Silent Society Celebrates its 15^th Anniversary with Erich von Stroheim’s Restored Masterpiece, The Wedding March

The Silent Society, in association with the American Cinematheque, presented a special screening of Paramount’s 1928 Erich von Stroheim masterpiece, The Wedding March, starring Fay Wray and Erich von Stroheim. Presented in 35mm with Technicolor sequence, the film, newly restored by film historians Kevin Brownlow and Patrick Stanbury, featured a newly recorded orchestral score composed by Carl Davis.

Erich von Stroheim is notorious as the aggrieved director whose masterworks were surreptitiously removed from his control by studio heads. Nearly all of his silent pictures were severely cut without his consent. The Wedding March is no exception, as his attempt to have his epic released in two parts was dismissed along with his editorial responsibilities. Though Part Two was released in Europe as The Honeymoon and was destroyed in a Cinematheque Française fire days after von Stroheim’s death in 1957, The Wedding March was released as a stand alone feature in the US. This print follows the instructions for editing that von Stroheim prepared for a 1954 version screened in Paris. It combines the best surviving original material from The Library of Congress with footage from prints from the Cinematheque Française, including a newly copied Technicolor sequence. A lavish, bawdy, "fragile play of love", The Wedding March features von Stroheim and Fay Wray in, what was for her, a career-changing role.

The film was presented with a newly commissioned orchestral soundtrack composed and conducted by Carl Davis.

On Friday night Joseph von Stroheim, son of the famed director, was present at the screening. It was the first time he had seen the restored version of his father’s masterpiece, and he was thrilled by the opportunity and the audience’s reaction.

The program was preceded by a silent animated cartoon by Walter Lantz and rare filmed interviews with Walter Lantz and Fay Wray.

This program was made possible by grants from Robert Dickson and The Walter Lantz Foundation. Special thanks to Hollywood Heritage Board members Randy Haberkamp, Kay Tornborg, and Barbara Smith.

For information on Silent Film Screenings in the LA area visit The Silent Majority at http://www. mdle.com/ClassicFilms/ or the Hollywood Heritage web site at: http://www.hollywoodheritage.org.