WEDDING REHEARSAL

Original 9 3/4 inch x 7 1/2 inch Black and White Portrait of JOHN LODER in the 1932 Alexander Korda Comedy WEDDING REHEARSAL

Comedy about a bachelor marquis (Roland Young) who survives all his grandmother’s wedding plans for him by marrying off her ‘candidates’ to his friends, only to fall in love with his mother’s secretary (merle Oberon), a beauty beneath her glasses.

John Loder (1898 – 1988). The son of a British general, he was educated at Eton and at the Royal Military College and served with the 15th Hussars as a second lieutenant in Gallipoli in World War I, ending as a prisoner of war. He made his screen debut in 1926, appearing as an extra, along with Marlene Dietrich, in a dance-party scene in Alexander Korda’s German-made film “Madame Wants No Children”. Tall and aristocratically handsome, he played leads and second leads in a number of early Hollywood talkies before developing into a popular star in British films of the 1930s. He returned to Hollywood at the outbreak of World War II and for seven years played leads in second features and supporting roles in major productions without attaining the same prominent status he had held in Britain. He concluded the second American phase of his career with Broadway appearances in 1947 and 1950, then returned to England, where he appeared in several more films before retiring to his fifth wife’s ranch in Argentina.

The portrait is in good condition with lines and masking paint around his head and shoulders. It has been unevenly trimmed, with a small piece out of the bottom right corner and slight warping.