Spite Marriage
“Spite Marriage” is from Buster Keaton’s time working for MGM. His days as an independent filmmaker over, he was simply an actor under contract with a studio, although he’s still considered a producer of the film. Something is off, though; this isn’t the identifiable, down-to-Earth Keaton of “The General,” “Our Hospitality” or even “The Cameraman,” his first film with MGM, but someone who has seen Keaton’s films, and thinks they know what made his films good. It’s also a film that was made two years into the sound era, and though dialogue isn’t on the soundtrack just yet (beyond laughter during one of the film’s moments), there are sound effects and “sad trombone” glissandos in the score. The rhythms for comedy are all wrong, and you get the feeling, watching Keaton throughout the film, that Keaton knows that. That makes it a far less enjoyable film to watch, although Keaton tries his best.
In the film, Keaton stars as Elmer, a young man who works at a dry cleaner, but has a crush on the lead actress in a hit play currently being performed in his city. The actress is Trilby Drew (Dorothy Sebastian), and every show, Elmer is in the front row, looking on at his love at a distance. One of the things that makes this feel off from Keaton’s other works is that we see him “borrowing” nice clothes from his work while he goes to see Trilby rather than be himself; the great thing about Keaton’s characters in his earlier films is that he remained, defiantly himself, even when he would fib (like he does when he changes the price of a candy box in “Sherlock Jr.”) or when he tries to change a perception of himself (like when he tries to become an athlete in “College”). In addition, Trilby feels hardly worth the effort– the character seems like just a shallow actress, who decides to marry Elmer after her actor boyfriend breaks up with her, and not someone who inspires Keaton’s characters with being good people, like Buster’s other romantic interests tend to do. One of the miscalculations in “Spite Marriage” is that the film has Elmer enamored with the idea of a woman rather than the reality, and that makes it feel forced when we’re supposed to root for this couple to stay together, or at least, for Trilby to see that Elmer doesn’t deserve to be used.
I was surprised to read on IMDb that apparently, Keaton did have some creative control over “Spite Marriage,” and actually, I can see that. After Trilby dumps Elmer, there’s a sequence where Elmer gets caught up in the getaway of a criminal, and he has to help facilitate his escape, at one point taking the wheel of a getaway car. That got me thinking, was Keaton trying to comment on his relationship with MGM? Elmer finds himself in a situation where, at first, he thinks he’s gotten into a normal taxi that will allow him to keep doing what he does, but only after he enters it does he realize he’s in over his head, with a gun pointed straight at him. That’s as apt a metaphor for the lack of creative freedom Keaton could have possibly come up with to represent his feelings as he got deeper into his MGM contract. Seen in that context, the back part of “Spite Marriage” feels like the Buster Keaton of old, with every damn thing thrown his way, and yet, he perseveres. That doesn’t mean it’s great Keaton, but it helps a movie that starts on all the wrong notes, find some worth compared to the classics that came before it.
