The Wedding March
About The Wedding March
In Vienna in 1914, Prince Nicki, a cavalry officer from a noble house that is out of money, sees the innkeeper’s daughter Mitzi during a parade by St. Stephen’s. Her butcher fiancé Schani makes a scene. At a gun salute Nicki’s horse injures her. He has Schani arrested, visits her in hospital, and meets her again at the tavern where she plays the harp. To rescue the family he agrees to marry Cecelia, daughter of the manufacturer Schweisser, who wants a title. Schani, released, reads of the wedding, tries to force himself on Mitzi, and is stopped by his own father. He waits at the church with a gun. Mitzi promises to marry Schani if he lets Nicki go. Nicki leaves with Cecelia.
Cast & crew
More about The Wedding March
Erich von Stroheim wrote, directed, and played Nicki. Pat Powers produced with him. Paramount released this half on 6 October 1928 with a synchronized score and effects, on disc and on film, and no spoken dialogue. Fay Wray is Mitzi. ZaSu Pitts is Cecelia. Josef von Sternberg and Frank E. Hull cut the material down. Stroheim’s first-part assembly had run about 25,795 feet. The issued film is 113 minutes. Cameramen include Hal Mohr, Ray Rennahan, and William C. McGann.
Themes
Background
The story opens in the Vienna of 1914, with a court, a cavalry regiment, and a marriage traded for a factory owner’s money, in the months before the war that the lost second half used as Nicki’s death.
Making
Stroheim shot a two-part story and Paramount would release only a wedding, not the honeymoon. Sternberg’s cut stops when the carriage leaves the church. What Schani does afterward survived only as the lost second feature.
Look
Hal Mohr, Ray Rennahan, and William C. McGann are among the cameramen on the Vienna parade, the hospital, the harp in the tavern, and the church steps where Schani waits.
Music
No spoken dialogue. A synchronized score and effects went out on disc and on film. “Paradise,” by Kerr and Zamecnik, is the theme.
Preservation
The 113-minute Wedding March survives and was named to the National Film Registry in 2003. The Honeymoon, the second feature cut from the same negative, was lost when a print burned at the Cinémathèque française on 10 July 1959.
Notes
- Paramount split the footage into two features. The second, The Honeymoon, followed Nicki and Cecelia to the Alps and Mitzi’s marriage to Schani. Its last known copy burned at the Cinémathèque française on 10 July 1959.
- In the lost sequel, Schani fires at Nicki, Cecelia shields him, Mitzi says she will enter a convent, and Nicki is killed in the war.
- The score is credited to Louis De Francesco, Adolph Deutsch, Vernon Duke, and J. S. Zamecnik. The theme song “Paradise” has words by Harry D. Kerr and music by Zamecnik.
- The Library of Congress put The Wedding March on the National Film Registry in 2003.
- It entered the public domain in the United States in 2024.
- Other cameramen on the long shoot were Roy H. Klaffki, Ben F. Reynolds, Buster Sorenson, and Harris Thorpe.
Scenes
- Nicki sees Mitzi in the crowd at the St. Stephen’s parade.
- His horse injures her during the salute, and Schani is arrested.
- She plays the harp in the tavern.
- Schani stands outside the wedding with a gun until Mitzi bargains herself for Nicki’s life.
Also available
- Internet Archive (ErichVonStroheimsTheWeddingMarch1928)
- Wikimedia Commons (The Wedding March (1928) Restored Synchronized Sound.ia.webm)
