Very rare film based on Molnar's THE SWAN (an alternate title), ONE ROMANTIC NIGHT tells the story of a princess who must choose between a romantic tutor (Conrad Nagel) or a rascally prince (Rod La Rocque). Getting in the way and making things difficult is the princess' mother (Marie Dressler).
A terrific cast makes this watchable (although my copy is bad), but the story is rather dull. Gish (in her talkie debut) looks and sounds great; Dressler of course steals every scene she's in. Nagel is OK, and La Rocque is handsome but somewhat prissy.
At age 37, Gish was probably too old for the part of the princess, but it's the kind of character that fit her screen persona. Gish herself did not like the film and considered it slow and dull. She also didn't like the director, whose work she was unfamiliar with. She had not made a film since 1928's silent THE WIND and wouldn't make another film for 3 years. La Rocque, Nagel, and Dressler had all made talkies before this film.
Oddly, this story was filmed again in the 50s as THE SWAN and starring Grace Kelly and Alec Guinness.