Spite Marriage

''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. 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 (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

* 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 '' Variety'' 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, 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 (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.

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 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

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