Spite Marriage (1929)

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1. 

   dpka

   http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1znf07_buster-keaton-spite-marriage_shortfilms 7 years 10 months ago
2. 

   Siskoid

   It's kind of fun that Spite Marriage doesn't feel like silent cinema because it has matched sound effects, though they do tend to get a little broad as time goes on. I'm not a big fan of this one. On the one hand, we don't really want Keaton to end up with his dame du jour, a spoiled actress who is thoroughly mean to him (going so far as to marry him as a jealousy trap for her actual, cheating, boyfriend, as the title implies). Second, it feels like one of those comedy vehicles that changes tack (that's a pun, you'll see) in every act to open the door to whatever shtick set piece the director or actor has devised. First, Keaton sneaks into a play where he ruins the show, then there's the marriage of convenience, and finally, some stuff on a boat that more or less resolves things the same way The Cameraman did the previous year. Now, each of these sections has something to offer. The theater stuff the funniest; the boat stuff the most heroic. But I was often left wondering what such and such a piece was doing in the story. (And I still find it off-putting when the North is portrayed as the heavies in a Civil War scenario, which the play within the movie is needlessly about; that's the second Keaton movie I've seen to pull that move.) 4 years 8 months ago

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