Screen Improvement on Stage Hit

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 45, 23 February 1938, Page 11

Screen Improvement on Stage Hit

“THE BRIDE WORE RED" STARS JOAN CRAWFORD (Regent: Screening Sat. week.) Once again the screen improves on an outstanding stage hit. “The Bride Wore Red, ’ ’ was Ferenc Molnar’s “The Girl from Trieste." Remembered, of course, as a rich human experience depicted on the stage, the story has gained in celluloid. The Cinderella story of a poor beautiful girl who acquired luxury for a fleeting time and then became rich in love, has been directed with the delicate feminine influence of Dorothy Arzner, Hollywood’s only woman director. The company went up into the High Sierras for scenes to duplicate those of the Austrian Tyrol in Molnar’s original. Aside from the technical charm of this picture, there is the superb acting of the cast, which includes lovely Lynne Carver, Reginald Owen, Billie Burke, George Zucco and Dickie Moore. Deeply human in theme, yet repleto with amusing comedy situations and characters, “The Bride Wore Red" is the intensely dramatic story of a waterfront cabaret singer and dancer who suddenly becomes a Cinderella. Aa Anni, the vivacious waterfront waif around whom the story is woven, Miss Crawford culminates three years of voice study by singing on the screen for the first time. She also dances the tango. Like all of Molnar’s characters the people are down-to-earth and real. The swift-moving action takes place during four weeks. In those weeks, through the whim of a philosophical nobleman, Anni is sent to a fashionable mountain resort where she becomes a society belle. Forced to choose between the humble Giuljo, played by Tone, and the wealthy Rudi, portrayed by Young, Anni faces a problem that determines the future course of her life. Anni’s decision and her constant fear of discovery make for romance suspense and humour