Buster Keaton and Dorothy Sebastian in Spite Marriage

Spite Marriage was Buster Keatons last silent film.  This was the last time he was given any credit for directing or having much creative input into a film beyond being an actor.  Leaving his independent film making and being an employee of MGM would be something he would later call the biggest mistake of his career.  Judging by the quality of Spite Marriage, it certainly was a mistake.

Keaton plays a man named Elmer, who works at a dry cleaners.  He wears the nice suits that rich men drop off for cleaning.  He stalks a famous stage actress, Trilby, showing up everywhere she does.  He has seen her play 35 times.  Because of his nice clothes he wears, Trilby assumes Elmer is wealthy.

At one point Elmer goes backstage to give Trilby some flowers but ends up in the play standing in for an actor whom the cops are after.  Elmer messes everything up, creating quite a bit of laughter from the audience.  His antics are not nearly as funny as they lead on.

Trilby is in love with a co-star, who is meanwhile in love with a socialite.  Out of spite, Trilby decides to marry Elmer whom she barely even knows.  She regrets it immediately and does not have relations with Elmer on their honeymoon.  She gets drunk when she sees her old boyfriend and his girlfriend at dinner.  Elmer has to carry her back to their room and put her to bed in a scene that drags on endlessly.   Their marriage seems over as her manager encourages Elmer to give her a divorce.

Elmer then gets caught up with some rum runners and ends up at sea.  He eventually ends up on a yacht that just happens to have Trilby and her old boyfriend as passengers.  The bad guys show up and Elmer has to be the hero.  They survive a storm.  He rescues Trilby and saves their marriage.  Trilby has this double meaning last line to him, as they go into their apartment building, "You will be seeing a lot more of me from now on."

Spite Marriage is a lesser comedy of Keaton's.  Their are few jokes and what there are drag on pointlessly.  Keaton messing up the play is one little screw up after another, and none of them are that funny.  When Trilby gets drunk, it seems to take forever for Keaton to get her back to their room and into their bed.  It is supposed to be a funny scene but I could not wait for it to end.  Spite Marriage was the beginning of the end of Keaton's career as a major motion picture star. 

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