Originally posted to Facebook on 8/31/2016
The Matrimaniac was the fifth and final film on our list from 1916. Both leads also appeared in Intolerance: Douglas Fairbanks in a small role, and Constance Talmadge as one of the female leads. This is the first film that I recall where I’ve seen Fairbanks in the lead role. My image of him mostly stems from clips from his costume epics -- I usually envision him as having just taken Jack Handey’s course at swashbuckling school (i.e. Laughing, Then Jumping Off Something.) In this he plays an essentially modern character, who is exasperated by the various obstacles he runs into. In some ways that makes his occasional acrobatics a little more surprising, since he's basically dressed for a business meeting. And the film mostly belongs to him; there is occasional cross-cutting to Talmadge and various pursuers, but Fairbanks has most of the main action, which is a little strange given how prominent Talmadge was in Intolerance.
This film, though, couldn’t be more different from Intolerance; it is a light comedy, and conforms a lot more closely to the received popular idea of silent films. The plot involves Douglas Fairbanks and Constance Talmadge deciding to elope against the wishes of her father and her father's choice of a suitor, who discover their elopement plot and chase them to a neighboring town. There is a little bit of stuntwork along the way -- people climbing onto trains, and up the sides of buildings. Nothing particularly startling, but pointing in the direction of where movie stuntwork was heading. This is also probably the most explicitly comedic film we’ve seen since Tillie’s Punctured Romance. It is funnier than that film, but for me that is a low bar.
Next week we begin 1917 with A Romance of the Redwoods, our second film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, and the first starring Mary Pickford, the future wife of Fairbanks. I’ve also added our films planned for 1918 to the list, which is shared here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT
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