Tonight I watched "The Bride Wore Red" (1937), starring Joan Crawford, Robert Young and Franchot Tone, and directed by Dorothy Arzner, one of the first or perhaps the first woman to direct at the major studio level. The story is a riff on the old Pygmalion theme. As the movie opens, George Zucco (playing a Count) is in a casino in Trieste, holding court with his friend Rudi (Robert Young), a wealthy young aristocrat. The Count is tipsy, going on and on about his belief that he, or Young, are essentially no different than the surrounding villagers, who have little money or means. The Count believes that only by the luck of one's birth does a person live a life of luxury, or conversely, one of poverty.
People are all the same inside, he tells Robert Young, who is having none of it. "What about breeding"?, Young asks. The Count declares it to be only a matter of training a child to speak and act in a certain manner. Young continues to scoff at the older man's theory, until The Count drunkenly declares that he can prove what he is saying. He decides that he and Robert Young will immediately decamp to "the worst most decrepit dive" in all of Trieste, so that he can pick out a woman who is equally beautiful and as sophisticated as Young's fiancee (Lynne Carver).
Young reluctantly agrees to accompany The Count to the local dive bar, but when he gets there he is repulsed, and he makes his exit, leaving The Count alone at his table. He is now determined to prove his point, and by extension to play a trick on the snobbish Young, so he asks the owner of the dive to introduce him to the most "decrepit yet beautiful" woman in the entire place. The owner selects his singer (Joan Crawford), who is typical as bar singers go - world weary, frustrated and cynical, but maintaining a good look.
Right there on the spot, The Count offers Joan an all-expense paid trip to a ritzy resort in the Alps, if she will agree to pose as "Anna Vivaldi", the mysterious daughter of an invented Count, reputed to be from the area. Count Zucco instructs her on how to act and what to say. He arranges for a fancy wardrobe to await her arrival, and soon she is there, at the hotel in the Tyrolean Alps.
She has been given an escort to the mountain location by a local postman (Franchot Tone), who is a little mysterious himself. He has no social stature, but has a poetic soul. He talks to Joan about the stars above in the night sky and the abundant nature surrounding them, and how this is his happiness. He brings this up because she is pretending to be a Society Woman and has asked him - her driver - how the peasants live.
Once she meets Robert Young at the resort hotel, her materialistic instincts will go into overdrive, and she will start doing that Joan Crawford Thing where she must rise above her station at all costs and to hell with anyone standing in her way.
Secretly, though, she is in love with Franchot Tone, because he is down to earth like she is, in her actual existence. He also exudes romanticism, whereas the sophisticate Robert Young - also romantic - is a phony because he is cheating on his fiancee with multiple women.
What has Joan gotten herself into? It's going to turn into a mess, because Franchot Tone, as the postman, also runs the telegraph office. He will receive messages from Count George Zucco that were meant for his society friends, to let them in on the joke that he is playing, and now Tone will know that Crawford is only playing a role. She is not rich nor part of the society, and now he is aware of that. As the postman, he delivers the mail and the telegraph messages.
What will happen if he decides to let the truth out?
He probably won't, because he has fallen in love with Joan......but she is "in love" with Robert Young, because she is in love with the idea of materialistic wealth. Having experienced a taste of the high life, she is not about to let it go, and she is going to scheme to marry Robert Young, so that she will never have to go back to singing in the dive bar. ////
It's a convoluted romantic plot, but for the most part Joan Crawford plays a sympathetic role, and it is nice to see her this way, as opposed to the types of harder-edged roles she became famous for when her makeup became more severe. Joan Crawford was a pretty lady, believe it or not, and I think she was every bit as good an actress as the more acclaimed Bette Davis. Joan could play vulnerable and she kind of made a career out of it, but unfortunately she became known for "Mommie Dearest" and arching drawn-on eyebrows. Hollywood will do a job on it's actors and actresses, and often - as talented as they are - these performers have serious emotional issues going in to their careers to start with.
I think Joan Crawford was one of the greats, however, her later "image" notwithstanding. Just watch her in her early roles, like this one, to see what a talented actress she was.
"The Bride Wore Red" runs just a little bit too long, maybe by ten or fifteen minutes, and could have benefited from some tightening up, but other than that I have no complaints, except maybe that Tone's character could have been made to be more sympathetic. He comes off a little cold as the romantic rival, but this does not detract from the drama, which is almost single handedly carried by Crawford, the mark of an exceptional actress.
I give it Two Thumbs Up, and would give it Two Big Thumbs if it had been edited to cut out the slower parts, just bits and pieces here and there.
It is recommended anyway, especially for the performances of Crawford, Young, and in a supporting role the portrayal of Robert Young's long suffering but loyal fiancee, by Lynne Carver. She was yet another stunning actress who had a short life, but she shines in this role and deserves to be mentioned.
Today was another Hot One, 103 degrees again. It was still around 90 or above when I went for my evening walk.
I am finishing up Tom G. Warrior's history of Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost, and it is blowing me off the map. Any creative person would be incredibly inspired by this book, I think.
That's all I know for tonight. Get ready for another day of 100+ tomorrow (me, I love it).
See you in the morning. Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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