The Wedding March

Vienna before 1914. Prince Nicki is an officer of good family and no money, and his parents expect him to marry money. During a procession he sees Mitzi in the crowd, a girl from the poor quarter whose family keeps a tavern. Something starts between them. But his mother and father have already decided: he will marry Cecelia, who cannot walk and is rich. Mitzi's side is pressing her too, toward the coarse butcher Schani. Two weddings are prepared at once. Erich von Stroheim directs and plays Nicki, with Fay Wray as Mitzi. A hundred and nine minutes. Stroheim designed it in two parts; the studio cut and released the first, and the second is now considered lost. Even what survives is among the most beautifully shot work he did.