The Bride Wore Red
Encyclopedia
The Bride Wore Red is a 1937 motion picture, directed by Dorothy Arzner
, and starring Joan Crawford
, Franchot Tone
, Robert Young
and Billie Burke
. It was based on the unproduced play The Bride from Trieste by Ferenc Molnár
. In this "rags to riches
" tale, Crawford plays a cabaret
singer who poses as an aristocrat
. This film was the last of seven Crawford and co-star Franchot Tone (her then husband) would make together.
gambling casino, the cynical Count Armalia (George Zucco
) tells his friend Rudi Pal (Robert Young
) 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 (Joan Crawford
), 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 (Franchot Tone
), a philosophical postal clerk who has no desire for wealth. She also meets her old friend Maria (Mary Philips
), 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 (Lynne Carver
), her father, Admiral Monti (Reginald Owen
), and Contessa di Meina (Billie Burke
). 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.
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."
Dorothy Arzner
Dorothy Arzner was an American film director. Her directorial career in feature films spanned from the late 1920s into the early 1940s, a time period in which there were very few—if any—other women working in the field.- Biography :Born in San Francisco, California, Arzner grew up in Los...
, and starring Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
, Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone was an American stage, film, and television actor, star of Mutiny on the Bounty and many other films through the 1960s...
, Robert Young
Robert Young (actor)
Robert George Young was an American television, film, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best and as physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. .-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Young was the son of an Irish immigrant father...
and Billie Burke
Billie Burke
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke was an American actress. She is primarily known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live...
. It was based on the unproduced play The Bride from Trieste by Ferenc Molnár
Ferenc Molnár
LanguageFerenc Molnár was a Hungarian dramatist and novelist. His Americanized name was Franz Molnar...
. In this "rags to riches
Rags to riches
Rags to Riches refers to any situation in which a person rises from poverty to wealth, or sometimes from obscurity to fame. This is a common archetype in literature and popular culture ....
" tale, Crawford plays a cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
singer who poses as an aristocrat
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
. This film was the last of seven Crawford and co-star Franchot Tone (her then husband) would make together.
Plot
In a TriesteTrieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
gambling casino, the cynical Count Armalia (George Zucco
George Zucco
George Desylla Zucco was an English character actor who appeared, almost always in supporting roles, in 96 films during a career spanning two decades, from 1931 to 1951. He is fondly remembered for his roles in classic horror films.-Early life:Zucco was born in Manchester, England...
) tells his friend Rudi Pal (Robert Young
Robert Young (actor)
Robert George Young was an American television, film, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best and as physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. .-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Young was the son of an Irish immigrant father...
) 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 (Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
), money and a wardrobe to stay at an upper class resort hotel in the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
for two weeks and pose as his friend Anne Vivaldi, an aristocrat's daughter. When Anni first arrives, she meets Giulio (Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone
Franchot Tone was an American stage, film, and television actor, star of Mutiny on the Bounty and many other films through the 1960s...
), a philosophical postal clerk who has no desire for wealth. She also meets her old friend Maria (Mary Philips
Mary Philips
Mary Philips was an American stage and film actress.-Biography:Born in New London, Connecticut, she was the only child of Anna Hurley and Charles Philips of New Haven. She was educated in New Haven at what was then St. Mary's Academy. In 1920 she made her stage debut as a chorus girl...
), 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 (Lynne Carver
Lynne Carver
Lynne Carver was an American film actress. She appeared in 42 films between 1934 and 1953.Actress Lynne Carver was born Virginia Reid Sampson on September 13, 1916, in Douglas, Arizona...
), her father, Admiral Monti (Reginald Owen
Reginald Owen
John Reginald Owen was a British character actor. He was known for his many roles in British and American movies and later in television programs.-Personal:...
), and Contessa di Meina (Billie Burke
Billie Burke
Mary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke was an American actress. She is primarily known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live...
). 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.
Cast
- Joan CrawfordJoan CrawfordJoan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....
as Anni Pavlovitch - Franchot ToneFranchot ToneFranchot Tone was an American stage, film, and television actor, star of Mutiny on the Bounty and many other films through the 1960s...
as Giulio - Robert YoungRobert Young (actor)Robert George Young was an American television, film, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best and as physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. .-Early life:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Young was the son of an Irish immigrant father...
as Rudi Pal - Billie BurkeBillie BurkeMary William Ethelbert Appleton "Billie" Burke was an American actress. She is primarily known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the musical film The Wizard of Oz. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Emily Kilbourne in Merrily We Live...
as Contessa di Meina - Reginald OwenReginald OwenJohn Reginald Owen was a British character actor. He was known for his many roles in British and American movies and later in television programs.-Personal:...
as Admiral Monti - Lynne CarverLynne CarverLynne Carver was an American film actress. She appeared in 42 films between 1934 and 1953.Actress Lynne Carver was born Virginia Reid Sampson on September 13, 1916, in Douglas, Arizona...
as Maddelena Monti - George ZuccoGeorge ZuccoGeorge Desylla Zucco was an English character actor who appeared, almost always in supporting roles, in 96 films during a career spanning two decades, from 1931 to 1951. He is fondly remembered for his roles in classic horror films.-Early life:Zucco was born in Manchester, England...
as Count Armalia - Mary PhilipsMary PhilipsMary Philips was an American stage and film actress.-Biography:Born in New London, Connecticut, she was the only child of Anna Hurley and Charles Philips of New Haven. She was educated in New Haven at what was then St. Mary's Academy. In 1920 she made her stage debut as a chorus girl...
as Maria - Paul PorcasiPaul PorcasiPaul Porcasi was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 142 films between 1917 and 1945.He was born in Palermo, Sicily and died in Hollywood, California.-Selected filmography:* Broadway...
as Signor Nobili - Dickie Moore as Pietro
- Frank PugliaFrank PugliaFrank Puglia was an Italian film actor. Puglia had small but memorable roles in films including Casablanca and 1942's The Jungle Book. Born in Sicily, the actor started his career as a teen on stage in Italian operas. He emigrated to the U.S...
as Alberto - Adriana CaselottiAdriana CaselottiAdriana Mitchell Caselotti was an American actress and singer. She was the voice of the title character in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Caselotti was named as a Disney Legend in 1994.-Early life:...
as First Peasant Girl - Ann RutherfordAnn RutherfordAnn Rutherford is a Canadian-American actress in film, radio, and television. She has had a long career starring and co-starring in films, playing Polly Benedict on the big screen of the 1930s and 1940s in the Andy Hardy series, and on The Bob Newhart Show as Newhart's character's...
as Third Peasant Girl
Reception
Howard Barnes of the New York Herald TribuneNew York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
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."