Spite Marriage
Spite Marriage | |
---|---|
Directed by | Edward Sedgwick Buster Keaton |
Written by | Robert Hopkins (titles) |
Story by | Lew Lipton Ernest Pagano (adaption) |
Produced by | Joseph M. Schenck Productions[1] |
Starring | Buster Keaton Dorothy Sebastian |
Cinematography | Reggie Lanning |
Edited by | Frank Sullivan |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 74-80 minutes[2] |
Country | United States |
Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
Spite Marriage is a 1929 American silent comedy film co-directed by Buster Keaton and Edward Sedgwick and starring Keaton and Dorothy Sebastian. It is the second film Keaton made for MGM and his last silent film, although he had wanted it to be a "talkie" or full sound film. While the production has no recorded dialogue, it does feature an accompanying synchronized score and recorded laughter, applause and other sound effects in some scenes.[1] Keaton later wrote gags for some up-and-coming MGM stars like Red Skelton, and from this film recycled many gags, some shot-for-shot, for Skelton's 1943 film I Dood It.
Plot
Elmer, a humble worker in a dry cleaning establishment, idolizes stage actress Trilby Drew. He goes to see her performances all the time, pretending to be a wealthy admirer.
Trilby is in love with fellow actor Lionel Benmore. When Lionel temporarily spurns her for the younger Ethyl Norcrosse, she impulsively asks Elmer to marry her. Her manager, worried about the damage it would do to her career if it got out that she had married a pants presser, tells Elmer the next day that she wants out of the marriage.
Elmer gets into an altercation with Benmore, eventually punching him. Benmore gets the police to chase him. During the pursuit, Elmer gets into a taxi with an armed gunman. After the driver flees, the crook forces Elmer to drive the taxi into the ocean. He is rescued by a passing ship.
Wanting to have nothing more to do with Trilby, Elmer gets a job on the ship. However, it turns out that she and Benmore are passengers. When the engine room catches fire, the order is given to abandon ship. Trilby is knocked unconscious when Benmore panics, and is left behind. Elmer manages to put out the fire, leaving him and Trilby alone aboard. The ship is then taken over by crooks. When Trilby is discovered by their lecherous leader, Elmer has to take on the entire gang to save her. He returns to port in triumph. He sees Trilby home and starts to leave, but she stops him, having seen his true worth.
Cast
- Buster Keaton as Elmer (Gantry)
- Dorothy Sebastian as Trilby Drew
- Edward Earle as Lionel Benmore
- Leila Hyams as Ethyl Norcrosse
- William Bechtel as Nussbaum
- John Byron as Scarzi
- Joe Bordeaux as Rumrunner (uncredited)
- Ray Cooke as The Bellboy (uncredited)
- Mike Donlin as Man in Ship's Engine Room (uncredited)
- Pat Harmon as Tugboat Captain (uncredited)
- Sydney Jarvis as Man in Audience Next to Elmer (uncredited)
- Theodore Lorch as Actor as 'Union Officer' (uncredited)
- Hank Mann as Stage Manager (uncredited)
- Charles Sullivan as Tough Sailor (uncredited)
Production
In its September 12, 1928 issue, the widely read entertainment paper
According to the American Film Institute's catalog, production work on the film started on November 14, 1928, a date generally consistent with a November 27 report in Exhibitors Herald and Motion Picture World, which announces that Keaton began work on the film "last week".[6]
News updates about the film in 1928 trade publications indicate that casting was still being finalized in the latter half of November. Exhibitors Daily Review announced on November 16: "Dorothy Sebastian has been given the feminine lead opposite Buster Keaton"; and on November 23, "Edward [E]arle is playing the heavy in Buster Keaton's picture, Spite Marriage."[7][8] A week later, The Distributor, a paper published by MGM's sales department, confirmed that the studio had assigned Leila Hyams a "big part" in "the forthcoming Buster Keaton vehicle" in part due to her "distinct success" as a lead in the studio's recent crime drama Alias Jimmy Valentine, which had been released just two weeks earlier.[9] The studio publication in the same news item also confirmed that Sydney Jarvis and Hank Mann had joined the cast, although their roles would be uncredited on the screen.
Reception
Spite Marriage in 1929 was generally very well received by critics in leading newspapers, by reviewers in the film industry's major trade journals and papers, as well as by moviegoers. The influential critic for The New York Times, Mordaunt Hall, commented about the audience's response to the comedy in his assessment of the film. He noted that Keaton created "a state of high glee" in the Capitol Theatre in Manhattan, where Hall attended the comedy's premiere on March 25, adding that "there were waves of laughter from top to bottom of the house."[10] Abel Green, the editor and reviewer for Variety, characterized Keaton's production as "replete with belly laffs" and also described the Capitol's audience being in "hysterics" and "mirthful" while watching it.[11] While Green did express some reservations about what he viewed as several of the film's implausible situations and its "mechanized" structure, he predicted nothing but financial success for the "enjoyable low comedy glorified slapsticker."[11]
The trade paper
See also
References and notes
- ^ a b c d "Spite Marriage (1929)", catalog, American Film Institute (AFI), Los Angeles, California. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
- ^ According AFI, the original print of Spite Marriage was 7,047 feet in length with a running time of 74 minutes. Wide discrepancies in cited running times are not unusual, especially for films produced and presented in the silent and early sound eras. Inconsistent times noted in reviews and in film descriptions can often be attributed to slightly different operating speeds of projectors in various locations and to varying time counts by reviewers and others who originally viewed the film.
- ^ "M-G-M's 18 Talkers; 'Dugan' All-Dialog", Variety (New York, N.Y.), September 12, 1928, p. 7. Internet Archive, San Francisco, California. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
- ^ "All M-G-M Stars Talk", Exhibitors Daily Review, September 12, 1928, p. 4. Internet Archive. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
- ^ a b c d Tatara, Paul. "Articles: Spite Marriage (1928)", Turner Classic Movies (TCM), Atlanta, Georgia. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
- Exhibitors Heraldand Motion Picture World, December 1, 1928, p. 41. Internet Archive. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
- ^ "Sebastian Gets Lead", Exhibitors Daily Review, November 16, p. 2. Internet Archive. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
- ^ "Studio Gossip", Exhibitors Daily Review, November 23, p. 7. Internet Archive. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
- ^ "Leila Hyams Assigned Big Part in 'Spite Marriage'", The Distributor (MGM), November 30, 1928, p. 4. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
- ^ Hall, Mordaunt (1929). "THE SCREEN", The New York Times, March 25, 1929, p. 32. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Retrieved September 22, 2019.
- ^ a b Green, Abel (1929). "Spite Marriage", Variety, March 27, 1929, pp. 12, 24. Internet Archive. Retrieved September 22, 2019.
- ^ a b "'Spite Marriage'", The Film Daily (New York, N.Y.), March 31, 1929, p. 28. Internet Archive. Retrieved September 22, 2019.
- ^ a b Greene, Walter R. (1929). "Spite Marriage/Keaton's Best in Several Years", Motion Picture News, February 2, 1929, p. 368. Internet Archive. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
- ^ "The Shadow Stage: Spite Marriage (M.-G.-M.)", Photoplay (Chicago, Illinois), April 1929, p. 54. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
- ^ "Brief Reviews of Current Pictures: Spite Marriage", Photoplay, May 1929, p. 146. Retrieved September 27, 2019.
See also
External links
- Spite Marriage at IMDb
- Synopsis at AllMovie
- Spite Marriage at the TCM Movie Database
- Spite Marriage at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Spite Marriage at the International Buster Keaton Society