Max Linder gives us a couple of pretty humorous gags in Seven Years Bad Luck and this certainly isn't a bad film, but at 62 minutes instead of a 20 minute short, I found the comedy a little bit thin. It pains me to say that, given how much of a giant he was in the industry in the 1910's, and how influential he was to other comedians of the era. The premise is that a rich man who is about to be married accidentally breaks a mirror, thus setting off a string of unlucky events that have him losing his fiancée and ending up behind bars (once with lions, and once with a guy who gets violent if his back isn't scratched, you tell me which is more frightening).
The film is notable for its 'human mirror' bit, whose variations include one from Charlie Chaplin five years earlier in The Floorwalker and of course the classic Marx Brothers version from Duck Soup eleven years later. It's also got a funny scene where Linder avoids the train conductor by hiding behind a larger man as he walks around. The overhead shot of men all hoisting a drink at a bachelor party at the beginning, looking like a small version of something you'd see from Busby Berkeley, and the women popping up out of the ground near the end in a dream are also some nice touches.
One of the issues with the film for me was Linder himself, who while influential to Chaplin, Keaton, and perhaps Lloyd, didn't quite possess their charisma. His character is not very sympathetic, and Linder didn't spend any time developing any kind of humanism or sweetness with the role. He also doesn't take some of his idea far enough, e.g. The concept of seven years of bad luck from breaking a mirror, or running away from a bunch of cops. Buster may have gotten the idea for the latter and used it in The Goat, released later in 1921, or Cops (1922), but the mayhem he created was far more entertaining. Linder is a little bit too staid by comparison; it's a style that was a big part of his earlier success, but maybe it's the reason he failed to become as popular in Hollywood.
The film is notable for its 'human mirror' bit, whose variations include one from Charlie Chaplin five years earlier in The Floorwalker and of course the classic Marx Brothers version from Duck Soup eleven years later. It's also got a funny scene where Linder avoids the train conductor by hiding behind a larger man as he walks around. The overhead shot of men all hoisting a drink at a bachelor party at the beginning, looking like a small version of something you'd see from Busby Berkeley, and the women popping up out of the ground near the end in a dream are also some nice touches.
One of the issues with the film for me was Linder himself, who while influential to Chaplin, Keaton, and perhaps Lloyd, didn't quite possess their charisma. His character is not very sympathetic, and Linder didn't spend any time developing any kind of humanism or sweetness with the role. He also doesn't take some of his idea far enough, e.g. The concept of seven years of bad luck from breaking a mirror, or running away from a bunch of cops. Buster may have gotten the idea for the latter and used it in The Goat, released later in 1921, or Cops (1922), but the mayhem he created was far more entertaining. Linder is a little bit too staid by comparison; it's a style that was a big part of his earlier success, but maybe it's the reason he failed to become as popular in Hollywood.