Joan Crawford in Dream of Love is a beautiful, messy silent melodrama

If you have about an hour and a bit to kill and you like looking at very beautiful people in fuzzy lighting, then Dream of Love is worth a look. It is mostly for the Joan Crawford completists or anyone who finds old-school silent drama comforting in a slightly ridiculous way.

If you hate movies where people fall in love after three seconds of staring, you will probably want to throw your remote at the wall. It is one of those.

Nils Asther plays Prince Mauritz, and honestly, he looks like he spends four hours a day just on his hair. He is a prince who doesn't really do much princely stuff, mostly just flirting with every woman in a five-mile radius.

His dad got kicked off the throne by a Duke, so Mauritz just hangs out being handsome and making bad choices. Then he meets Adrienne, played by a very young, very intense Joan Crawford.

She is a gypsy girl in this part of the movie. She does this dance that is supposed to be seductive, but mostly she just looks like she is trying to shake a bug out of her sleeve.

There is this one shot where she looks at him and her eyes are so big they take up half the screen. It is classic Joan. You can tell she already knew how to own the camera even back in 1928.

They have this brief romance that feels like it lasts about twenty minutes in movie time. Then, of course, they get separated because that is what happens in these movies. Nobody ever just stays together.

The movie jumps forward a bunch of years. Adrienne is now a famous actress, which is a bit of a stretch, but okay. She is starring in a play that is basically the story of her own life.

It reminds me of Polly with a Past where the whole identity thing gets all tangled up. Only this is much more dramatic and involves more capes.

The Duke and Duchess are the villains here. The Duchess is played by Aileen Pringle, and she is so deliciously mean. She has this way of looking at people like they are dirt on her shoe.

There is a scene in her bedroom that feels oddly claustrophobic. The sets are all very heavy and velvet-looking. You can almost smell the old perfume and dust through the screen.

Mauritz shows up again, and he is still a mess. He gets caught up in a plot and ends up facing a firing squad. The lighting in the prison cell scene is actually incredible.

It is all shadows and jagged lines. It feels like a different movie for a second, like something much darker and more serious. Then we get back to the romance stuff.

I noticed that Warner Oland is in this too. He plays the Duke. He is always good at being slightly creepy but dignified. He has this one reaction shot when he realizes he is being outsmarted that is actually pretty funny.

The revolutionaries show up at the very last second to save Mauritz. It is very convenient. Like, they were just waiting behind a bush for the dramatic peak to happen.

One thing that bothered me was the mustache on one of the guards. It looked like it was held on by sheer willpower and maybe a little bit of spit. It kept wiggling when he talked.

The movie is a bit uneven, thier is no denying that. The first half feels like a fairy tale and the second half feels like a political thriller that forgot to explain the politics.

But the chemistry between Nils and Joan is real. They look like they actually like each other, which helps when the dialogue cards get a bit cheesy. "My heart is a drum beating for you" or something like that. Oof.

I found myself checking the time around the forty-minute mark, but then Joan did another big emotional scene and I was back in. She has that power.

The ending is very sudden. He becomes King, she is there, everyone is happy. It just sort of stops.

Final thoughts on the vibe

It feels like a fever dream about royalty. If you have seen Truxton King, you know the vibe of these imaginary kingdom stories. They don't have to make sense as long as the costumes are shiny.

Don't expect a masterpiece of logic. Expect glamour and lots of sighing. Sometimes that is exactly what you need on a Tuesday night.

I liked the way the curtains looked in the theater scenes. Very heavy. I wonder how many people it took to pull those things back in real life.

Anyway, give it a watch if you like silent films that don't try too hard to be deep. It is just a Dream of Love, after all. 🎬