La symphonie nuptiale

"Let others make films about gay old Vienna," announced filmmaker Erich Von Stroheim, "I will make films about sad old Vienna, not because Vienna is sadder than any other city but because the world is sad." During his brilliant, erratic, maddening career as a director in Hollywood Stroheim twice attempted to make a movie about the city where he was born, a city devastated and changed forever by the Great War of 1914-18. His first attempt, Merry-Go-Round, was taken out of his hands and finished by studio hacks, whereas production on the second, The Wedding March, was halted before filming was complete. The film we see today is only a portion of the epic he planned. Still, it's a beautiful and stirring piece of work that conveys at least a glimmer of what its creator intended: an elegiac work that is, paradoxically, both nostalgic for a lost world yet unsentimental about that world's injustices.

Given the man's grandiose and tragic vision, his belief in the power of cinematic art and his uncompromising temperament, it's no surprise that Stroheim ran into so much difficulty with the moguls who controlled Hollywood, who fired him repeatedly and butchered his work; what's surprising is that he was ever granted any creative leeway at all. Then as now, Hollywood preferred escapism, straightforward plotting and happy endings. There was little tolerance for such an exacting artist as Stroheim, who wrote, directed and usually acted in downbeat and sometimes sordid films that were unlike those of anyone else. Still, for almost ten years beginning in 1919 he was permitted a limited amount of artistic freedom and was able to give the world a tantalizing hint of his talent in a handful of dramatic features, although not one of them survives in the form he intended. In 1926, fresh from the box office success of his biggest hit, The Merry Widow, Stroheim worked out a deal with producer Pat Powers to produce an epic set in Vienna just before the First World War. Stroheim believed he could complete the film for $300,000, a reasonable budget for the time and only slightly more than his previous film had cost.

The Wedding March as it survives today tells only about one-third of the story Stroheim wrote. The action takes place during the spring and summer of 1914, and concerns a "noble" family, the Wildeliebe-Rauffenbergs, who have a title, property, servants, and a dissolute son -- but no money. Stroheim does not bother with nuanced characterizations in this film, preferring to draw his figures with broad strokes. Our first sight of the parents, awakening to face the new day, is appalling: the Princess Maria wears a chin strap and her face is slathered with cold cream, while Prince Ottokar is bleary-eyed and obese. They bicker immediately. Their son Prince Nicki (played by the director) at first seems little better, stealing kisses from the servants and hitting up his parents for cash. Nicki appears to be the debauched product of a decadent line, itself the product of a decadent society. But today marks a turning point for the wastrel heir: it's Corpus Christi, a major holiday of religious and political significance, and while he is on maneuvers with the other soldiers at the Cathedral Nicki sees a beautiful girl in the crowd who has a profound impact on him.

The girl is Mitzi, played by 19 year-old Fay Wray in her first major role, and it's easy to see why she turns his head. (Seen here with her natural brunette hair, Fay Wray is as pretty as any woman who ever graced the screen.) Mitzi comes from a working class background and is being forced by her mother into a relationship with a coarse butcher, Schani, who she detests. The flirtation between Nicki and Mitzi quickly grows into a genuine passion. Unbeknownst to Nicki, his own parents are meanwhile arranging a match for him with a shy, club- footed girl, Cecelia (ZaSu Pitts), heiress to a corn-plaster fortune, a match as inappropriate as the one Mitzi is resisting. Both sets of parents care only about money, while Mitzi and Nicki seem to be the last persons in Vienna who believe in love. Ultimately, they are each forced to abandon the relationship and marry against their wishes.

It's not the story but the manner of its telling that makes all the difference. In bare outline the plot sounds as melodramatic as a paperback romance, but what makes the movie special are the director's bold and beautifully stylized flourishes: the ornate detail of the Wildeliebe-Rauffenberg town house; the pageantry of the Corpus Christi processional, filmed partly in two-strip Technicolor; the abandoned carriage where Nicki and Mitzi meet for their assignations, and where a steady supply of apple blossoms tumble onto their shoulders. These love scenes, certainly the most romantic the director ever made, are brutally inter-cut with the wildest orgy sequence of the silent cinema. And only this director could get away with such motifs as the mythic Iron Man who carries off "maenads" from the Danube (a vision said to portend tragedy), or the unforgettable sight of the organist's hands turning skeletal at the keyboard as Nicki and his club-footed bride, Cecilia, make their way down the aisle at their grim wedding.

This last image was meant to foreshadow events in the second part, The Honeymoon, but this portion of the story was never completed and no longer exists in any form. After seven months of filming Stroheim had spent almost $700,000 and wasn't done yet. Producer Powers pulled the plug and had the many hours of footage winnowed down to the film that now remains. Once again, Stroheim's vision was thwarted, but at least the fragment that survives tells a complete story and concludes on a satisfying albeit painfully dark note. Even in truncated form The Wedding March is a triumph, one of the great silent dramas and a testament to the unique talent of its creator.

Prince Nicki (Erich von Stroheim), a young aristocrat in financial troubles who mostly likes to spend on women and gambling. His parents refuse to give him any more money and tell him to marry some rich woman. Nicki agrees. While his parents are on the lookout for a potential wife, Nicki meets Mitzi (Fay Wray). They secretly start courting behind the back of their parents, and her rude fiance. Meanwhile, a wealthy factory owner Scweisser makes an offer to Nicki's father - Nicki must marry his daughter Cecelia (Zasu Pitts), with a heavy limp.

Sounds like a simple royal love affair? Well, it's von Stroheim - there are plenty more.

The shooting of 'The Wedding March' was halted by the studio because von Stroheim spent too much money and time on elaborate sets and reshooting scenes. Again. The film was cut together from the footage he had already shot. This is probably the reason why the story moves forward much faster in the second half of the movie. Zasu Pitts's screen time is quite limited, but she manages to make a lasting effect even with the little time she has. Erich von Stroheim usually shines as sinister types, but here he proves that he can pull off quite charming and sympathetic characters as well. True stars in this one (besides von Stroheim's directorial genius) are Fay Wray as Mitzi and Matthew Betz as her fiance Schani.

'The Wedding March' is not the masterpiece it could have been, but it stands as just another testament of Erich von Stroheim's talents.

Erich von Stroheim directs himself in the lead in this silent film from 1928.The Wedding March tells about Prince Nicki (von Stroheim) who has to marry money.That is his parents' order.Cecelia Schweisser (Zasu Pitts) is one with money so he ought to marry her.But Nicki has fell in love with someone else.That someone is inn-keeper's daughter Mitzi Schrammell (Fay Wray).And she ought to marry the nasty butcher Schani (Matthew Betz).Who gets who in the end? Watch the movie and find out.Erich von Stroheim knew how to make good movies.As a filmmaker he was a perfectionist so maybe that's the reason why the result was so good.The lovely leading lady is the gorgeous Fay Wray who went on and starred King Kong five years later.This was her first starring role.Matthew Betz makes a great villain.Zasu Pitts gives a very touching performance as the limping Cecelia.One interesting detail about the film is that it contains an early Technicolor episode at the Corpus Christi festival.This melodrama from 80 years back is a fine example of movie-making at its finest.These romantic movies that are made today have often got the lack of magic.That wasn't the case in the silent era.

History paints Erich Von Stroheim as the great misunderstood genius, the `footage fetishist' whose grandiose films were too ahead of their time & too ambitious for producers with their `nickel and dime' mentalities. Irving Thalberg emerges as a major villain in this saga, sacking him first from Universal in the midst of shooting Merry Go Round, then hacking apart his masterpiece Greed over at MGM before sacking him again from The Merry Widow. By 26/7 Von Stroheim was running out of major studios to work for. Fortunately Merry Widow was a hit and he won backing from Pat Powers at Paramount for a two part epic critique of royalty. Only the first part survives, an executive changeover at Paramount occurred and new boss, B.P. Schulberg, took fright at the expense and failure of Part 1 and quickly dumped Part 2 on the European market where it vanished permanently. Von Stroheim was ostracized by the major studios and after two further abortive projects (Queen Kelly and Walking Down Broadway) he never directed again.

Whilst it's impossible not to feel sympathy with a man whose vision was too much for the industry of his time, the films themselves are often overloaded with details and appear stiff and pedantic when compared with the contemporary work of Vidor, Murnau, Lubitsch, Von Sternberg or DeMille. A good example of this is the scene where Fay Wray first sees Von Stroheim's prince. Partly filmed in 2-color Technicolor, this is a pleasure on the eyes, but an incident which should play out in 3 or 4 minutes is here stretched out to about 15. That would be fine if it was an isolated incidence or a dramatic high point, but this is the pacing Von Stroheim employs throughout. Whilst the result is impressive and strangely hypnotic, `Von Stroheim' time feels much slower than real time and the two hours of this film felt closer to three. Mannered as this is in a silent film, this style would've been painful indeed if attempted in sound.

Von Stroheim's direction reminds me of the theatrical producer Gordon Craig who in the early 20th century attempted to reproduce realism on stage with fully plumbed and working interior sets, real trees, gravel and soil for outside settings etc, even utilising giant tanks of water in which to stage shipboard scenes. Real objects are on stage, yes. but doesn't this miss the point of an audience engaging with players and text to create their own realism? Another result of this is an oddly dehumanizing one, as our attention is distracted from the interplay of characters by the piling on of detail. That for me is the basic problem with Von Stroheim Not to say Von Stroheim wasn't a great film maker, as Greed definitely proves. But I can't help feeling the cutting helped Greed more than hurt it. The recent TCM restoration, while fascinating and something to be grateful for, only serves to illustrate this, and in Wedding March we see just how indulgent the Von could become.

Choosing himself as leading man didn't help either. In The Merry Widow, John Gilbert was able to engage the audience through his charm and charisma. However here, Von Stroheim's impoverished Prince looks rather villainous and appears both cold hearted and kinky - not an endearing combination. He mostly gives a statue-like performance and only Fay Wray, vibrantly fresh and beautiful, engages us emotionally.

Admittedly the story becomes more gripping in the last half hour or so, and the ending (a surprisingly bitter one) made me wish the 2nd Part had survived.

It's definitely worth seeing, both as cinema and for what it tells us of this fascinating figure, but once is enough.

Erich Von Stroheim is known for his iron-clad grip on his productions. "The Wedding March" is no exception. But his desire for perfection is one reason this movie is so wonderful. For those of you who only know him as Max von Mayerling in "Sunset Blvd." and Fay Wray as King Kong's "girlfriend", you need to do yourself a favor and watch this movie. It's touchingly beautiful and doesn't end quite the way you'd think it would.