Matrimony's Speed Limit

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.

Ignore the previous comment - the Keaton film was much later.

A man does badly on Wall Street but refuses to borrow or take money from the woman he is engaged to, so she sends him a message seemingly from a law firm stating that his aunt has died but he must be married by 12 noon that day to be eligible to inherit her money. He makes several comic attempts to marry women who are at hand before marrying the lady who sent the letter just before noon.

Nice shots of suburban Fort Lee, NJ.

I have to disagree with the other reviewer--I found "Matrimony's Speed Limit" fun and breezy, even if the plot has been recycled a million times. What makes this version different (at least to me) is that the girl dupes her boyfriend into marriage by sending him a fake telegram, and then ends up giving him all of her own money. The ending is particularly charming, with the new husband realizing the deception and the girl wheedling him into compliance.

"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!

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.