A happy couple’s engagement is broken when the heroine discovers her fiancé’s infidelity. She decides to marry another but a more tragic fate is waiting in the wings because, well, look at the title.
Home Media Availability: Stream courtesy of the Danish Film Institute.
Bang, bang, my baby shot me down.
The Danes helped lead the charge in spinning vice and exploitation films into box office gold and while Bride of Death is a classier piece of goods than the human trafficking fare, it is definitely a kissing cousin of the genre. Pioneer August Blom had directed The White Slave Trade in 1910 and while, like most early directors, he worked in a variety of genres, he had a firm grasp of how to play peekaboo with censors and how to smuggle his message across with broad hints and judicious cutaways.
Bride of Death centers on a love triangle. Aase (Agnete Blom) and Tage (Robert Dinesen) are passionately in love and engaged to be married but Otte (Aage Hertel) keeps sniffing around and making everyone uncomfortable. He can’t keep his hands to himself, forcing Aase to continuously swat him away. Does he get the hint? He does not.
(The film’s scenario includes an attempt at footsie under the table but is prefaced with a note that the shot should probably be omitted and it was. However, it’s interesting to see what scenarist Otto Gulmann intended to get across.)
Otte sees that he is getting nowhere with Aase and turns his attention to encouraging Tage to drink and drink and drink some more. The men leave Aase’s house in merry spirits. While walking home, Tage is accosted by a woman on the street. (The available print has no intertitles at this point but the program booklet states that she is a lady of the night.) Otte sees this but does nothing to interfere and goes home instead. Tage refuses the woman’s advances at first but quickly relents and invites her into his apartment. She takes off her coat, he turns over his photo of Aase…
Judicious cutaway.
The version I saw just shows the woman walking past Otte before setting her sights on Tage. In the film’s scenario, she propositions Otte and he directs her to offer her services to Tage. Judging from the way the scenes in the film are cut, it does seem that this sequence was shot and then excised. The interaction obviously makes Otte far more culpable in Tage’s cheating, though Tage was sober enough to feel guilty and turn over Aase’s photograph.
The next day, Aase goes to visit Tage but spots a woman’s hat, coat and stole strewn across the living room. She listens at the bedroom door and what she hears horrifies her. Aase appropriates the stole as evidence and leaves. The only way forward is to burn Tage’s photos and letters and give him the heave ho, which is exactly what she does.
Tage calls on Aase and she confronts him about his assignation. He tries to win her back but she is immovable and he departs. This, of course, gives Otte an opening and soon, a wedding announcement hits the newspapers. Tage, who is still brokenhearted, reads it and decides that he must take drastic action. So, he orders lilies and a vial of poison for two and prepares to send a message to the bride…
I realize that we wouldn’t have a movie without this particular plot device but, seriously, were the two worst men in Copenhagen really Aase’s only choice? Aase could stand in the street and throw rocks and hit a random passerby and he’d probably still be a better option.
The story is a tragedy and this kind of thing was extremely popular with audiences of the time, so August Blom and company were not outside the bounds of reason in making it but I personally found it to be rough going. (I am likewise unimpressed by old Hollywood pictures that consist entirely of the romantic leads moping around and lighting one another’s cigarettes. Your mileage will vary with this picture, is my point.)
However, that is not to say that this type of story was the only option of the era. Bride of Death’s tone is particularly irritating coming on the heels of my reviewing Evgeni Bauer’s Twilight of a Woman’s Soul, made just a year later, which involves its heroine returning violence for violence on a physical and emotional level and the immature male lead forced to stew in his own juices. If only Aase had taken a similar route.
That said, Bride of Death does have many positives to recommend it.
There are some street scenes but most of the film takes place on fairly cramped sets. However, August Blom used a few clever tricks to expand this limited space. For example, Aase’s boudoir is the smallest set of all, but the vanity mirror is used to reflect people coming and going, as well as offering a triple view of Aase as she is lost in thought. Later, during the wedding dance, the live musicians are placed on a second level of the narrow set, creating movement in what would otherwise be blank space.
Despite the heavy use of sets, standard at the time, this is a very attractive film indeed. I am a sucker for the moody lighting of the 1910s and Bride of Death has several lovely scenes illuminated only by a fireplace or a single lamp, offering a cinematic vison that matches the dark tone of the story.
The guys carry on a bit in their performances but I very much enjoyed the performance of Agnete Blom, who is simply heartbreaking as Aase. The picture calls for lengthy medium shots of her sitting heartbroken and she manages to convey her pain to the camera without slipping over into hamminess, which is no small challenge. And, on a more trivial level, I loved all of her frocks.
I’m a bit torn on Bride of Death. The Bloms hit it out of the park but the screenplay’s apparent demand for the audience to sympathize with Tage is just a bridge too far for me. As I said, this genre was wildly popular but I much prefer the “woman scorned” variation.
If the doomed romance genre is something you enjoy, this is probably going to play better for you. As for me, I admired this picture on a technical level but could not commit to the narrative.
Where can I see it?
Stream for free courtesy of the Danish Film Institute. The subtitles are Danish and there are presently no English subs yet but the story is pretty easy to follow.
☙❦❧
Like what you’re reading? Please consider sponsoring me on Patreon. All patrons will get early previews of upcoming features, exclusive polls and other goodies.
Disclosure: Some links included in this post may be affiliate links to products sold by Amazon and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Movies Silently 