Laugh with Max Linder

A French emigrant, comedian Max Linder's suicide in 1925 cut short a career that might have ultimately rivaled those of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, or Harold Lloyd, but this DVD offers an entertaining glimpse of his comic talents. The centerpiece of this collection is the feature film Seven Years Bad Luck, which finds the writer-director-star in his regular persona of "Max" (with his thin moustache, jaunty top hat, and quick feet, it's tough not to view Max as a wealthier variation on Chaplin's Little Tramp). Here, Max is on the verge of marrying his sweetheart, but a broken mirror leads to a string of bad luck that includes car accidents, super-glue-based humiliation, and run-ins with the police. Several of the gags in this 1921 comedy became classics when interpreted by other performers, including Linder's broken-mirror pantomime with a look-alike chef (later done by the Marx Brothers and Abbott and Costello, among others) and his tussle with a circus lion (which Chaplin and Lloyd both borrowed). The tinted print is digitally mastered (though still full of scratches and missing frames), while the orchestral score arranged by Robert Israel nicely complements Linder's brand of slapstick, which careens from graceful to manic. Also included are four Linder sketches from his earlier work in France. Recommended. (D. Fienberg)