Max Comes Across (1917) User Reviews

Mr. Linder's humorous powers to evoke laughter are still irresistible

[deickemeyer · 7 February 2015]

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 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 kaleidoscopic 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. The incidents which form this first comedy supposedly occur during Mr. Linder's voyage from Paris to this country to join the Essanay forces. Accompanied by his friend Maupain the voyage is made, although Max is badly frightened by an item of war news which states that twelve more ships of the Entente have just been sunk by German submarines. He orders a life belt placed in every trunk and a life belt with every meal taken on board! He mistakes the play of two dolphins for an approaching torpedo one day, and stirs his co-passengers into a frenzy of fear. The attack of seasickness which seizes his friend Maupain and himself results in uproarious fun for the spectator. In the search for his own cabin he enters that of a passenger and his wife, which leads to another paroxysm of mirth. The services of Max as pianist at a special concert given aboard ship affords one of the most mirthful incidents during the voyage. A storm comes up and the piano slides backward and forward across the salon, with Max either in hot pursuit or in quick retreat; but he always contrives to stick to the piano stool, although in its mad gyrations it is sometimes turned upside down. To get even on his friend, Maupain, Max induces the captain to have an attendant shout at his cabin door that the ship is sinking, not knowing that Maupain had already won over that officer to play the same trick on himself, at the very same hour. Then an actual collision takes place in mid-ocean, and the cry, "Everybody on deck, the ship is sinking," arouses the passengers from their slumbers. Max and his friend smile, each to himself, as the cry is heard, ignorant of danger. But when an officer tells them of the accident there is wild scampering and a desperate fight between them for a life belt. Max discovers that the ship is out of danger, and seating himself at the piano in his saloon plays an inspiriting selection. The captain and passengers rush in, marveling at the nerve of the hero, who on being questioned modestly answers, "I was playing the piano to give the passengers courage!" The direction of the comedy shows most convincingly the rocking of the ship during the voyage, and the interiors on board have been reproduced with praiseworthy realism. Ernest Maupain is an excellent opposite for Mr. Linder, and the other characters have been carefully assigned. - The Moving Picture World, February 24, 1917