Sept ans de malheur

I never heard of Max Linder before--a jaunty little Frenchman with a mustache, cane and top hat, a wealthy man with servants, who reacts when his full-length mirror is inadvertently broken by his hired help. He then goes to extremes to avoid seven years of bad luck.

While the rest of the plot is thin on inspiration, it does prove that SEVEN YEARS BAD LUCK is a watchable little silent film with a frisky score by Ralph Israel that perfectly fits the on screen action.

Numerous gags involve plenty of acrobatic stunts aboard a train, an escape from the cops by making himself comfortable inside a lion's den, pretending to be the stationmaster at a train station and wooing the agent's daughter, and a footchase aboard the running train to escape being a stowaway without a ticket.

Not a bad comedy for 1921, it's one of a hundred Max Linder films that have survived, out of some 400. Gassed during World War I, Max's health problems interfered with his budding career. He committed suicide in 1925 in a pact with his wife when the public response to his films was only lukewarm. TCM showed a decent print of this one, along with a couple of other much less impressive shorts.

Max Linder was a gifted comic artist who made scores of charming short comedies in France, years ahead of Chaplin, the Keystone gang, and even John Bunny. Linder was a true pioneer, and in his best work he can transcend the passage of time and still move audiences today. Linder attempted to produce films in America on two occasions, first in 1917 and again in 1921-22, but he was never able to achieve the same level of success in the States that he had enjoyed in Europe. During his second production venture in the U.S. he made a feature-length comedy called Be My Wife that, based on the excerpt I've seen, must have been one of the best comedies he made in the U.S. He also produced a feature called Seven Years Bad Luck that's now available on DVD. This film is best remembered for Max's version of the famous "mirror routine," performed by Charlie Chaplin in The Floorwalker in 1916 and Charley Chase in Sittin' Pretty in 1924, but which is most widely known today due to its use by the Marx Brothers in Duck Soup. In Linder's version a badly hung-over Max stares through a picture frame, unaware that his mirror has shattered, while a servant on the other side mimics his every move.

The beautifully performed mirror routine is, far and away, the highlight of this movie. Max's facial expressions and movements (and those of the other actor) are exquisitely timed; Linder must have put a lot of effort into rehearsing this scene, and the result is a masterpiece of pantomime. Unfortunately, the mirror bit occurs during the first fifteen minutes of this feature's running time, and the adventures that follow never again rise to the same level of inspiration. Over all, despite a promising opening and a number of good sequences scattered about, I find the film disappointing. I've watched it twice and tried to figure out why, and I believe it comes down to a couple of key factors.

The first problem is that there's no tension in this rambling story. We learn early on that Max is wealthy and has no responsibilities. The basic premise is that, having broken his mirror, Max fears he's in for a rough time, and thus goes to great lengths to avoid anything that might cause him bad luck. Needless to say, his attempts to avoid bad luck only bring him more of it. Okay, it's a promising set-up, but Max has no larger goal aside from wanting to marry his (equally rich) fiancée. He just rambles from one misadventure to the next with nothing to prove and all the time in the world. In classics such as Buster Keaton's Seven Chances or Harold Lloyd's Girl Shy the writers came up with tight, time-sensitive plots that gave the stories suspense, but Linder's story is comparatively slack.

Next, although Max himself is usually a charming and genial leading man, the character he's playing here is strangely clueless and self-centered. In scene after scene he does things that make his character difficult to like: he stuffs a puppy into a flower pot; he speeds his car through a crosswalk, nearly hitting pedestrians; he tears a girl's clothes off (albeit accidentally) getting her in trouble with her father, then abandons her to her fate without a second thought. When tough guys steal his luggage and wallet we think he'll finally have to learn to live by his wits, and to some extent that's what happens, but Max's behavior remains essentially selfish and opportunistic. In a situation where allies are needed, Max simply uses people as long as he needs them, then casts them aside. At a train station a large man helps him get onto a train without a ticket, but then promptly vanishes. Remember when Harold Lloyd befriended the giant in Why Worry? Max never does anything like that here.

It isn't Max's social status as a wealthy playboy that's a turn-off; after all, both Keaton and Lloyd often played spoiled rich boys and still managed to earn audience sympathy. But they both knew that if their characters started out as ninnies they would have to eventually grow up, at least to some degree, and demonstrate that they'd learned something about life and about dealing with other people. At the end of Seven Years Bad Luck, despite all his misadventures, Max appears to be the same guy he was at the beginning, and if he's learned anything or grown as a person it doesn't show.

On the plus side this film features a number of good gags along the way, including a remarkable sequence in a zoo where Max becomes quite friendly with a lion. This bit, like the mirror sequence and other highlights, might very well play better excerpted from the whole. Seven Years Bad Luck isn't a bad movie, but it's a decided disappointment coming from the man Chaplin called his "Professor." For those interested in Max Linder I can recommend an excellent documentary put together by his daughter in the 1980s entitled The Man in the Silk Hat, which features clips from his best work and an outline of his life and career.

Thanks to the renewed interest in silent films brought about by video technology, a whole new generation is being introduced to the timeless comedy of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and others. But every time you laugh at their antics you should thank Max Linder the French comedian who did it all first.

Max began his film career in 1907 and by 1909 was writing, directing, and starring in his own films built around his character of the dapper dandy dressed in spats and silk top hat. By 1914 he was the highest paid entertainer in the world and had made over 350 films. Mack Sennett and Keystone were just underway and Chaplin had just arrived in America. Then World War I broke out. Max enlisted and was seriously wounded three times. By the time he had sufficiently recovered the world had changed. Chaplin was now the king of comedy having with full acknowledgement borrowed many of Max's gestures and routines. Max was flattered and came to the U. S. in 1917 to make a few short films before going back to France. He returned in 1921, bought a house in Hollywood, and made three feature films. These did not do well at the time and an increasingly depressed Max went back to France where he and his wife committed suicide in 1925. He was 42.

Out of his vast output, only a small fraction have survived. While this DVD is unlikely to bring about a Max Linder revival, it does allow us to see his most famous feature film, an abridged version of another, and some of his pre-war work in France when Max was at the peak of his popularity. SEVEN YEAR'S BAD LUCK (1921) contains the famous broken mirror routine of Max standing before someone else who mimics his actions. This gag was reused by the Marx Brothers in DUCK SOUP and by Lucille Ball and many others. The excerpt from BE MY WIFE (also 1921) has Max staging a fight with himself from behind a curtain. The condition of the prints used for this DVD are pretty good but not great and are probably the best available without the funding for a full scale restoration.

Nevertheless it's great to see Max back up on the screen once again. If you enjoy silent screen comedy then you owe it to yourself to check this disc out and watch the "Professor", as Chaplin called him, show us how it's done. Max Linder was the first comedy superstar and influenced all who came after him from Chaplin to the look of John Astin on THE ADDAMS FAMILY. Thanks to David Shepard and Film Preservation Associates for making these long unseen treasures available. The musical accompaniment by Robert Israel ranging from small orchestra to Fotoplayer (a sort of one man band) is first rate as usual...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

After drinking too much at his bachelor party, wealthy Max Linder stumbles home, disoriented. He confuses his window and closet. Servants accidentally break Max' full-length mirror and conceal the fact by having a Max look-alike (Harry Mann) pose as his reflection. The ruse works through his morning shave, but Max realizes the glass is missing and throws a shoe at the mirror. Unfortunately, the new glass arrived and repairs were made. Max broke the mended mirror and fears "Seven Years Bad Luck" will follow...

The "mirror scene" in the opening minutes wasn't the first or last time this "bit" was done; however, it was the best. There are other great moments in this feature. The main story involves "false friend" F.B. Crayne trying to steal pretty Alta Allen (as Betty) from luckless Max. You'll lose track of the plot while marveling at how Max is able to sneak on a train and evade pursuers. Note how his disguise as a Black porter avoids the stereotypical qualities common for the time; there are no exaggerated lips or eyes, and Max' stance is explained by his over-sized pants. A female passenger is unable to accept the "masked" Max...

There are those who like Max with the lions, but the scenes do look forced. Much better is the finale. When Max in thrown in jail, he meets an inmate (Cap Anderson) who demands, "Scratch my back!" Max initially declines, but taking care of the other man's "itch" becomes pleasurable when they dose off and Max dreams his new companion is female. When they wake up, Max wants "Mary" again, but his new partner has a hard time giving up the relationship. In the end, switching partners appears to solve the problem.

********* Seven Years Bad Luck (2/6/21) Max Linder ~ Max Linder, Alta Allen, F.B. Crayne, Harry Mann, Cap Anderson

To me, this movie was highly reminiscent of a Harold Lloyd or Buster Keaton film, though with fewer laughs. Now this ISN'T to say it wasn't funny or was a bad film--but the number and intensity of the laughs was lower than other similar films. And the reason it looked a lot like a film by these other comedians is that Max Linder originated so many of the comedy routines we took for granted in films by later comedians--such as the mirror gag that was copied in DUCK SOUP (1933). Also, in the scenes where Max steps on and off the train so acrobatically are exactly the sort of thing I would expect Keaton or perhaps Chaplin to do. Chaplin himself credits much of his success to things he learned by watching early Linder films, though by the time he made it to Hollywood, Linder's film apparently lost a lot of their frenetic spark.

This film ostensibly is about Max breaking a mirror and trying to avoid bad luck--though everything he did only made things worse. While a promising premise, the movie really seemed to lose direction and the original plot is seldom in evidence later in the film. Some very good and interesting moments, but a lackluster and vague plot didn't help this movie. Still, it is nice to see Linder in a full-length film and it is well worth seeing for its finer moments. to highlight Linder's talents.