“Spite Marriage” (1929) Starring Buster Keaton / Z-View

Spite Marriage (1929)

Director:  Edward Sedgwick, Buster Keaton (uncredited)

Writers:  Robert Hopkins (titles), Story by Lew Lipton, Ernest Pagano

Stars:  Buster Keaton, Dorothy Sebastian and Leila Hyams

Tagline:  Try and Stop Laughing at Buster!

The Overview:  Beware of spoilers…

When the man that actress Tribly Drew (Sebastian) loves becomes engaged to another, she agrees to marry Elmer Edgemont (Keaton) out of spite.  Tribley believes that Elmer is a millionaire because he attends every showing of her play and he’s always well dressed.  What she learns is that Elmer is a drycleaner who borrows the clothes and spends his pay on play tickets.  Will the rebound marriage work out or will Elmer be taken to the cleaners?

Spite Marriage contains excellent examples of Keaton’s physical prowess at stunts, especially those on a moving sailboat.  It also contains Keaton’s famous act of trying to get his drunk wife into bed.  Keaton had hoped that Spite Marriage would be his first talkie, but instead it became his last silent film.

Spite Marriage earns 3 of 5 stars.