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DVD SAVANT

Laugh With Max Linder


Laugh With Max Linder
Image/Blackhawk
1921 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 117 min. (cumulative) / Street Date September 23, 2003 / 24.99
Starring Max Linder, Thelma Percy
Cinematography Charles J. Van Enger
Reissue Music Robert Israel
Written, Produced and Directed by Max Linder

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Laugh With Max Linder is a pleasant introduction to a comedian of whom most people have never heard. A French music hall talent who made three American pictures in the early 1920s, Max Linder is a comedian as polished as Charlie Chaplin and as lighthearted as Harold Lloyd. He also shows some of the technical virtuosity of Buster Keaton. Once again, David Shepard quietly adds another DVD rung to the ladder of silent discoveries.

The disc consists of one 65-minute feature, several extra short subjects and a fragment of a film called Be My Wife. The shorts are earlier, brief blackout sketches that don't show the same level of camera sophistication.

Seven Years' Bad Luck, from 1921, is a fully-fleshed feature comedy with a solid premise and excellent execution. Most notably, Linder's screen persona comes off as the equal of the American silent legends. Always dapper and poised, Max is a sleek and handsome nice guy, often seen in tie and tails, with an agreeable smile and jaunty attitude. Confusion, mistaken identity, and all-around bad luck get him into the predictable kind of trouble. Like Harold Lloyd, his persevering optimism and blindness to adversity get him out of it.

The farce begins with a well-developed gag (the separator between Mack Sennett comedy and big-time silent work) of a broken mirror. Max is a somewhat spoiled rich bachelor. His servant accidentally smashes the mirror, and substitutes a look-alike cook to fool the sleepy Max into thinking he's looking at his own reflection. As the notes say, it's a gag we've seen in dozens of permutations since, from the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup to Red Skelton. Then there's a series of back-and-forth mishaps with Max's fickle fiancee, a couple of dance scenes, and an extended chase from the police that ends up in a startling zoo scene with Max making a new friend in a Lion's cage.

The age of the film and the now-relative obscurity of Max Linder (he died in 1925) make this one for silent film addicts, but casual viewers will be impressed with Linder's poise and presence. Unlike some other lesser names from the twenties, you don't forget Max after seeing him. Like Chaplin, he directed his own work, and he's very good at placing the camera and pacing his scenes. His screen alter-ego is much more consistent and polished than, for instance the (roaringly funny) Fatty Arbuckle; Seven Years' Bad Luck comes off as a classic rather than an artifact.

If there's anything that separates Linder from Chaplin, it's the latter's introduction of emotional depth to the comedy. Linder's persona is charming, but even more lightweight than the average Harold Lloyd character.

The other goodies on the disc are less stellar and show more of the creakiness we expect from earlier work. The shorts are four titles from the 'teens in France: Troubles of a Grasswidower, Love's Surprises, Max Takes a Picture and Max Sets the Style. All are essentially one-gag situations with an elaborate master shot and perhaps a couple of cutaways. The gags are standard - a woman greets a series of suitors, hiding them one after another in various parts of the room; Max wears old boots to a party and starts a fashion trend. They're not particularly funny now but show what the younger comedian's work in France was like. Be My Wife is a surviving excerpt from another American release, with Max once again having suitor trouble with a fickle female.

I first saw Max Linder in a collection of shorts on an early laser disc, and was startled not to have heard of him before. If you already are the kind of collector eager to see new Arbuckle or Harold Lloyd films, this Laugh With Max Linder disc will definitely please.


Blackhawk/Image's transfer of Seven Years' Bad Luck is in very good shape, considering its age. The image is sharp and well composed and there's little in the way of deterioration. Accompanying the film is archival musician Robert Israel on a nickleodeon instrument called a Fotoplayer. The liner notes describe it as a combo organ/player-piano/sound effects machine.


On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Laugh With Max Linder rates:
Movie: Very Good
Video: Good
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: Four French short subjects; excerpt from Be My Wife
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: October 24, 2003





DVD Savant Text © Copyright 2007 Glenn Erickson

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