This was the last silent film starring Buster Keaton, though the film does have sound effects and music--something MGM did to many film in the period between the silents and the full conversion over to sound films. While it is very watchable (particularly to Keaton fans),it is a far cry from his earlier films mostly due to Keaton's ill-fated decision to abandon an independent career (which had resulted in great films such as THE GENERAL and STEAMBOAT BILL JUNIOR) to sign on with MGM Studios. The resulting MGM films were at first pretty good (though noticeably inferior to the independent films). However, as time passed, the films became god-awful messes that are barely watchable and often make Keaton fans cry.

Fortunately, while this IS an MGM-produced film, it is much better than most. The difference between the quality of this film and his next (FREE AND EASY) is dramatic--mostly because by the time FREE AND EASY came along, Keaton was only an actor and had no say in the creative process. This was insane, but the butt-heads at MGM wanted it this way. This was akin to hiring Picasso but only letting him do clown paintings!! SPITE MARRIAGE consists of three distinct sections and each are quite different in quality. The first consists of Keaton slavishly longing for a stage actress who has no idea that he even exists. While parts of this are very funny, the film oddly relies way too much on pathos compared to Keaton's other works--this was more Chaplin's style but now MGM was pushing Keaton this direction. I'd say this part of the movie would merit a score of 7. The second consists of when Keaton dates and then marries this selfish actress. The film grinds to a comedic halt and the highlight, so to speak, is when he spends what seems like an eternity to stick his drunk wife in bed. This was tedious and terribly unfunny--earning a score of 3. The final segment of the film was when Keaton oddly went out to sea. How this all was arranged was very silly and contrived, but once he was there the film finally showed the earlier Keaton magic--with amazing stunts like you'd expect in a Keaton film. How much of this was actually Keaton is debatable, as MGM was worried he'd get killed doing these dangerous stunts--even though Keaton was a master at this (as seen in STEAMBOAT BILL JUNIOR). Because the film's timing and laughs were impeccable, I'd give the final portion a score of 10--thus ending the movie on a very high note. Overall, averaging it all together, the film earns a 7.

Had Keaton continued to make movies of the quality of SPITE MARRIAGE, his career at MGM would have no-doubt flourished for many years, as the film comes very close to earning a score of 8 and is very watchable.

Elmer (Buster Keaton) is a big fan of stage actress Trilby Drew. He's always around and doesn't miss a performance. Trilby gets jealous when her leading man boyfriend Lionel Benmore starts flirting with blonde socialite Ethyl Norcrosse. When Ethyl claims to be engaged to Lionel, Tribly impulsively marries the dry cleaner Elmer out of spite. Tribly continues to try to get Lionel jealous. Her manager tells Elmer that she wants out of the marriage. Elmer leaves and accidentally gets caught up with bootleggers. He gets lost at sea and ends up on a yacht as part of the crew. It turns out that Trilby and Lionel are on board together.

This is supposedly the last silent film of Buster Keaton. It could have been made with dialogue. Nevertheless, this is still good Buster Keaton. He has a few good slapstick stunt scenes. Keaton bumbling chaos on stage is loads of fun. Him smashing bottles on the criminals is a fun gag. His stunts on the yacht are impressive. The only drawback is that I don't like Trilby. It would be nice to have a more appealing leading lady.

Buster Keaton - if you are aware of that name and I reckon your are at least a little bit, you are also aware of his legacy. He is named often when it comes to best comedians of all time. And no matter what your point of view here is (you may be a Chaplin guy or be more into the group dynamic like Marx Brothers or Stooges or something else),you can't deny that he was a genius in front of the camera ... but also apparently behind the camera. No pun intended here.

I'm not entirely sure of the timeline, but this might be the last silent movie Buster Keaton did (there is a music track of course, but no spoken dialog). Whatever the case this is another showcase of how funny Buster could be ... physically. And he did a lot of his own stunts - kind of like a Jackie Chan did way later and someone many may recognize more nowadays. Not judging either way and you shouldn't either. No one can know everyone. Although as far as I know, Jackie refers to Buster Keaton as an inspiration. And talking about inspiration: this movie was remade a couple of decades later with another actor - in that case as a "talky"(so spoken dialog and not cards with words every now and then). Which shows the impact Buster and his movies had .. the fact that The Camera Man was used by MGM to show others how comedies should be and feel like ... says more than a thousand words. The ending here may feel a bit put upon - the last 10 minutes that is, but it still works overall