Love's Surprises (1915) User Reviews

Not bad for 1913

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 16 January 2007]

This is one of the few films still available that starred the once-famous French comedian, Max Linder--though he made almost 200 films in all. In his day, he was probably the most famous comedian in the world, but his career was severely damaged by injuries he sustained in WWI and he later committed suicide in the mid-1920s. As a result of this and the degradation of his and MOST silent films, he is practically unknown today.

In this film, Max is having dinner with some friends when he suddenly starts choking. He drinks some water, but then leaves the room. However, it is quickly evident that this was all faked--as he wanted to sneak away to woo a lady! Interestingly enough, the two other men at the dinner party then sneak off as well,...to see the same lady! Eventually, they all end up hiding in her apartment--unaware of the identities of her other suitors until the end.

While this isn't the deepest or most subtle comedy, for 1913, it's pretty good and worth seeing to fans of the silents.

Max Linder, English titles and multiple confusions

[kekseksa · 16 January 2016]

The absurd current system whereby IMDb seems to privilege titles in English rather than the original titles of the films contributes to much confusion (as well as frequently making films unnecessarily difficult to find). In the case of Linder films, it seems possible that the same English title was occasionally used for quite different films, so Vivre une vie de garçon (1908) and Max reprend sa liberté/Max and the Fowl (1915), both seem to get known as "Troubles of a Grass-Widower"; the majority of youtube versions that purport to be the second film are in fact the first and the description and most of the reviews that appear on that page are therefore of the wrong film (see my own review of Max reprend sa liberté).

This is another case in point. Les Surprises de l'amour(1909) and Le Hasard et l'amour (1915) both tend to get known in English as "Love's Surprises". Again most of the youtube offerings are of the first not the second film, whatever they may claim, although there is at least one correctly titled version of the later film.

The early film is a rather conventional and typically French farcical comedy about a father and two sons (they are quite evidently not just "friends" as the other reviewer suggests) who all leave the family dining-table one by one to go in pursuit, as it turns out, of the same demi-mondaine. Max at this point is still not the "Max" of the later films; Linder is just playing one of the sons.

Le Hasard et l'amour is a quite different film where a father has resolved to marry his daughter only to a doctor. Max inevitably impersonates a doctor but the stratagem fails. On the verge of suicide, Max hears that his lover is lost at sea and goes to her aid although in the event is her dog rather than Max who accomplishes the rescue. It is very "Max" but a rather typically over-elaborate late short. At this stage, he really needed to move on to full-length films which he could not get the support for in a demoralised wartime and postwar France and only started making towards the end of his life in the US - the superb Seven Years of Bad Luck and The Three Must-Get-There's.

There are, as I point out in the other review mentioned too, no shortage of films featuring Linder, over 60 being available on or via youtube.

Could we not please have a campaign to ensure that the original title of the film is ALWAYS the main one to appear and alternative English titles are relegated to a secondary position?