Bride of the Regiment (partially lost Pre-Code musical film; 1930)
Official poster for the movie's theatrical release.
Status: Partially Lost
Bride of the Regiment is a 1930 Technicolor film produced by First National meant to be a remake of the 1927 film known as The Lady In Ermine, starring Vivienne Segal, Walter Pidgeon, and Allan Prior as the three main characters.
Directed by former actor John Francis Dillon and edited by future Oscar nominee LeRoy Stone, the film surrounds an Austrian colonel named Vultow who's holding a rebel count named Adrian as a hostage, threatening to execute him unless his countess wife named Anna-Marie agrees to have sex with him. The film was well-received at the time, with most of the praise being levied on the soundtrack and cinematography. [1] [2] [3]
However, due to its scandalous content such as a subplot revolving around one of the count's servants trying to steal Vultow's love in order to get out of an arranged marriage, a scene consisting of Anna-Marie's unnamed ancestor pretending to be her and getting Vultow drunk, and dialogue deemed risque for the time, it was given a very limited run and later banned under the Hays Code. Other than the audio, only stills and a 20-second film fragment exist.
Availability
The audio of the film was preserved on Vitaphone records and eventually posted on YouTube in 2 parts, where it is still listenable today.
Stills from the film have been found from a variety of sources, including a French movie wiki, [4] a Blogspot copypasted from what seems to be an old edit of the film's Wikipedia article, [5] a Spanish Tumblr post, [6] an art gallery, [7] and even a website offering wall art. [8]
On February 16th, 2022, 3 posters for the film were found on a Blogspot known as Mi Enciclopedia De Cine, [9] with one of them even listing the name of a theater, the Teatro Apolo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. However, on September 30, 2023, a new poster was found listed alongside an already found one on a website dedicated to movie posters which claimed that they were from Uruguay. [10]
Another notable detail is that the newly found poster is from 1932, which seems to indicate that First National tried to hock it off overseas once the Hays Code was put into effect.
On May 17, 2023, the YouTube channel Old Films and Stuff (who is also on Reddit under u/James_Fennell [11]) posted a 20-second fragment of the film onto YouTube. When asked in the comments about where he got it from, he said that he bought the fragment off of Ebay. He has not disclosed who sold it to him as of late.
Gallery
Videos
Images
Vultow first entering Count Adrian's castle.
Adrian and Anna-Marie returning from church after their marriage.
The count's servant partaking in a musical number.
The count's servant with her fiancé. The count's silhouette cutter stands in the background.
Context unknown, as of writing.
Anna-Marie's ancestor approaching Vultow.
A publicity still credited to one Elmer Fryer.
An Argentinian poster, advertising a screening in Buenos Aires.
Another poster, presumably Argentinian.
An Uruguayan poster, dating 2 years after the film's release.
References
- ↑ New York Times article on the film. Retrieved 12 Jan '22
- ↑ Archived The Montreal Gazette article on the film. Retrieved 12 Jan '22
- ↑ Prescott Evening Courter article on the film. Retrieved 12 Jan '22
- ↑ notrecinema.com page of the film. Retrieved 12 Jan '22
- ↑ A Blogspot about the film containing a still. Retrieved 16 Jan '22
- ↑ A post from the Tumblr account gatutor.Retrieved 12 Feb '22,
- ↑ A listing for a publicity still, attributed to Elmer Fryer. Retrieved 21 Feb '22
- ↑ A Fine Art America listing of a still, uploaded by a user known as Granger. Retrieved 12 Feb '22
- ↑ A Blogspot / potential crypto miner which contains many Spanish film posters from 1930, BOTR included. Retrieved 16 Feb '22
- ↑ A poster found on the self-proclaimed "biggest private known exhibition of movie posters." Retrieved 30 Sept '23
- ↑ A Reddit post on the r/LostMedia subreddit Retrieved 30 Sept '23