I almost wish Spite Marriage were a talkie. The Cameraman (1928) would have made a spectacular finale to Keaton's silent career and compared to the awful Free and Easy (1930) this would have been a good debut into the sound medium. Now don't get me wrong, Spite Marriage is not a terrible film: it's funny, but one can already sense the Keaton touch is starting to fade. The dreadful characteristics which permeate the talkies Keaton appeared in during the 1930s have begun to emerge, such as more complicated stories, a lack of Buster doing awesome stunts, and the bumbling "Elmer" character whose intelligence is questionable.
The plot is rather convoluted and could have been simpler. It starts out with a dry cleaner named Elmer pining after a beautiful stage actress named Trilby Drew. Unfortunately for him, she's not a likable person. She's in love with her male co-star, but he's left her for a pretty society girl. Trilby takes notice of Elmer, who often leaves her flowers backstage and follows her around, and proposes marriage to him in the hopes of arousing her ex's jealousy. Of course, he says yes; however, their marriage is disappointing for Elmer from the start: Trilby kicks him out of bed on their wedding night and leaves him the next day without a word once she learns that being married to a nobody could ruin her reputation. After a series of contrived events, Elmer and Trilby end up alone on the same yacht, lost in the middle of the ocean. Criminals attack the ship, leaving it up to Elmer to defend Trilby's virtue and save the day.
Dorothy Sebastian ranks with Kathryn McGuire and Sybil Seely as one of my favorite Keaton leading ladies. In addition to being fun to watch, she and Buster have wonderful chemistry, no doubt due to their off-screen love affair which was going on during this time. Along with the love interests in College (1927) and Cops (1922), she's one of the colder leading ladies in the Keaton canon, maybe even the coldest. She doesn't expect Elmer to meet a high standard or change himself, she just flat out uses him to make her actor boyfriend jealous when he chases another woman and then casts him aside. When she leaves him in the middle of the picture, the Elmer character actually gets bitter about it and doesn't forgive her right away, which I found rather interesting.
While the comedy is hit and miss, there are some great bits, particularly the scene where Buster has to put a drunken Sebastian to bed. It's just wonderful. It's not the film I would have wanted as the finale to Keaton's golden age, but it's not so bad.
The plot is rather convoluted and could have been simpler. It starts out with a dry cleaner named Elmer pining after a beautiful stage actress named Trilby Drew. Unfortunately for him, she's not a likable person. She's in love with her male co-star, but he's left her for a pretty society girl. Trilby takes notice of Elmer, who often leaves her flowers backstage and follows her around, and proposes marriage to him in the hopes of arousing her ex's jealousy. Of course, he says yes; however, their marriage is disappointing for Elmer from the start: Trilby kicks him out of bed on their wedding night and leaves him the next day without a word once she learns that being married to a nobody could ruin her reputation. After a series of contrived events, Elmer and Trilby end up alone on the same yacht, lost in the middle of the ocean. Criminals attack the ship, leaving it up to Elmer to defend Trilby's virtue and save the day.
Dorothy Sebastian ranks with Kathryn McGuire and Sybil Seely as one of my favorite Keaton leading ladies. In addition to being fun to watch, she and Buster have wonderful chemistry, no doubt due to their off-screen love affair which was going on during this time. Along with the love interests in College (1927) and Cops (1922), she's one of the colder leading ladies in the Keaton canon, maybe even the coldest. She doesn't expect Elmer to meet a high standard or change himself, she just flat out uses him to make her actor boyfriend jealous when he chases another woman and then casts him aside. When she leaves him in the middle of the picture, the Elmer character actually gets bitter about it and doesn't forgive her right away, which I found rather interesting.
While the comedy is hit and miss, there are some great bits, particularly the scene where Buster has to put a drunken Sebastian to bed. It's just wonderful. It's not the film I would have wanted as the finale to Keaton's golden age, but it's not so bad.