'The Bridal Party' is a romantic comedy drama story about two men bidding for the love of the same girl, with the bride having to choose on the eve of her wedding whom she will marry. Poor artist, MICHAEL CURLY,  is staying in Paris when he finds out that that his former sweetheart, CAROLINE DANDY, is visiting Paris with her mother in a nursing home and is engaged to marry a millionaire, HAMILTON RUTHERFORD.

Hamilton brags of his wealth and invites Michael to his bachelor drinks at the Ritz, as Caroline explains that her Mother is ill in a nursing home in Paris. She insists that Michael joins their parties. It is agony for Michael as he congratulates Caroline. Then it happens. ‘All the unforgettable impulses of first love surge up once more; their hearts somehow touch across two feet of Paris sunlight’.  Michael at first declines, but later accepts, when he learns of his inheritance from his grandfather. He decides ‘to try harder’, to win her back.

Michael joins their parties and is snubbed and mocked by both Hamilton’s family and friends and the Dandy’s. Michael has his finances sorted and turns up at Hamilton’s stag (bachelor) drinks party, transformed, in splendid new attire. Hilariously, a former escort lady called Marjorie Collins, turns up uninvited, threatening to ruin Hamilton. Then Hamilton discovers that his entire investment fund has been wiped out overnight with the 1930 Stock Markets Crash. He has nothing left to offer to Caroline and is prepared to start all over again. Michael chooses this moment to propose to Caroline. She has to choose between the two men, and she surprisingly chooses ... Hamilton. She says that she wants “to start over too.” As Michael leaves, Hamilton joins him for more drinks at the Ritz. One has lost all his wealth and the other his love, both men are now united in mutual sorrow.

It is all seems to be part of a family charade supporting Hamilton, for ten minutes before the wedding a top prominent banker, T.G. Vance turns up and offers Hamilton a lifeline - a new job. In a fit of drunken rage, Michael remembers the wedding vows ‘’till death do us part”, and fires a shot at Caroline with his grandfather's 'lucky' pistol. Luckily, he misses. Luckily too, his friends stop him from pulling the trigger on himself. He now realises his mistake. Michael is cured. He asks a bridesmaid to dance as he waves good-bye to Hamilton and Caroline. ‘The ceremonial function, with its pomp and its revelry, has stood for a sort of initiation into a life where even his regret could not follow them..

‘HE LETS HER GO’ (*).(**)  

As Michael waves goodbye to Hamilton and Caroline, as ‘they recede and fade off into joys and grieves of their own, into the years that would take the toll of Rutherford's fine pride and Caroline's young, moving beauty’ all the bitterness melts out of him. And the world reconstitutes itself out of the:

‘Youth and Happiness that’s all around him, profligate as the summer sunshine.’  THE END.

EPILOGUE

Michael later marries one of the Bridesmaids.  We see two toddlers, Michael Junior and Carolina Rutherford playing together. As one story ends, a new one begins.

(*) AUTHOR’S NOTE: ‘LETTING GO’.

"The Bridal Party" was written during the 1930 Great Depression. The effects of new money on society, the drunken parties of the roaring 20’s, and the following terrible stock crash, affected millions of young people. Michael, like many young men facing war, feels suicidal “without you (Caroline), without any hope, I don't want to live.” Though heartbroken, Michael can see how happy Caroline and Hamilton are and that he should ‘let go’ rather than hold onto regret. While this story was written in 1930, it is relevant today because of the recent ‘Covid Depression’ and as a reminder of the horrors that war can inflict on young lives. We need to ‘let go’ and join in ‘the Youth and Happiness that’s all around, profligate as the summer sunshine.’
 
(**) Producers Note: Looked what happened to Jay Gatsby who did not ‘let go’ of an ill fated love!