The Bride Wore Red

A good deal less provocative and interesting than Christopher Strong, and I prefer some of the silliness in Strong’s script to this refined dialogue: better to miss by a wide margin the bar set by Raphaelson and Brackett and Mankiewicz and Wilder than to be as nearly witty as in this film, so obviously trying for it (”Waiters are notoriously better-mannered than those they serve”). It’s another of Crawford’s working-class heroines clawing her way to the top, here a cabaret singer given the opportunity to live like a lady for two weeks by a Count with nothing better to do with his money than test his class theories on real human subjects. An unusually expressive and well-reasoned performance from Crawford — I’m used to nothing but unthinking mannerism from her until Cukor gets hold of her in A Woman’s Face — which may be due to her friendship and presumably strong working relationship with Arzner. It’s a solid but not particularly special love triangle film between the playboy who thinks he loves her, the postman who does, and the girl who doesn’t know what she really wants caught between the two worlds. Enjoyable light viewing, but my idea of Arzner’s sass (there in Strong, and I’m expecting it in full force in Wild Party!) is little in evidence here.