The Wedding Night
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.
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