Product Details

• Actors: Gary Cooper, Anna Sten, Ralph Bellamy, Helen Vinson, Sig Ruman
• Directors: King Vidor
• Writers: Edith Fitzgerald, Edwin H. Knopf
• Producers: Samuel Goldwyn
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Language: English, Polish
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• VHS Release Date: January 31, 1995
• Run Time: 83 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303347738
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #329,611 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

One of the lesser-known satisfactions in Gary Cooper's career is this 1935 King Vidor film, an offbeat blend of romance, comedy, and tragedy. It begins in screwball territory: Cooper plays a novelist whose partying ways have stalled his career and made his new manuscript unpublishable. He and wife Helen Vinson like the high life (any resemblance to Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald is probably intentional), and she doesn't stick around while he tries to write a new book in a quiet Connecticut country house. The isolation puts him into proximity with a heartfelt young immigrant girl (Anna Sten), whose Polish community provides a subject for his new book.

If you think Cooper was a merely the High Noon guy, a lanky Western hero, this is one of the movies (among many) that dispel the idea: his utter naturalness is a gold standard for a certain kind of movie-star acting. Directing him on the set the first day, Vidor worried about the star's mumbling and forgetfulness with dialogue. "Imagine my amazement," Vidor later wrote, "when I watched our first day's work on the screen and observed and heard a performance that overflowed with charm and personality." Anna Sten was another issue: the Russian actress had been brought to the U.S. with great fanfare by producer Samuel Goldwyn, because he wanted to have his own foreign Garbo/Dietrich under contract. Her cool presence failed to generate audience interest, and Goldwyn gave up on her after The Wedding Night. She's a problem, but Cooper keeps it going, and the movie itself is unexpectedly warm. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Retro Sleeper, August 3, 2006

By 

Randy Keehn (Williston, ND United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wedding Night [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I have always been a big fan of Gary Cooper films. Although I've seen just about all of his major movies, there are a number of his lesser films I haven't had much opportunity to see. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to see "The Wedding Night" tonight. I had taped it recently to watch at a later date. The brief glimpse I caught of it then led me to think it was a silly romance that the 30's seemed to specialize in. I found out that it is an impressive love story with a view from many angles.

The movie starts out rather clumsily, I thought. We see a happy-go-lucky young couple partying their days away. We discover that the man (Cooper) is a writer and we discover his publisher isn't too happy with his latest work (or lack thereof). They head off to his rural residence where he would, hopefully, get back on track for his next novel. We meet his new neighbors from Poland and we discover his wife misses the big city. She heads back (somewhat reluctantly) as he meets the new neighbors's daughter. From here on the movie becomes a very interesting study of love; its' innocence, its' responsibility, its' rediscovery, its' expectations, etc..

I understood later that the opening of the movie that I thought to be clumsy was actually a good introduction to a young couple who lacked the seriousness that every relationship has to have. In perhaps the best scene in the movie, the young wife speaks frankly on that subject. Indeed the level of seriousness that the movie rises to is a transformation that we all share in. I was impressed with how well the movie was able to draw me into it in this way.

The acting is very good to excellent with top honors (in my ballot) going to an actress I, frankly, never heard of before; Helen Vinson. Cooper was good as well as Russian actress Anna Sten in one of her few US films. Sig Ruman always seems to play a good character role and this movie is no exception. All of the cast seems to do well to support the emotions of the movie.

Nowadays, when a very good movie is released with little fanfare, we call it a "sleeper". "The Wedding Night" comes across to me as one of many "retro sleepers" I had a chance to see lately and it ranks as one of the best.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent, sensitive Love Story, July 22, 2006

By 

Fernando Silva "fedo" (Santiago de Chile.) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wedding Night [VHS] (VHS Tape)

King Vidor was a master, period; and this unjustly underrated film shows why. This kind of atmospheric, sensitive, nostalgic movies aren't made anymore; they belong to the Classic Era.

I wasn't sure what to expect after reeading so much about this wonderful film, positive, negative and so-so opinions. Well, this film confirms, at least to me, that Gary Cooper played some of his best roles during the 1930s, just before his definite screen-persona was established. Here he portrays a sophisticated writer, leading and empty, foolish existence, with an equally sophisticated wife, portrayed by Helen Vinson, who is truly outstanding in her role, who discovers true love when she meets a plain, simple, sweet (immigrant) Polish farm-girl, when he goes back to his hometown in Connecticut.

Since when I was young I had mostly-only seen Cooper's films from the 1940s and 1950s, it was a huge and pleasant discovery when the "1930s' Gary Cooper" began unveiling after watching on VHS/DVD some of his most unique films: "A Farewell to Arms", "Design for Living", "Desire", "Morocco", "Peter Ibbetson"... He was suche a gifted, natural, unaffected, sensitive performer, giving truthful romantic meaning to his portrayals, so devoid of any corny attachements. He was one of the greatest actors ever, unjustly underrated and stereotyped by his later naive-taciturn roles, in which he also was excellent, but there was much more than that to his Screen Persona. He was also great in sophisticated comedies and senstive romantic films like this one.

Anna Sten's performance is equally senstive and it's a pity she did not have more leading roles in American Films.

If you are looking for delicate, sensitive, well-told, romantic, sad love story, this one is for you.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Cooper Film that never appears on TV, October 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Wedding Night [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I have been a huge Cooper fan since childhood (before VCRs, when we had no choice but to wait for films to show up on TV). As an adult, I have tried to procure every Cooper film available anywhere. I enjoy seeing Cooper in everything (even when the film itself is sort of a dud) and I often see why some of the films get shown so infrequently/why they get bad reviews. This film is one of Cooper's best romantic parts, and I have no idea why it is not shown often or highly reviewed. There is real chemistry between the stars,and some beautifully romantic moments. I want to see some romance in Gary's movies-not just action adventure type stuff. This is definitely one of his steemiest/sexiest roles! Like "Ball of Fire", I can watch it again and again.