MAX LINDER (1882 or '83–1925)

CAREER OVERVIEW / REDISCOVERY / THE CRITICS RAVE / IN HIS OWN WORDS / MAX IN THE NEWS / A MAX LINDER MYSTERY / (they will frequently change)

Max Linder, born Gabriel-Maximilien Leuvielle was, quite simply, the screen's first international comedy star. What is not as appreciated was Linder's skill as a filmmaker. A "Max" comedy from 1911 looks far more sophisticated in technique and attitude than many contemporary D.W. Griffith Biograph films. His influence was acknowledged by no less that Charlie Chaplin, but can also be seen in the work of Raymond Griffith, Charley Chase and the otherwise negligible Jerry Drew. He usually played a Parisian boulevardier...a man about town who got into trouble as often through his own weaknesses for amour and champagne as through ill fortune. The English titles of his films indicate the simple plots: Shoes Too Tight, Max Tries at Drama, Too Much Mustard, Who Killed Max?. It was Max that audiences paid to see, not the story. He exemplified the French ideal of joie de vie, always coming up smiling no matter what disaster befell him. His greatest work was done in the decade before World War I. There is no doubt that the gas attack he suffered in the war greatly contributed to his ongoing emotional problems. Many of his films after World War I were commercial failures, even if the surviving American comedies do not indicate creative deterioration. The hilarious but unrelentingly morbid Au secours (1923) reveals a tormented soul. Max left this world via poison and razorblade, leaving a daughter to remind the world of his genius.

CAREER OVERVIEW:

• December 16, 1882 or 1883: Born in Caverne, France
• 1905: Acted in his first one-reeler for Pathe, Le premiere sortie d'un collegien (Max learns to Skate), and began a series of over 150 shorts.
• 1911: Directed as well as starred in most of his films from this point on.
• 1914-1916: Fought in World War I, where a gas attack precipitated the physical and emotional problems that would haunt him for the rest of his life.
• 1917: Made three films for Essanay in U.S., but had to cut short his contract due to ill health..
• 1919-1920: Made two features in France.
• 1921-1922: Made three features in U.S. all of which suffered the same fate as his earlier American films.
• 1923-1924: Made his final two films, including Au secours! (Help!), directed by Abel Gance.
• October 31, 1925: Committed suicide in Paris with his wife.
• 1963, 1983: Maud Linder released two compilation films of her father's work, and these became the impetus for Linder's rediscovery.

A MAX LINDER REDISCOVERY:

German film historian Uli Ruedel reports that two of the long presumed lost Max Linder Essanay comedies do indeed exist and have aired on Europe television under French titles. The shorts are Max in a Taxi and Max Wants a Divorce (both 1917). According to Uli, the Linder retrospective series was produced in France for Arte by Maud Linder and/or Lobster Films. Steve Massa reports that Max Wants a Divorce was screened at Paris' Musee d'Orsay in 1990.

THE CRITICS RAVE:

"MAX COMES ACROSS". Essanay's first release of the Max Linder comedy series, in which the noted comedian directs and acts, forces merriment whether one is in the humor or not. Even after viewing "Max Comes Across", Max Linder's first two-reel comedy in the big Essanay series, I awoke to the fact that I had been enjoying myself immoderately and that Mr. Linder's humorous powers to evoke laughter are still irresistible. It seems to me that he has grown in power as a magic mirth-maker since last seen, and that this is so impresses me as being all the the more wonderful when I think of the fearful scenes both in trench and on embattled field, which have engripped him since his former appearances in this country before the camera.

There can be no such thing as an analysis of his work, except that he writes his own scenarios, and directs and acts in them first as the whim seizes him. He is distinctly a creature of fancy, whose mission lies in presenting the ludicrous in kalidoscopic fashion, and with such appeal that the spectator is lost to everything but mirth and laughter. And all credit to Mr. Linder, his art to create laughter does not rely on vulgar incident or situation.

SEVEN YEARS OF BAD LUCK-MAX LINDER. A clean and enjoyable comedy, produced in America, with an American supporting cast. The situation showing the hero, while in the vermin-infested jail, scratching the back of a tough, is not refined; but it will get by on account of the other good qualities. Mr. Linder's acting is refined. The title is "catchy", and it should attract picture-patrons.

BE MY WIFE This comedy should give excellent satisfaction. Most of the situations are original; they should create roars of laughter, particularly in a crowded house. The one near the end, in which the star, standing behind the curtain, makes it appear as if two men are fighting, attaining this effect by using a pair of shoes in his hands and touching the ground with them, stands out the most. The plot revolves around Max Linder, as the hero, who, is trying to marry the girl he loves, gets into trouble; but he eventually overcomes all difficulties. The situations lack good connection, and the interest, somewhat lags in the "joints", but this defect will, no doubt, he overlooked on account of all the other good qualities.

THREE MUST-GET-THERES. Max Linder completed this burlesque of "The Three Musketeers" some little time ago but the release was delayed until this time until it was placed with a distributing corporation. This picture was secured several weeks ago by the Allied Producers and Distributors Corporation, and this week presented at the Strand more or less in the light of a half of a double bill program, sharing the billing with the First National feature "Kindred of the Dust." The picture will be a riot to those who saw the Douglas Fairbanks' production of "The Three Musketeers". Several bits are sure for laughs. However the titles are relied on as much as the action for the comedy. In classification, the picture is just a comedy, not strong enough to be featured alone but great for double bills.

It is broad burlesque of the original with Linder starting to play Dart-in-again slightly lavender at first, but breaking away from this after the first few scenes. After that he played the role broadly with a true burlesque sense. In his support he had Bull Montana and "The Three Musketeers" were members of the Metzetti troupe of acrobats which helped tremendously in one or two scenes. They should have been given greater opportunity to display their acrobatics and the chances would have helped some in the laugh action.

Jobyna Ralston is the one beauty touch, playing the maid in waiting to the Queen and scoring as an actress. She looks like a find.

In sets the picture are a flash and the dueling stuff that Linder indulges in are a laugh every few minutes.

THE THREE MUST-GET-THERES---MAX LINDER. Picture patrons will laugh heartily in "The Three Must-Get-Theres," which is a burlesque of "The Three Musketeers." The incidents that will in particular make them laugh are those in which modern instruments are used in the scenes, such as telephones, a typewriter, and automobile and others. The duel of Max Linder and his comrades with the King's men is the funniest that has been seen in pictures for some time. The action is fast all the way though. The picture should give universal satisfaction.

IN HIS OWN WORDS:

IT REMINDED HIM OF BATTLE-FIELDS by Max Linder. War, Monsieur, is not so terrifying as one who has not been in it may conceive. Pardon me if I remind you that I have had the experience - two long years of it. But, as a motor dispatch bearer for France, I felt no horror, particularly, at what fate might be hovering over me, preparing to strike the next moment. The Great Divide, it seems, has provided at least one single solace in this game of life and death. He has made the bullets, the shrapnel and the tremendous bombs to fly so quickly at us that we cannot see them. And what we cannot see, we do no fear so much.

In truth, I have had some experiences in the production of my cinema-plays which have filled me with more terror, momentarily, than battlefield ventures. I shall mention the last of such, for it is the most vivid now in my mind. I had conceived what you might call a "thriller" as a scene in my third Essanay comedy, Max in a Taxi. Having been disinherited by my wealthy father, the scenario directed that I lie down in front of an onrushing express-train, thus to doff my life-burdens. The train was to rush down upon me; all would be over - but no! Within ten feet of where I lay was to be a switch, which the audience had not perceived. And, even as the engine's pilot stretched forth to snuff out my life, the train suddenly was to strike the switch, swerve to a side-track and whizz past, leaving me and my life-burdens intact.

The scene was filmed without a flaw. I lay down upon the track; the huge express-train rushed up to within ten feet fof me. The switch opened and it swing to the left and past. Yet during the fleet second of the action, the terrible horror almost paralyzed me - What if by some unforeseen accident the switch refused to open? Here was death which I could see hurtling directly at me. I could not escape it.

As I said before, all went well. But as I arose from that track, I felt almost a craving, Monsieur, for the battlefields again. There at least, I did not have to look at the death as it rushed at me or as I rushed at it.

MAX IN THE NEWS:

MAX LINDER DEAD? Max Linder, the celebrated moving picture actor, is reported as having been killed at the battle of Aisne.

MAX LINDER NOT DEAD. Word received early last week from the seat of the great European war indicated that Max Linder, the famous Pathe comedian, has been killed in the battle of Aisne. Later reports, however, prove that the first rumor, as Mark Twain so aptly remarked, "was greatly exaggerated," for Max is only badly wounded and the prediction is made that within a short time he will be back on the firing line.

MAX LINDER COMING. French Motion Picture Comedian is to Act for the Essanay Company. Max Linder, France's famous motion picture comedian, is en route to America to act in a series of movie comedies to be made by the Essanay Company of Chicago. His contract calls for a year's work in twelve comedies with an option of renewal of the contract. Linder was appearing in a musical review in one of the Paris music halls when the war began. He joined the army as an aeroplane and automobile scout, and was seriously wounded after two years' service and sent to the military hospital an Contrexeville. It was while he was convalescing in the hospital that he negotiated for his engagement here.

LINDER ILL, STOPS WORK. Owing to the illness of Max Linder, the announcement is made by George K. Spoor, president of Essanay, that further releases of the famous European comedian's pictures have been indefinitely postponed. Complications have arisen from a wound suffered by Mr. Linder in the war and the foremost physicians of the Pacific Coast have ordered him to abandon for the time the vigorous program to which he subjected himself in the filming of his comedies.

The first three pictures made by Mr. Linder in America- "Max Comes Across", "Max Wants a Divorce" and "Max in a Taxi"-have enjoyed wide popularity, and no doubt his temporary retirement from the screen will be deplored by picture patrons.

The first two pictures were made in Chicago during the worst weather of the winter. The third was filmed in Los Angeles under excellent condictions. The transition from the battlefields to France to Chicago, then to California, is blamed by the physicians for the complications to Mr. Linder's wound.

MAX LINDER REPORTED IMPROVED. Max Linder, Essanay's famous comedian, who was reported to have been stricken with a touch of tuberculosis as a result of a lung wounded during his services to the European war, .is vastly improved, according to advices which have just been received from Los Angeles. Mr. Linder has not been in his studio for several weeks. A bulletin issued by his medical advisors indicates that he may soon take up his work again.

The scenario for the fourth Essanay production already has been written by Linder, and should his health permit he will launch into its production within a short time.

MAX LINDER LEAVES FOR FRANCE. Celebrated film star returns to his native country for complete rest. Max Linder, the famous Essanay comedian, who has been seriously ill here for several months, departed from Los Angeles on Monday, August 6th and sailed for France on the 11th, taking passage on the steamer S.S. Espana. If the submarines don't get him, he will soon be back in his beloved France.

Mr. Linder had a serious nervous breakdown several months ago and has been very ill ever since. He suffered severely from exposure in the trenches and the would he received when fighting with the French at teh Marne. His stay in Chicago aggravated his condition and he went to California to recuperate. His health has improved considerably, but the comedian is far from well. The trip to France and a complete rest for several months, his doctors believe, will put Linder on his feet again.

V.R. Day, manager of the Los Angeles studios of the Essanay Film Company, and members of his staff escorted Mr. Linder to the depot. A number of his friends among the profession and representatives of the daily press were also present to bid the popular little Frenchman good-bye. Linder said he was sorry to leave beautiful California and his many friends there. He is expected to return in February next year and complete his contract with Essanay.

LINDER WAS NEAR DEATH. Film Actor and Wife Overcome by Sleeping Powder in Vienna. Max Linder, the noted French moving picture actor, and his wife, who were found in a hotel room this morning in what was at first believed to be a dying condition from an overdose of sleeping powder, are rapidly recovering. The attending physicians reported that the serious symptoms which were apparent early in the day had disappeared, and they issued a statement, in accord with the judicial authorities who investigated the case, that the overdose was taken accidentally. The couple have been removed to a sanitarium.

LINDER DOUBLE SUICIDE. Gabriel Louville, 45, professionally known as Max Linder, and his young wife of 20, committed suicide in a local hotel Saturday by taking poison and severing arteries in their wrists. The couple were removed to a hospital where the girl succumbed, followed by Linder by but six hours.

A MAX LINDER MYSTERY

Why did Linder's U.S. feature films fail? In the case of his 1916-17 Essanays, he cut short his contract as a result of emotional and health problems sustained in WWI though they were certainly equal to or better than most contemporary comedies. But when he returned to American less than four years later, he had difficulty finding distributors, and could not even get his films properly reviewed! Both Variety and The New York Times ignored Seven Years Bad Luck and Be My Wife. Why? Had Linder's reputation fallen so far in so short a time?

(they will frequently change)