The Bride of the Regiment (film)
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| The Bride of the Regiment (1930) | |
|---|---|
 Poster for the early Technicolor musical The Bride of the Regiment (1930) |
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| Directed by | John Francis Dillon |
| Written by | Ray Harris Humphrey Pearson based on the play by Rudolph Schanzer and Ernst Welisch |
| Starring | Vivienne Segal Walter Pidgeon Myrna Loy Allan Prior Lupino Lane Ford Sterling Louise Fazenda |
| Music by | Al Bryan Leonid S. Leonardi Edward Ward Al Dubin |
| Cinematography | Devereaux Jennings Charles Edgar Schoenbaum (Technicolor) |
| Editing by | LeRoy Stone |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | May 21, 1930 |
| Running time | 79 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Bride of the Regiment is a 1930 musical operetta film photographed entirely in Technicolor. It was based on the play The Lady In Ermine that opened on Broadway in 1922 and ran 232 performances. A new score was written for the film, with only one song ("When Hearts Are Young") being held over from the original show.
[edit] Pre-Code Sequences
The film was full of so much Pre-Code humor that it ran into censorship problems in many area. The film drew large crowds in Chicago where it played as an "Adults Only" feature. The soundtrack reveals some amazingly suggestive dialogue. In one sequence, Myrna Loy (playing a depraved dancer named Sophie) finds out Vultow (Walter Pidgeon) who had previously fallen for her charms and made love to her has met with Anna-Marie (Vivienne Segal) and fallen for her charms and has completely forgotten about her. Sophie declares "I'll get him back! I'll dance until his blood is steaming!" and proceeds to begin a smoldering dance number on top of a long dinner table in a a very seductive manner in an attempt to lure back Vultow from the charms of Anna-Marie. In another scene, Vultow has a conversation with Anna-Marie. He believes he has had sexual relations with her during the previous night. In reality, however, he dozed off after drinking too much liquor and dreamed the entire episode. The conversation runs as follows:
Vultow: "Have you learned that sometimes defeat can be sweet? That even surrender may have its, umm, compensation?
Anna-Marie: "I've learned how a gallant soldier, umm, conducts himself in victory"
Vultow: Merely a question of practice, my dear."
Anna-Marie: "Ha Ha."
Vultow: "My victories have been numerous."
Anna-Marie: "Really?"
[edit] Songs
- "Broken-Hearted Lover" (Sung by Allan Prior)
- "Dream Away" (Sung by Walter Pidgeon and Vivienne Segal)
- "When Hearts Are Young" (Sung by Walter Pidgeon and Extras)
- "In a Gypsy Camp" (Danced by Myrna Loy)
- "Shrimp's Dance" (Danced by Lupino Lane)
- "Soldier Song" (Sung by Walter Pidgeon and Soldiers)
- "You Still Retain That Girlish Figure" (Sung by Lupino Lane and Louise Fazenda)
[edit] Preservation
No film elements are known to survive. The large amount of Pre-Code content, which raised alarm even before the Code began to be enforced (in 1934) may have contributed to the film's disappearance as this would have made the film unacceptable for television back in the 1950s when a number of early Technicolor features were transferred to black and white film. The soundtrack, which was recorded on Vitaphone disks, survives intact.
