This Marion Davies vehicle, "The Bride's Play," is a simple love triangle, but augmented by nested fairytale stories and a fairytale depiction of Ireland as a quaintly traditional land of leisure (for the wealthy central characters, at least). Yet, given its star's famous relationship with yellow-journalism tycoon William Randolph Hearst, her character's choice here contains a hint of reflection of real life, as she balances her relationship with the arts, as represented in the film by a philandering poet, and with that of a rich old man living in a castle. Hearst produced "The Bride's Play;" her ultimate decision is of little wonder.
The fairytale and poetic narrative devices are of more interest here, but, unfortunately, the filmmakers seemed to think themselves poets, with visuals largely consisting of pageantry and repeated, albeit admittedly lovely, shots of waves in the background breaking on rocky shores, along with an over abundance of title cards--some featuring art and others bad poetry. Indeed, as a vehicle for Davies, this fails, as it doesn't allow her to showcase her talents. Better directors, like King Vidor, knew how to do this while creating narratively and visually exquisite pictures, such as "Show People" (1928).
Nevertheless, "The Bride's Play" features a scene early on where Davies reads to children a fairytale, which is briefly imagined on screen and, then, reflected humorously in the film's reality via a pig. Then, Davies's character reads a prohibited book of love poems by the very poet she is later to be engaged. She also seemingly chooses her mates based on the reflections in a wishing well, while the richer guy's servants huddle around a cauldron to share the medieval story of how one of their master's ancestors suffered a runaway bride due to the "bride's play" nonsense whereby the bride asks guests, leading up to the groom, who loves her best.
