Themes: Pygmalion Stories, Assumed Identities, Class Differences
Main Cast: Joan Crawford, Franchot Tone, Robert Young, Billie Burke, Reginald Owen
Release Year: 1937
Country: US
Run Time: 103 minutes
Plot
Based on The Bride from Trieste by Ferenc Molnar, The Bride Wore Red stars Joan Crawford as the eponymous heroine. A singer in a seedy Budapest dive, Anni (Crawford) is mistaken for a socialite thanks to a practical joke perpetrated by the cynical Count Armalia (George Zucco). Though a bit confused about her new favored status, Anni happily hobnobs with the "best people" on the Tyrol, including handsome Rudi Pal (Robert Young), who falls in love with her. She manages to pull off her charade for two full weeks, at which time the Count callously reveals the truth. Rudi Pal gallantly offers to marry Anni anyway, but she settles for a happier -- if less financially advantageous -- union with humble village postman Guilio (Franchot Tone, Crawford's husband at the time). When all is said and done, The Bride Wore Red is essentially a showcase for MGM's wardrobe department, with Joan Crawford garbed in a variety of gorgeous gowns, each one more dazzling than the last. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The Bride Wore Red is one of those films that caused Joan Crawford to be labeled "box office poison," and as a result it has a very bad rap. The truth is that, while it's by no means a great film, it's also not the train wreck that it sometimes is made out to be. There's no getting around the fact that the screenplay is strictly from hunger; presumably the Ferenc Molnar play from which it is drawn had more meat to it, along with some degree of wit and insight. The clunky script that has been devised for the occasion is trite and familiar, with little in it to offer surprise. Giving in to the demands of the time -- and presumably of studio boss Mayer -- the ending is ridiculous and feels tacked on. However, director Dorothy Arzner does very well with the material, including creating an figurine opening transition that works very well and a party that opens with a close-up of a bell and moves on into a very impressive establishing shot. Crawford is Crawford, and her fans will have a field day here; but even those not so enamored of the actress will probably admit that she plays the role with more flair and ingenuity than it deserves. Billie Burke is wonderful in a supporting role, and Robert Young and Franchot Tone do quite well indeed. And of course, Adrian provides some glorious fashions to set Crawford off to her best advantage. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Daniel B. Cathcart - Art Director, Cedric Gibbons - Art Director, Edwin B. Willis - Art Director, Val Raset - Choreography, Adrian - Costume Designer, Dorothy Arzner - Director, Adrienne Fazan - Editor, Franz Waxman - Composer (Music Score), Gus Kahn - Songwriter, Franz Waxman - Songwriter, George Folsey - Cinematographer, George Folsey - Producer, Joseph L. Mankiewicz - Producer, Edwin B. Willis - Set Designer, Bradbury Foote - Screenwriter, Tess Slesinger - Screenwriter, Ferenc Molnar - Play Author
In a Trieste gambling casino, the cynical Count Armalia tells his friend Rudi Pal that the only thing separating aristocrats from peasants is luck. Later, in a waterfront cafe, he decides to prove his point by offering the club's singer, Anni Pavlovitch, money and a wardrobe to stay at an upper class resort hotel in the Alps for two weeks and pose as his friend Anne Vivaldi, an aristocrat's daughter. When Anni first arrives, she meets Giulio, a philosophical postal clerk who has no desire for wealth. She also meets her old friend Maria, who is happy being a maid in the hotel and warns Anni not to become the victim of Armalia's joke on his friends. That evening, Anni attracts the attention of Rudi, who is dining with his fiancée, Maddalena Monti, her father, Admiral Monti, and Contessa di Meina. Rudi begins to fall in love with Anni, but she is more attracted to Giulio. Hoping to lure Rudi into proposing to her, Anni extends her stay beyond the two weeks while the Contessa, who has been suspicious of her from the beginning, wires Armalia for information on her. When the reply comes through the post office, Giulio reads it and learns the truth, but on the way to deliver it, he meets Anni, who goes to his cottage and realizes that she loves him, even though she still thinks that marriage to Rudi will bring her greater security. Later, she falls and Giulio loses the telegram going to help her. On the evening of an annual costume party at which the hotel guests dress as peasants, Anni snubs Giulio when he offers her flowers, but later confesses her love. She still plans to marry Rudi, though, whom she has finally gotten to propose, after refusing to be his mistress. The next day, Rudi tells Maddalena that he is in love with Anni and she steps aside, then suggests that they dine together that evening. While Maria helps Anni pack, she tells her that she no longer has a heart and that the gaudy red beaded dress she plans to wear is what she is really like. During dinner, Giulio delivers a copy of the telegram to the Contessa, who shows it to Rudi and the others. Maddalena is genuinely sympathetic, and Anni tells Rudi that he should marry his childhood sweetheart because she really is a lady. Finally, after being comforted by Maria, Anni realizes that Rudi did the right thing and she leaves the hotel after the manager demands payment of her bill. When she leaves, taking only her peasant costume from the ball, Giulio is happily waiting for her.
Howard Barnes of the New York Herald Tribune wrote, "Joan Crawford has a glamorous field day in The Bride Wore Red.... With a new hair-do and more wide-eyed than ever, she plays at being a slattern, a fine lady, and a peasant with all of the well-known Crawford sorcery. It is not entirely her fault that she always remains herself. [The film] has no dramatic conviction and little of the comic flavor that might have made it amusing though slight. Your enjoyment of it will depend on how much of Miss Crawford you can take at one stretch.... The direction of Dorothy Arzner is always interesting and sometimes...is extraordinarily imaginative, but here she has not been able to give a vapid Cinderella pipe dream more than a handsome pictorial front."
