BBC News Online: Entertainment

King Kong actress makes comeback

Fay Wray is known as the actress who stole King Kong's heart. But she was back in the UK to introduce the screening of Eric Von Stroheim's masterpiece, The Wedding March, as part of the London Film Festival.

In the film Fay Wray plays opposite the leading actor and director Eric Von Stroheim.

He plays a cavalry officer in Vienna just before World War I. Wray plays the character of Mitzi, who falls in love at the Corpus Christie procession. But the course of true love does not run smoothly.

The Wedding March was released in 1928 with the then teenage Canadian star heading the bill.

To date the actress describes it as one of her favourite films.

"I think it is a great film, it is a great demonstration of what film can and should be."

But the film was doomed as it went over budget and the director Von Stroheim was sacked.

The film was hardly ever shown and the sequel to the film, The Honeymoon, was destroyed in a fire in 1957.

Marching On

The Wedding March has been re-orchestrated and restored using the last known prints from archive vaults in America and France.

The film is being shown for two nights only at the newly furbished Sadler's Well Theatre in London.

Speaking to BBC News 24, the 91-year-old Canadian-born actress, Fay Wray relished the invitation to introduce the film,

"I'm happy, really happy, it seems incredible to me in a way that I would be around to accept the excitement that comes with presenting it again. But the opportunity to do so is just delicious," she said.

Chief executive for Channel Four Michael Jackson was instrumental in persuading the actress to the screening.

"Fay's visit is tremendously exciting as she is one of the last of a generation of actors that was there at the infancy of cinema," he said.

"Her presence at the screening of this beautifully restored print is an an unmissable moment for all cinema lovers."

The Wedding March will also be shown on Channel 4's new subscription digital film channel FilmFour on November 22.

Internet Links

London Film Festival: Official Site

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