Max Linder

A look back at Charlie Chaplin's early life and career, from his rough childhood and music hall success in England to his early Hollywood days and the development of his enormously popular character, the Little Tramp, also called Charlot.

A long-retired director of early silent films recalls his exciting career as a filmmaker.

Bob Monkhouse introduces the golden age of slapstick comedy.

An exploration of the dazzling rise and mysterious downfall of French actor and filmmaker Max Linder (1883-1925), the world’s first international film star and mentor to British actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin.

After breaking a mirror in his home, superstitious Max tries to avoid situations which could bring bad luck, but in doing so causes himself the worst luck imaginable.

The whole world knows him. Burlesque comedy genius, popular actor, author, director, producer, composer, choreographer, Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) used his talent to serve an ideal of justice and freedom. But his best scenario was his own destiny, a story written into the political and artistic history of the 20th century.

Max presents himself with a letter of introduction to Mr. Charles Pathé. He is then passed from hand to hand until he finds himself facing a director who has him do a few tests: singing, dancing, performing a somersault, receiving a slap. Some time later, he is summoned for a screen test. We then see him at odds with his wife and especially his mother-in-law, who end up throwing him out of a window and then successively hurling a table, a wardrobe, a mattress, etc., at him while he is being filmed. Finally, the director asks him to make a face in front of the camera. And that's when Max rebels and turns against his tormentors.

A painter working at the Louvre is struck by the Mona Lisa. When he meets a girl whom he believes bears a resemblance to the painting, and who wants him to become famous, he comes up with the idea of stealing the painting. Based on the real-life theft of 1911.

In this movie, Max Linder parodies the famous novel "The Three Musketeers".

In this one, [Max] is on vacation and wooing a young lady, but she and her cousin decide to play a trick on him, by getting him inside a barrel, and then tossing it into the ocean.

Renowned French comedian and filmmaker Max Linder visits Charlie Chaplin in 1917.

Max and his young bride attempt to enjoy an Alpine honeymoon, despite the presence of her mother.

Max is a millionaire who is forced to lead a double-life as a waiter, the result of having lost a wager.

On doctor's orders Max buys a new bathtub, but Max struggles to fill it, and when he does, he can't bathe in peace!

Kalle Jeppson is the joyful owner of a rural inn, "Spången" (The Footbridge). His only problems are all the bylaws that makes it difficult to have a quiet drink and the shrew of his wife who is always nagging on him. Kalle is afraid to tell her that Karin the maid is really his daughter from the days before their marriage.

When Max's friends doubt his acting ability, he invites them to a dramatic theatrical performance.

Max is determined to woo Mary, despite her Aunt Agatha's disapproval. Then, Max and Mary become embroiled in the world of Madam Coralie, a prominent dressmaker-bootlegger.

A love sick Max fly to find his love and recover.

Polichinelle the servant (called Harlequin in the English language version) rescues his girlfriend from a gang of decadent aristocrats, who have transformed her into a mechanical doll.

Kino Classics and Lobster Films celebrate the legacy of Max Linder, a pioneer of comedy whom Charlie Chaplin referred to as "the great master." With his trademark silk top hat and cane, the French-born Linder blended slapstick with sophistication, and invested his films with a layer of cleverness that elevated them above mere knockabout comedies, paving the way for such multi-dimensional screen comedians as Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. The collection includes four of Linder's American-made productions, meticulously restored from archival materials: THE THREE MUST-GET-THERES (1922, a parody of The Three Musketeers), SEVEN YEARS BAD LUCK (1921, a masterpiece of physical comedy), and the romantic farces BE MY WIFE (1921) and MAX WANTS A DIVORCE (1917). THE THREE MUST-GET-THERES U.S. 1922 Color Tinted 57 Min. Written and Directed by Max Linder

In a snowy Alpine district Max takes his first lessons in the art of skiing. He leaves the hotel with his skis fixed to his shoes, and his efforts and contortions to get through the door of his room are absurdly ludicrous. Finally he manages to get out and we see him making frantic efforts to maintain his equilibrium on the fairly gentle slope.

Max suffers from drunkenness, but gets serious after he falls for the daughter of a circus director - who forbids her romance with an outsider.

Max, awakening on his wedding morning, discovers that it is close on the hour when he should be at the church. He dresses hastily, and in struggling with a refractory collar, allows his boots to be burnt by the fire. There is no time to change them, and he hastens off to the bride's house. On the way his soles part company with their uppers, and poor Max enters into negotiations with a passing labourer for the purchase of his footgear.

Max accepts a wager that he cannot remain in a haunted castle for one hour (11 PM to midnight) without crying for help. As soon as he arrives he encounters strange and nightmarish visions, but he is nevertheless on the verge of winning the bet when a phone-call brings startling news.

Max and his wife of three years are happy in most regards but one: they still don't have a child. When Max reads of a new method of "spontaneous generation" in the paper, it seems his fondest wish may have come true. However, the young couple may get more than they bargained for.

Max visits a lady doctor for a chest cold and is alternately anxious and nervous and excited, in a romantic and sexual way, depicted by his clever pantomime.

The film is quite sophisticated for it's time with a relatively large number of scene changes as we follow Max's misadventures. It also features a close-up shot to show his reactions to the effects of the cigar he is smoking.

When Max, a newly married man, suspects that his wife may be cheating on him, he gives his faithful dog Dick orders to keep on eye on her when he's not at home.

Max proposes to a lady. Inexplicably, she insists she won’t marry him until he learns to juggle. At this news, Max goes home and tries to learn but is ultimately unsuccessful until he hatches an idea...

In consequence of a first kiss, poor Max finds himself claimed as a property of a persistent damsel. Even his approaching marriage does not deter the lady, who leads him a merry dance.

Max is forced to choose between losing his newly wedded wife and a fortune. He hits upon a brilliant scheme: He will give his wife grounds for a divorce, secure the money and then make his ex-wife Mrs. Linder again. He goes through any amount of trouble in helping her to get the necessary evidence, only to find that it is all a mistake on the part of a stupid lawyer - the money and the wife are both to be his.

No description available.

Pioneering comedy legend Max Linder wrote, produced, directed and starred in Seven Years Bad Luck. Hilarious misadventures begin when Max' butler, chasing a maid, breaks an expensive full-length mirror. The butler persuades the cook, who somewhat resembles Max, to stand behind the frame and be Max's reflection. This gag, developed by Max, has become a classic of film and even television borrowed by everyone from the Marx Brothers to Abbott and Costello to Red Skeleton.

Max causes havoc when he joins other skaters on a frozen lake.

This Max Linder short opens with him and his girl blissfully rowing in a canoe before skipping ahead two years later.

Max meets the Countess Duvienne in a very distressing moment, for she has just learned that her jockey will be unable to ride her horse, the favorite for the owner's stakes. In that irresistible way of his, Max volunteers to ride in the jockey's stead, the countess thanks him but cannot accept his offer, because of his excessive weight. The gallant Max, nothing daunted, decides to reduce. After running a mile with a forty-pound dumbbell, he looks like a wet rag, but goes gamely to a Turkish bath. This treatment brings Max down to weight, and mounted on the countess' horse. Max fights every stride of the tight race, hut wins, not only the race, but the countess as well.

A housewife tires of her husband's annoying behavior and returns to her mother. At first, the husband is quite pleased to have the house all to himself. But he quickly discovers that even the most basic domestic chores can be fraught with difficulty.

In a living room, four contemporary couples from the time the film was shot dance a waltz under the direction of a violinist (Linder). They begin a minuet and their costumes change in a sudden. A man enters and seems interested in what he sees, casts a spell and everything disappears. Transforming himself into the devil, the visitor takes the violinist with him to hell, where he creates a large piece of silk out of a cauldron. The fabric unrolls, revealing a young woman in a silk dress that starts dancing the serpentine. While she dances, other women join in a synchronized ballet, before all of them vanish into bursts of flames.

No description available.

Max visits a doctor who prescribes a tonic (Bordeaux of Cinchona) for him to drink every morning. Upon returning home, Max sees a large glass which was left by his wife and labeled "Souvenir de Bordeaux". He consumes it its entirety after assuming that it was his medicine. Immediately Max feels much better. Hilarity ensues as Max goes about the day in a completely drunken state.

Max sees himself as a great dramatic actor but his friends all think he's talentless. So, he invites them to come see him in a play. Unfortunately, lots of things go wrong with Max's props during the production. And, following his big dramatic suicide scene, he finds that his friends have all decided to play a trick on him--though Max has the last laugh.

"Scene, a first-class railway carriage. Max and delightful girl alone. "May I smoke?" breaks the ice, and then Max brings all the arts of fascination to bear on the lady, who is by no means shy. Max calls next day. Her father is in the enamel bath and geyser line. Max is making love; a customer enters. Girlie hides Max in portable shower bath. Enter father, who is a good salesman. He turns on the shower - and Max. What a delightful comedian Linder is." (The Bioscope, Nov. 22, 1917)

Max is invited to join his uncle for a holiday, but he hasn't invited his wife, so he sneaks her in in his suitcase, always hiding her from his uncle...

A man, his wife and their two sons are having a meal. One of the sons leaves the room pretending to be ill and collects a bunch of flowers form a cupboard and goes out. The other son takes a bunch of flowers from under his bed and he too leaves, followed by their father, also carrying flowers. The two sons and their father call on the same young women one after the other; as each arrives, the previous suitor is hidden in a piece of furniture: the father under a chair cover, one son in a cupboard and the other in a piano. A girlfriend of the young woman visits and the two play pranks on the hiding men by playing the piano and sitting on the chair cover. The three men emerge and the father chases his two sons outside until they remind him of his own folly; he gives his sons some money and urges them to keep silent.

Théodore (Max Linder) visits a fair/circus and becomes infatuated with a bearded woman in the show. He is so taken with her that he joins the troupe and performs comic bits (including dressing in a bearskin as a "performing bear"). While caressing the woman's beard, it comes off and, realizing it is false, he promptly flees in embarrassment.

Max reads in a newspaper, that Gladys Maxence, a rich American woman, seeks a young sportsman for marriage...

Max loves a charming girl to distraction, but her father declares that his daughter shall never marry anyone but a musician. Max tries his hand at all kinds of instruments, only to fail lamentably. Eventually, he bluffs the professor by using a mechanical instrument, only to have his clever trick discovered on the evening of his betrothal.

At the beach, amorous Max exchanges his shoes for those of a fair bather. The scheme goes awry, Linder's dog still further adding to the fun.

Max attempts to take a photo of a woman in a bathing suit, waiting while she swims around. He's waiting for her to emerge so he can snap the photo, but she fools him by diving beneath the sea and running ashore some distance away so he doesn't see her. He then goes to great lengths to rescue her from the deep while she hides and laughs.

"Max quarrels so with his wife that the lady leaves him. Our hero then attempts to do his own cooking, etc. He buys a fowl, but it proves to be still alive, and after he has chased it with a revolver, partly plucked it, shaved and finally half-roasted it, the bird is still alive and wings its way off. Max next turns his attention to blacking his boots, upsets the liquid blacking, spoons it up, and a minute later is using the same spoon to stir the broth. He writes for his wife to return home, but soon after sending the letter hears he is heir to a large fortune, and lives in the seventh heaven of delight - until his wife returns." (The Bioscope, Feb. 15, 1912)

To reassure his fans, Max Linder has been filming with his family at his place of convalescence...

A wealthy alcoholic is disowned by his father for his drunken behavior. Now penniless, he takes a job as a taxi driver, despite not knowing how to drive.

Auguste is cured! The doctor at the asylum said so. Delighted, his mother gives him a few coins so he can go out for a little entertainment. Auguste settles in a cinema to admire the great Max Linder. Enthused by the film, he goes off with the movie poster to make himself a suit like the star's. With a false visiting card, he goes to an agent, who sends him to the Comica film company. But the charming man is going to make a terrible mistake on his way… This comedy brings together two French silent film stars: Max Linder and Romeo Bosetti.

Max is a stage struck youth, and because of a deep-seated desire to go on the stage, refuses to consent to a marriage his father has planned for him. The girl, whom Max has never met, is also stage struck, and entertains no wish of marrying him, though her mother is anxious to see her make the alliance. The parents finally manage to bring the young people together, and they, in turn, exert all their skill in an attempt to disgust each other. An accidental meeting between the two when they are off guard causes them to change their minds.

Max wants to marry his girl but one man stands in the way. Her guardian. And Max got to find a way to get him to consent.

The film begins with Max being invited to dinner with his fiancée and future in-laws. To be polite, he stops on the way at a bakery to bring along a small gift for the in-laws. Unfortunately, he steps on some flypaper and has a devil of a time getting it off himself. When he arrives at the dinner, he's quite sticky and this causes LOTS of problems--which would have all been alleviated had he told them of his flypaper predicament. The title of the print gives the wrong date and title. Although there may well have been an earlier version with a similar plot (a number of films, which Max Linder made between 1905 and 1908, are still unidentified) it is quite clear that this particular one was made in 1910.

Comedy short starring Max Linder

The story is about Max who in holiday in Switzerland meets two young American girls. They're friends, the first one is blond, the other one is brunette. He falls in love with the two of them and decide to declare his flame first to the brunette then to the blond. When they realize the game Max is playing, they decide to play also. It is a delicate comedy between the three characters realized all in outsides (certainly around the Leman's lake)with a very good direction and very pretty images. The two unknown actress are also very charming. One of the best of Max Linder.

Max is in love with Lili, capricious bride who won't do his will until he has recovered the ring she launched into the sea. But Max is afraid of water...

Again Max is forced into marriage. If he doesn't marry soon he won't get any more money from his uncle. As all three candidates refuse his proposal he talks his servant into playing the bride. He manages to fool his uncle and both get actually married. As soon as he holds in his hands the treaty that grants him a huge amount of money the hurry home. When his uncle pays them a visit they are found out.

Suffering from unrequited love, Max hangs himself from a tree, and ends up hanging for hours while local townspeople squabble over whose responsibility it is to rescue him.

Max starts out at a costume store to get a costume for a party. He sees a suit of armor and purchases it. He wears it to the party and gets kind of drunk and passes out. In the meantime, a museum has a suit of armor ready for a new display. It is to be dedicated and some such. It comes up missing, so Max, passed out and still in his armor is put on display.

The adventures of Max Linder, some based on real events, some fictional, as he travels by ocean liner from France to America.

A documentary with many excerpts from the films of French movie pioneer Max Linder, narrated by his daughter.

Max has been invited to meet with his in-laws and must dress formally, but each hat he attempts to wear for the occasion gets destroyed.

As a struggling artist, Max is not allowed to pay attentions to a girl by her father. Max decides to win by persistency, and it is a case where persistency meets obstinacy to come off victorious. The artist is required to follow the father and daughter through the Alps. He finally gets the old man's promise to give his consent to the marriage in payment for his rescue.

Max and his friend, who came to visit him in Paris both fall in love with his new maid. The girl is very friendly, and while one plays the piano, she dances with the other - and they are so happy that even the decor dances at the rhythm.

George, passing a pretty woman in the street, has recourse to that old-time trick of dropping his own handkerchief and hurrying after her, making believe that he thinks it is hers. On examining the handkerchief, the beauty returns it, telling George that it does not belong to her. He then confesses that he knows very well that it is not her property, as it happens to be his own, and his offering it to her was only an excuse to make her acquaintance, so struck was he by her beauty. Upon this frank declaration the young woman draws herself up haughtily, but George is not to be discouraged, but follows closely behind her, ready to be of any assistance on the slightest pretext. We therefore see him arriving at the lady's house laden down with such articles as a lampshade, a statuette, a bunch of roses, a bundle of dress goods, and, in addition, leading an enormous dog on a leash, against whose attacks he is endeavoring to protect himself.

A series of comic mishaps in house boxes at a music hall.

Boy tricks his father into drinking castor oil. The latter is obliged to defecate in a series of unlikely places, to the evident disgust of members of the Parisian public. The status of this film is rather unusual, since it's not listed in the Pathé catalogues and never appeared in the French press of the time, but a surviving copy is preserved under the German title 'Der Kleine Schlaumeier'. It should not be confused with Gaumont's version "C’est papa qui prend la purge" by Louis Feuillade.

Max is informed by his rich uncle that he's tired of supporting him. Instead, he has a farmer friend and he wants Max to marry one of the farmer's daughters. However, the farmer decides that his oldest is for Max and has the youngest dress up like a maid. However, Max finds himself drawn to this 'maid' and although he wants to follow his uncle's advice, his heart is leading him to who he thinks is a common working girl. It all culminates in a cute final scene.

A dramatic short.

Max being a gentleman and helping a lady in distress. Max willingly helps the lady recover her forgotten purse before the boat they're traveling on is leaving.

Coming to visit a girl, Max presents himself as a pedicurist.

Commonly confused with Max ne se mariera pas

A Max Linder comedy short.

No description available.

It is Max's wedding night, married to the beautiful Stacia Napierkowska. He and his bride are sleeping..... and a flea keeps disturbing him.

Max Linder finds himself obsessed with bull fighting. This seems to echo the nature of the actual man, who is reported to have mastered most of the skills that his character attempts within a rapid amount of time; when you see Max challenging a bull or several towards the end of the film, you can be quite confident that it is the real Linder triumphing out on the arena.

In this three-reeler, the young lady with whom he is in love is sent to a convent to get her away from Max. Max goes after her. While we are not forced to watch the mustachioed Linder in drag, there are some nice gags here as Max manages to get his chauffeur blamed for everything, including an abduction of the girl.

No description available.

Max Linder is an ardent suitor for the hand of a somewhat rampageous young lady. The gentle Max suffers sadly from her rough treatment, but at length he extracts the promise that she will marry him when he has learned to juggle with three balls.

Max is late for his own wedding, and, worse yet, has no shoes.

Max Linder strays further from his usual haunts of situational comedy, far into straight slapstick as he gets into a dispute over the woman he is courting with a pantomime donkey -- although whether the donkey wants the girl or Max i something I can not quite make out.

No description available.

Blind courtship over a hedge.

A Max Linder comedy short.

The extremely ludicrous adventures of an intoxicated man aboard a yacht.