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The Wedding Night

Retrospective 2020
Source: Sammlung Cinémathèque suisse, Image courtesy of Park Circus/Samuel Goldwyn Jr. Family Trust
New York writer Tony Barrett runs into financial difficulties when his publisher rejects his newest novel. So he moves to his family’s old homestead in Connecticut – although his cosmopolitan wife Dora doesn’t last long there. Tony stays in the country and gets involved with a neighbouring tobacco farmer, who buys a piece of land from him. It is intended as a dowry for Manya, the farmer’s daughter, set to be married off to a fellow Pole. Until then, Manya works as Tony’s housekeeper. The young woman not only serves as an inspiration for Tony’s new book, he also finds himself slowly falling in love with her. The feeling is mutual and Manya’s father, seeing his plans for an arranged marriage threatened, forbids the two to see each other. But on Manya’s wedding night, Tony defies his dictate … We have King Vidor’s sensitive hand in working with actors to thank for a convincing representation of cultural conflict by Gary Cooper, until then largely known for his stoic western characters, and Russian immigrant Anna Sten. They succumb to a tragedy that overshadows their amorous encounters from the very beginning. The film won Vidor Best Director at the 1935 Venice Film Festival.
by King Vidor
with Gary Cooper, Anna Sten, Ralph Bellamy, Helen Vinson, Sig Rugmann, Esther Dale, Leonid Snegoff, Eleanor Wesselhoeft, Milla Davenport, Agnes Anderson, Walter Brennan USA 1935 English 82’ Black/White

With

  • Gary Cooper
  • Anna Sten
  • Ralph Bellamy
  • Helen Vinson
  • Sig Rugmann
  • Esther Dale
  • Leonid Snegoff
  • Eleanor Wesselhoeft
  • Milla Davenport
  • Agnes Anderson
  • Walter Brennan

Crew

Director King Vidor
Screenplay Edith Fitzgerald
Story Edwin H. Knopf
Cinematography Gregg Toland
Editing Stuart Heisler
Music Alfred Newman
Sound Frank Maher
Art Director Richard Day
Costumes Omar Kiam
Assistant Directors Walter Mayo
Producer Samuel Goldwyn

Produced by

Howard Productions, Inc.

Additional information

Print: Park Circus, Glasgow

King Vidor

Filmography (selection)

1919 The Turn in the Road; Lost film 1925 The Big Parade (Die große Parade) 1928 The Crowd (Ein Mensch der Masse) 1929 Hallelujah 1934 Our Daily Bread (Der letzte Alarm) 1938 The Citadel 1940 Northwest Passage (Nordwest-Passage) 1947 Duel in the Sun (Duell in der Sonne) 1949 The Fountainhead (Ein Mann wie Sprengstoff) 1956 War and Peace (Krieg und Frieden) 1959 Solomon and Sheba (Salomon und die Königin von Saba)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2020