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.

Fraunie Fraunholz's stock speculations have turned out terribly. He tries to break off his engagement to Marian Swayne -- what will they live on? -- but she has faith in him. She offers him her savings, but he won't take them. But Miss Swayne will not be thwarted. She sends him a telegram that a rich relative has died and he will inherit, but only if he is married very soon: in twelve minutes, to be precise.

Good thing this is a 14-minute movie. That gives him leeway. He asks various women to marry him, but none take him seriously. Meanwhile, Miss Swayne is on her way.

You can look on this as a feminist tract by the first woman director and the first woman to head her own studio. I think it's a fairly funny short making fun of improvident men and the women who love them.

"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!

After being wiped out on the stock market, Fraunie Fraunholz learns that his recently deceased aunt has left him a fortune - but only if he is married by midday on the day he receives the telegram giving him the news. Some nice camerawork enhances an otherwise ordinary comedy-drama and compensates for an annoyingly broad performance from the leading man.

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.