Matrimony's Speed Limit

A ticker-tape spells out a man's doom: he's lost his investments. His girlfriend, who is very well off, offers him her finances, but he won't have it. A telegram is sent that he is due an inheritance if he is married before noon. She rushes out in her car with a priest in tow to meet him, while he tries proposing to every woman in sight.

It's an amusing comedy, not uproariously funny, but cute. "Marry by a certain time, or forfeit your inheritance" was probably an old plot device even when this was made, and yet it's still around. Here, though, it's the woman's attempt to save the pride of the man she loves. A bit embarrassing that he didn't think to call her when he got the telegram - I don't know if she'd be happy to learn he tried proposing to everyone he encountered.

A man must marry by noon or lose his inheritance. It's 11:50 a.m. and he can't find his fiancée.

This was produced and directed by pioneering female film maker Alice Guy-Blaché. It was produced by Solax Studios when it and many other early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based in Fort Lee, New Jersey at the beginning of the 20th century. That makes it doubly interesting -- the female director, and the fact it came out of New Jersey, which seems odd today.

One of only two of Guy-Blaché's films to survive out of her ouvre of more than 300, its preservation was initially financed by the Women's Film Preservation Fund upon its inauguration in 1995. I have no idea how you lose 298 or more films, but apparently this happens.

"Matrimony's Speed Limit" is a comedy from Alice Guy...a director not usually associated with comedies. The story is a very contrived one....and it was later re-used many times...and to its best in Buster Keaton's "Seven Chances".

When the story begins, Fraunie learns that he's lost much of his money in the stock market. So, he tells his girlfriend Marian that their engagement is off and she's free to marry a better man.

Soon, Fraunie receives a letter saying that his aunt has died AND he'll inherit her fortune IF he marries by noon. Considering it's almost noon when he learns this, it's not surprising that he's in a bind....and it's worse when he has trouble finding Marian.

This is a cute film but so much more could have been done with the story to build on the comedy and make the film more exciting. Still, for an early silent comedy, it's far better than most of the slapstick of the day....as most comedies in 1913 were more broad and involved a lot of kicking and gunfire for laughs!

Stockbroker Fraunie Fraunholz lost it all in the market. He tells his girlfriend Marian Swayne and tries to break up their engagement. She is willing to give him all her money, but he refuses to accept it. She comes up with a scheme. She fakes a telegram telling him that he is in line for a fortune if he gets married before noon. It is a race against the clock.

What is wrong with him? He's taking his time and smoking a cigar. That's before considering that he believed the telegram in the first place. This is no genius. She's not much smarter either if that's her best scheme. They may be a match made in idiot heaven. There is a racist joke here, but considering the times, the joke makes sense.

I like how the guy lays down in front of the car and motions for it to run him over near the end, when he believes he's not going to succeed in his quest to marry by noon to collect an inheritance. It's cool that it's the woman (Marian Swayne) who actually has the money in this relationship and is pulling the strings, and the guy is somewhat "steamrolled" into marriage, which director Alice Guy-Blaché cleverly shows us symbolically. She's a little heavy-handed in how often she shows us the clock, and there's also an unfortunate joke where as he searches desperately for any woman to marry him, he taps on a veiled woman's back, only to discover she's black, and then immediately reacts by running away. It's a small moment but reflects the miscegenation laws and widespread view of white superiority of the period, and is repugnant.

I'm not sure who first came up with the concept for the story line, whether that was Guy-Blaché or someone earlier, but it would certainly be repeated afterwards, e.g. just three weeks later, in the short 'Jane Marries,' and then in countless others over the years. You may also recognize it from Buster Keaton's film 'Seven Chances' in 1925, based on a play from 1916 - though it's sadly ironic that Keaton would also include a touch of racism with a stupid character in blackface. Just as in that film, if you can look past those painful moments, this is an amusing little short.