Barbara Stanwyck was my main reason for seeing 'The Secret Bride' (the working title being 'Concealment'). Warren William is very good in the right role and he did have enough of those. Grant Mitchell and Glenda Farrell were always worth watching. William Dieterle is not one of my favourite directors, to me he varied somewhat depending on the material given to work with, but there are films he did that are great. One of the prime examples being one of the best versions of 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'.
'The Secret Bride' is a mildly interesting curio, but to me it wasn't a great film. Or particularly good even. A case of being promising to begin with but became routine and completely nonsense too early. Stanwyck and William both come off well, though Stanwyck certainly had better films and performances (in terms of William performances-wise his here is towards being one of his better ones). In Dieterle's case 'The Secret Bride' is to be seen namely for completest sake, but it leans towards being one of his near-misfires from a directing standpoint.
Will start with the good. 'The Secret Bride' looks great, especially the photography which is beautiful and atmospheric. Stanwyck has some lovely clothes here too. It's nicely scored without being inappropriately jaunty or over-powering, a danger for the type of film it is. The film actually starts off very well and the early stages of Farrell's subplot really does intrigue.
Dieterle has brilliant moments visually that just about stop his direction from being completely weak. All the cast do a great job, with steely Stanwyck and cool William being strong leads and Mitchell and Farrell are both also delights.
Sadly, there are two big things that particularly spoil 'The Secret Bride' to a significant degree. The script is even drier than out of date bread and is quite flabby, some of the dialogue even induces unintentional laughter which was unlikely to have been the intent. The story started off promisingly but too early loses momentum (badly) and interest. It becomes dull and very routine, with too much being too obvious prematurely which really took away from any unpredictability or suspense. The last quarter especially also gets truly nonsensical to a near-insulting degree.
Culminating in a cop-out, last minute-feeling ending. Despite brilliant moments visually, the direction is very undistinguished and struggles to keep the material staying afloat (overall failing by the film's end). By the final quarter, it felt like Dieterle no longer had trust in the material and had given up.
All in all, watchable for the cast and visuals but the script and story failures prevent it from being above curiosity value level. 5/10
'The Secret Bride' is a mildly interesting curio, but to me it wasn't a great film. Or particularly good even. A case of being promising to begin with but became routine and completely nonsense too early. Stanwyck and William both come off well, though Stanwyck certainly had better films and performances (in terms of William performances-wise his here is towards being one of his better ones). In Dieterle's case 'The Secret Bride' is to be seen namely for completest sake, but it leans towards being one of his near-misfires from a directing standpoint.
Will start with the good. 'The Secret Bride' looks great, especially the photography which is beautiful and atmospheric. Stanwyck has some lovely clothes here too. It's nicely scored without being inappropriately jaunty or over-powering, a danger for the type of film it is. The film actually starts off very well and the early stages of Farrell's subplot really does intrigue.
Dieterle has brilliant moments visually that just about stop his direction from being completely weak. All the cast do a great job, with steely Stanwyck and cool William being strong leads and Mitchell and Farrell are both also delights.
Sadly, there are two big things that particularly spoil 'The Secret Bride' to a significant degree. The script is even drier than out of date bread and is quite flabby, some of the dialogue even induces unintentional laughter which was unlikely to have been the intent. The story started off promisingly but too early loses momentum (badly) and interest. It becomes dull and very routine, with too much being too obvious prematurely which really took away from any unpredictability or suspense. The last quarter especially also gets truly nonsensical to a near-insulting degree.
Culminating in a cop-out, last minute-feeling ending. Despite brilliant moments visually, the direction is very undistinguished and struggles to keep the material staying afloat (overall failing by the film's end). By the final quarter, it felt like Dieterle no longer had trust in the material and had given up.
All in all, watchable for the cast and visuals but the script and story failures prevent it from being above curiosity value level. 5/10