The Matrimaniac (1916)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Paul Powell

Writers:

Octavus Roy Cohen (story)
J.U. Giesy (story)

Release Date:

16 December 1916 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

A young couple attempts to elope, with the bride's irate father in hot pursuit. The train stops briefly...

Cast

Douglas Fairbanks	...	Jimmie Conroy
Constance Talmadge	...	Marna Lewis
Wilbur Higby	...	Marna's Father
Fred Warren	...	Rev. Tobias Tubbs
Clyde E. Hopkins	...	G. Walter Henderson (as Clyde Hopkins)
Winifred Westover	...	Maid

Runtime:

46 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Fine Arts Film Company

Young Doug in a fast-fast comedy

Viewers who associate the name of Douglas Fairbanks with Robin Hood, D'Artagnan, and other swashbuckling roles may be surprised to learn that he started his movie career in a series of satirical light comedies. In these films Doug usually played a good-natured but trouble-prone young gentleman of the modern age, similar to the roles played a little later by Harold Lloyd. One such comedy is the oddly titled THE MATRIMANIAC, in which Doug spends the entire, brief running time desperately attempting to elope with pretty Constance Talmadge. Actually, Doug spends most of the running time running; and also leaping out of windows, on and off trains, climbing walls, and even sliding across telephone wires high overhead. This is a movie that moves!

THE MATRIMANIAC wastes no time on exposition. We never learn anything about the young couple, such as how they met, what he does for a living, or why her father opposes the match. And after all, who cares? The story grabs our attention right away with the elopement sequence, then we're off and running (and leaping, climbing, etc.), with no time to think about any unnecessary stuff. Much of the humor in this film is comparatively understated, as when an explanatory title wryly complains that the lovers are violating the rules of romance by eloping through the front door in broad daylight. And happily, you won't find the strained puns or racial gags which mar so many comedies of the period.

Doug is very much the center of attention, but a couple of the supporting players deserve notice. Leading lady Connie Talmadge, perhaps best remembered as The Mountain Girl in Griffith's INTOLERANCE, went on to have a substantial starring career of her own in the '20s but unfortunately never played opposite Fairbanks again. Winifred Westover, seen here in a small but significant role as the hotel maid who helps the lovers elope, later married Western star William S. Hart. And unsung character actor Fred Warren is quite sympathetic as the minister who eventually marries the two runaways. He's practically Doug's co-star in this film, and his character is the butt of much of the humor, but he seems very sporting about it all.

It's no masterpiece, but THE MATRIMANIAC is highly enjoyable and well worth seeing, packing more laughs and thrills into its brisk 45-minute running time than many other movies twice its length.