Seven Years Bad Luck

Seven Years Bad Luck is an excellent comedy written, directed and starring an excellent comedian named Max Linder. Though not particularly well remembered today, this movie proves that Linder deserves all the reputation he can get. I found two scenes to be especially funny -- "the mirror routine," in which a tired Max's cook appears to be his mirror image, and the sequence in which Max enters a lion's cage in an attempt to escape from a group of furious cops.

At the time Linder made this feature in Hollywood, he hadn't been very active in the movie-business because of depressions and fading health, and Seven Years Bad Luck was, despite promising reviews, not a hit and was soon forgotten. Fortunately, the movie is now available on DVD from Image Entertainment, accompanied by a good musical score composed by Robert Israel.

Seven Years Bad Luck definitively gets a 10 out of 10 from me, for its brilliant gags which are all so decently performed. A must-see!