Spite Marriage (1929)
Directed by: Edward Sedgwick
Starring: Buster Keaton, Dorothy Sebastian, Edward Earle
Length: 80 min
Genre: Comedy
Written by: Screenplay by Lew Lipton
This is the movie where it all starts to fall apart.
Elmer (Buster Keaton) works as a dry cleaner, and is in love with a stage actress named Tribly Drew (Dorothy Sebastian). He even waits around and makes sure he passes her on the street as she leaves the theatre...and other kinda creepy things. When her boyfriend leaves her to marry a socialite, she gets even by grabbing Elmer during one of these "chance" encounters and marries him to get back at her boyfriend.
The movie was...ok. Some funny scenes included Buster trying to put his wife in bed since she passed out from drinking too much. The scene where Buster stands in for another actor on stage is pretty funny as well. But the movie, as a whole, was just not that good. To highlight how MGM didn;t know what it was doing, the funny seen with Buster putting his wife in bed was nearly cut by the studio. Buster fought hard to keep that scene in. One of his rare victories over the studio.
Keaton was also one of the few silent stars that embraced sound. He grew up on vaudeville and had a great voice. He didn't understand why the studio wanted to keep him in silent films. He'd finally get his wish to start being in sound pictures with the 1930 film "Free and Easy".
My Rating: 5 / 10
IMDB Rating: 7.3/10 (526 Votes)