''Spite Marriage'' is a 1929 American silent

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

co-directed by

Buster Keaton Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton (October 4, 1895 – February 1, 1966) was an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is best known for his silent film work, in which his trademark was physical comedy accompanied by a stoic, deadpan expression ...

and Edward Sedgwick and starring Keaton and

Dorothy Sebastian Dorothy Sebastian (born Stella Dorothy Sabiston; April 26, 1903The book ''Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory'' gives Sebastian's date of birth as April 26, 1907. – April 8, 1957) was an American film and stage actress. Ear ...

. 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 A sound film is a motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decad ...

. While the production has no recorded dialogue, it does feature an accompanying synchronized

score Score or scorer may refer to: *Test score, the result of an exam or test Business * Score Digital, now part of Bauer Radio * Score Entertainment, a former American trading card design and manufacturing company * Score Media, a former Canadian ...

and recorded laughter, applause and other sound effects in some scenes. Keaton later wrote gags for some up-and-coming MGM stars like

Red Skelton Richard Red Skelton (July 18, 1913September 17, 1997) was an American entertainer best known for his national radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program ''The Red Skelton Show''. He has stars ...

, and from this film recycled many gags, some shot-for-shot, for Skelton's 1943 film ''

I Dood It ''I Dood It'' (UK title ''By Hook or by Crook'') is a 1943 American musical-comedy film starring Red Skelton and Eleanor Powell, directed by Vincente Minnelli, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay is by Fred Saidy and Sig Herzig a ...

''.

Plot

Elmer, a humble worker in a

dry cleaning Dry cleaning is any cleaning process for clothing and textiles using a solvent other than water. Dry cleaning still involves liquid, but clothes are instead soaked in a water-free liquid solvent. Tetrachloroethylene (perchloroethylene), known i ...

establishment, idolizes stage actress Trilby Drew (Dorothy Sebastian). She, in turn, is carrying a torch for fellow actor Lionel Benmore (Edward Earle). When Lionel spurns her for the younger Ethyl Norcrosse (Leila Hyams), she impulsively asks Elmer to marry her. Her handlers extricate her from the marriage, and when Elmer finds himself first in the hands of criminals and then at sea, he is happy for the opportunity to forget her. But a series of coincidences throw Elmer and Trilby together again, and she has cause to reevaluate him.

Cast

as Elmer (Gantry) *

as Trilby Drew *

Edward Earle Edward Earle (16 July 1882 – 15 December 1972) was a Canadian-American stage, film and television actor. In a career which lasted from the 1910s to 1966, he appeared in almost 400 films between 1914 and 1956. He was born in Toronto and died ...

as Lionel Benmore *

Leila Hyams Leila Hyams (May 1, 1905 – December 4, 1977) was an American film and stage actress, model, and vaudevillian, who came from a show business family. Her relatively short film career began in 1924 during the era of silent films and ended in 19 ...

as Ethyl Norcrosse * William Bechtel as Nussbaum * John Byron as Scarzi *

Joe Bordeaux Joe Bordeaux (March 9, 1886 – September 10, 1950) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 70 films between 1914 and 1940. He was born in Colorado, and died in Los Angeles, California. Selected filmography * '' Mabel at the ...

as Rumrunner (uncredited) * Ray Cooke as The Bellboy (uncredited) *

Mike Donlin Michael Joseph Donlin (May 30, 1878 – September 24, 1933) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder and actor. As a professional baseball player, his MLB career spanned from 1899 to 1914 in which he played mainly in the National L ...

as Man in Ship's Engine Room (uncredited) *

Pat Harmon Plummer Hull Harman (February 3, 1886 – November 26, 1958), known professionally as Pat Harmon, was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 130 films between 1920 and 1947. In 1935, Harmon was the victim of a violent assault whic ...

as Tugboat Captain (uncredited) * Sydney Jarvis as Man in Audience Next to Elmer (uncredited) *

Theodore Lorch Theodore "Ted" Lorch (September 29, 1873 – November 12, 1947) was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 140 films between 1908 and 1947. Biography Born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1873, Lorch appeared in several Three Stooges ...

as Actor as 'Union Officer' (uncredited) *

Hank Mann Hank Mann (born David William Lieberman, May 28, 1887 – November 25, 1971) was a Russian Empire-born and American comedian and silent screen star who was a member of the Keystone Cops. According to fellow actor and original member of the ...

as Stage Manager (uncredited) * Charles Sullivan as Tough Sailor (uncredited)

Production

In its September 12, 1928 issue, the widely read entertainment paper ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' announced, "Buster Keaton's next, 'Spite Marriage', will also have dialog", while ''Exhibitors Daily Review'' also reported the same day that "Buster Keaton will do his initial speaking in 'Spite Marriage'". Despite those announcements by popular, well-connected

trade publications A trade magazine, also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular trade or industry. The collective term for this ...

, the film was destined from pre-production to be a silent offering from MGM, at least one without any recorded dialogue. The studio's head of production, Irving Thalberg, opposed Keaton's plans to make the film his first "talkie".Tatara, Paul
"Articles: Spite Marriage (1928)"

Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...

(TCM), Atlanta, Georgia. Retrieved September 18, 2022. Thalberg had both financial and technical reasons for rejecting any proposals by Keaton or others to apply full-sound to the planned comedy. For one, in the fall of 1928, during that transition period into sound, MGM had at its disposal only one set of recording equipment. Secondly, but more importantly, MGM's executive believed that adding the complications and expense of such a new technology to Keaton's film would significantly increase overall production costs, especially for a performer like Buster whose creativity thrived on "time-consuming improvisations" and a high degree of flexibility while shooting. Thalberg therefore insisted on technical simplicity and close script and set supervision of Keaton's second project for the studio to reduce delays and to increase potential profits for the final product. Actors_playing_cards_during_break_in_filming_on_Spite_Marriage,_1928

Actors_playing_cards_during_break_in_filming_on_Spite_Marriage,_1928

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". 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 rle is playing the

heavy Heavy may refer to: Measures * Heavy (aeronautics), a term used by pilots and air traffic controllers to refer to aircraft capable of 300,000 lbs or more takeoff weight * Heavy, a characterization of objects with substantial weight * Heavy, ...

in Buster Keaton's picture, 'Spite Marriage.'" 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. 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 Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.Capitol Theatre in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, where Hall attended the comedy's premiere on March 25, adding "there were waves of laughter from top to bottom of the house."Hall, Mordaunt (1929). "THE SCREEN", ''The New York Times'', March 25, 1929, p. 32. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Retrieved September 22, 2019.

Abel Green Abel Green (June 3, 1900 – May 10, 1973) was an American journalist best known as the editor of ''Variety'' for forty years. Sime Silverman first hired Green as a reporter in 1918, and Green's byline first appeared on May 30, 1919. Biography ...

, the editor and reviewer for ''Variety'', characterizes Keaton's production as "replete with belly laffs" and also describes the Capitol's audience being in "hysterics" and "mirthful" while watching it.Green, Abel (1929)
"Spite Marriage"
''Variety'', March 27, 1929, pp. 12, 24. Internet Archive. Retrieved September 22, 2019. While Green does express some reservations about what he viewed as several of the film's implausible situations and its "mechanized" structure, he predicts nothing but financial success for the "enjoyable low comedy glorified

slapstick Slapstick is a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy. Slapstick may involve both intentional violence and violence by mishap, often resulting from inept use of props such ...

er." The trade paper ''

The Film Daily ''The Film Daily'' was a daily publication that existed from 1918 to 1970 in the United States. It was the first daily newspaper published solely for the film industry. It covered the latest trade news, film reviews, financial updates, informatio ...

'' rated the MGM feature as "the funniest film released in months"."'Spite Marriage'"
''The Film Daily'' (New York, N.Y.), March 31, 1929, p. 28. Internet Archive. Retrieved September 22, 2019. In its March 31 review, the paper praises the film and draws special attention to Sebastian's performance: After seeing a preview of ''Spite Marriage'' weeks before its premiere in New York, reviewer Walter R. Greene of the trade journal ''

Motion Picture News The ''Motion Picture News'' was an American film industry trade paper published from 1913 to 1930. History The publication was created through the 1913 merger of the ''Moving Picture News'' founded in 1908 and ''The Exhibitors' Times'', founded ...

'', praised the feature even more than ''The Film Daily'', judging Keaton's work to be not only his best film "since he graduated from the two reel ranks" but also "one of the best pieces of comedy business ever developed in a picture".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. Comparing ''Spite Marriage'' to

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is conside ...

's ''

The Gold Rush ''The Gold Rush'' is a 1925 American silent comedy film written, produced, and directed by Charlie Chaplin. The film also stars Chaplin in his Little Tramp persona, Georgia Hale, Mack Swain, Tom Murray, Henry Bergman, and Malcolm Waite. Chapl ...

'' (1925), Greene in his review states, "The picture is packed with laughs" and reports that the sequence in which Keaton puts his intoxicated wife to bed evoked from the audience "a continual roar for over half a reel." ''

Photoplay ''Photoplay'' was one of the first American film (another name for ''photoplay'') fan magazines. It was founded in 1911 in Chicago, the same year that J. Stuart Blackton founded '' Motion Picture Story,'' a magazine also directed at fans. For mo ...

'', the nation's leading movie-fan magazine of the period, only added to the accolades and endorsements that the film received in 1929. In its April issue, the magazine labels the film "hilarious", "intense", and "Chaplinesque". Then, in May, ''Photoplay'' provides another, more succinct review to its large readership: "One of the best Buster Keaton has made, with Dorothy Sebastian excellent. Don't miss.""Brief Reviews of Current Pictures: Spite Marriage"
''Photoplay'', May 1929, p. 146. Retrieved September 27, 2019.

References and notes

External links

* * * *
''Spite Marriage''
at the

International Buster Keaton Society The International Buster Keaton Society Inc.— a.k.a. "The Damfinos"—is the official educational organization dedicated to comedy film producer-director-writer-actor-stuntman Buster Keaton. Mission According to the Damfinos, their mission is "t ...