QUIET WEDDING is a pleasant comedy that borders on the screwball. Margaret Lockwood and Derek Farr want a simple wedding, but the family blows it up into an event which causes friction between the loving couple. As the parade of intrusive and daffy relatives seems endless, the lovers run off to be alone but get into a slight car accident and then run afoul of the law ... and almost miss their own wedding.
Lockwood was a megastar of British cinema (she made a few Hollywood films) and is quite appealing here as the harried bride. Farr is also good as the clueless groom. The large cast includes some very familiar faces. The bride's parents are played by Marjorie Fielding and A.E. Mathews. David Tomlinson is the goofy son who brings home a daffy girlfriend (Peggy Ashcroft). There's the family friend (Athene Seyler) who helps the bride get away, and an obliging cook (Muriel George) who helps out. Bernard Miles is a hoot as the by-the-book copper. Martita Hunt plays the imperious dressmaker and Frank Cellier is the groom's businessman daddy. Others have smaller roles, with Margaret Rutherford playing a magistrate, Muriel Pavlow the teenage sister, Jean Cadell and Margaret Halstan as aunts, Margaretta Scott as the runaway sister, Roland Culver as Boofy, O.B. Clarence as the dense magistrate, Viola Lyel as the secretary, and Hay Petrie as the contrary train porter. Somewhere among the extras are Terry-Thomas and Esma Cannon.
In 1941, this film must have been a welcome respite from the war and war films.
