder and sadder until it reaches a climax to a very tragic ending.I must admit the last 10 seconds of this film does bring tears to the eyes,i wont say why,but try and see this movie and you will see.The acting between Gary Cooper and Anna Sten is first rate,her character is very likable as she is totally unselfish,and is trying to please everyone,so she does deserve happiness.Garys character,well he is married and his wife is not a monster and she does love him,so you feel sorry for her as well,i think you have to decide for yourself in a triangle like this someone is always going to get hurt,but you don't know who.Also this is a very early film showing us cultural differences and the sort of conflicts that can arise when two people from very different back grounds want to be together.Can it work?he is from a literate sophisticated family,she is from a poor immigrant family that is still trying to learn new ways.The answer is if two people really love each other then they can over come their differences as true love conquers all,i think overall this was the strongest message that comes out of this film,to some people the married issue may be the point of the film.Any way this is a very haunting film and well worth watching if you get the chance.

In New York, the writer Tony Barrett (Gary Cooper) was successful in his first novel. Now he is alcoholic and his two next books were failures. His publisher refuses to publish his last novel and the totally broken Tony is forced to move with his wife Dora (Helen Vinson) to the countryside of Connecticut to his family farmhouse. On the arrival, his neighbors Mr. Jan Novak (Siegfried Rumann) and his daughter Manya (Anna Sten) offer five thousand dollars for his idle lands. Tony accepts the offer and Dora decides to return to New York. Tony stays with his servant Taka and has dinner with the Novak family to close the business. When Taka decides to return to New York, Manya helps Tony with the housekeeping. They become close to each other and soon they fall in love with each other. But Tony is a married man and Manya is engaged to Fredrik Sobieski (Ralph Bellamy) in an arranged marriage. What will happen to their love?

"The Wedding Night" is a sad and tragic romance directed by King Vidor, who was a specialist in melodramas. The timeless love story is believable and engaging and has a heartbreaking conclusion. Based on the number of voters (553) and reviews (20), "The Wedding Night" is an unknown romance and the User Rating (6.8) is underrated. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Noite Nupcial" ("The Wedding Night")

Gary Cooper, in a thinly veiled characterization of F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a writer living with a socialite wife in New York City and doing quite well on the party circuit. But he's lost his muse and literally has to move back to his family's ancestral home in Connecticut where the rent is free.

While there he gets involved with some Polish immigrants who have bought a lot of acreage in the Nutmeg state for tobacco growing and farmer Jean Hersholt wants some of Cooper's land. Needing the cash, Cooper agrees. He finds the people there fascinating in an sociological sort of way. And he finds Hersholt's daughter Anna Sten far more intriguing.

The Wedding Night was supposed to be the launching of a new Sam Goldwyn discovery in Anna Sten. But for some reason she didn't catch on with the public though she does give a fine performance. There's a lengthy list of speculative reasons why she never caught on, some have been mentioned by other reviewers.

However the best performance in the film is Helen Vinson as Cooper's wife. She starts off giving the impression she's a flighty airhead, but actually that's not the case. Vinson usually was playing the other woman in her film career, here she reverses type as the wronged wife. You do feel sorry for her, she's done nothing to deserve Cooper's infidelity.

For those who are curious about Anna Sten as she's become something of a symbol as to how not to showcase a talent, The Wedding Night might be worth a look.

Interesting film, partly because Cooper is cast so completely against the type he is later to be best known for from his Capra films - that is of the rural innocent encountering the corruption of the city. This movie is much more in the transcendental tradition of Henry Hathaway's Peter Ibbetson, also starring Cooper and released the same year. I had never heard of Anna Sten but according to the posts she was a protégé of Samuel Goldwyn in one of her first Hollywood films. She does remind me of a fresh-faced Garbo. Overall the acting is fine and characters are complex, and the direction is up to King Vidor's high standards.

A fine film. The ending in particular is bittersweet.

OK, you want to make Anna Sten a star like Garbo or Deitrich. What are the very worst things you could do? Cast her as a Polish immigrant farm woman. Dress her in frumpy clothes. Set the movie in cold weather, necessitating her wearing a hat or scarf much of the time. Cast the urbane Ralph Bellamy as her rough-hewn Polish fiancé.

Anna Sten had a lovely face and she wasn't a bad actress. But this vehicle could have sunk any unknown. On the other hand, it's not a bad movie. In some ways, it's memorable.

The male lead is Gary Cooper, in his early days when his lashes were long, his look lanky but gentle. He's very good as a writer who's hit a brick wall with his work. He and wife Helen Vinson are splitsville, or near it; so he goes to his family house in Connecticut. And there he meets Sten, who is delivering milk. (No comment.) I never got the whole big deal about Garbo. Sten is more emotive. But she's sunk in this movie.