ROYAL WEDDING FILM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26629, 27 November 1947, Page 5

ROYAL WEDDING FILM

PAGES’ BRIGHT DIVERSION

COMMAND PERFORMANCE SCREENING

N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent

Rec. 9 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 26. A preview of the first colour film of the royal wedding reveals that the Princesses and two five-year-old pages, Prince William of Gloucester and Prince Michael of Kent, provided considerable diversion when the photographers were endeavouring to assemble the official wedding group. At one stage William produced a cavernous yawn just as members of the Royal Family and visiting royalties had taken up their positions, and at another, Michael broke into the first steps of what appeared to be a juvenile tap dance. The Daily Telegraph says that in spite of the dull light, the reds and blues of the Household Cavalry and the splendour of the State coach stand out brilliantly against the autumn hues of the park. The rich pageantry of the Abbey ceremony is impressive.

The procession might have been photographed more brilliantly but hardly more charmingly in a studio. The dresses, particularly the Queen’s, look striking. Few people in the Abbey, and none outside, can have enjoyed as comprehensive a view of events as the film will give to millions. One of the most delightful features is an informal scene in Buckingham Palace after the wedding. There, Princess Elizabeth, with the strain of the ceremony over, is free to display her dress. The Evening Standard says the colour film cost £64,000, and lasts 30 minutes. The Abbey scenes lack some of the clarity of detail which distinguished the news reels, but the flashing scarlets of the processions from

and to the Palace are magnificently impressive. The moment when the crowds broke the police cordon into the forecourt becomes really dramatic. The film was screened last night, when Royalty attended a command performance of a film which the British public will never see. The film, “The Bishop’s Wife,” is American, and comes under the new British tax. The King and Queen, Princess Margaret, the Queen of Denmark, and King Michael of Rumania made tortuous progress to the Leicester Square Theatre to see the film.

Huge crowds choked the approaches and pressed against the steel crushbarriers. Numbers fainted and had to be extricated by ambulance men. Mounted police had to force a route for the cars bearing Royalty and celebrities.

The royal party saw the film from a flower-bedecked box in the centre of the royal circle. As much as 25gns was paid for adjacent seats.