MAX COMES ACROSS (1917) Max Linder

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Ed Watz
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MAX COMES ACROSS (1917) Max Linder

Postby Ed Watz » Tue May 12, 2020 9:27 am

An all-too-brief clip from Max Linder's first and rarest Essanay comedy, MAX COMES ACROSS, excerpted in a 1932 Paramount Pictures Screen Souvenirs entry. A print of the film resides in a European archive and was shown during MOMA's BiCentennial Salute to American Screen Comedy, otherwise it exists but it's virtually unseen.

https://filmlibrary.shermangrinberg.com/?s=file=418281

At the time of his passing, David Shepard was preparing to work on a Max Linder set, to include Max's three Essanay shorts and the 1919 Pathé feature LE PETIT CAFÉ. Hopefully Stefan Droessler or Serge Bromberg have picked up the project; we'll see...
"Of course he smiled -- just like you and me." -- Harold Goodwin, on Buster Keaton (1976)

Steve Massa
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Re: MAX COMES ACROSS (1917) Max Linder

Postby Steve Massa » Tue May 12, 2020 2:48 pm

Hi Ed - the Cinemateca Romana in Bucharest is listed as having MAX COMES ACROSS. Uli Ruedel and I scheduled it in our EUROPEAN SLAPSTICK show at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival last October, but it turned out that they had misidentified it. What they have is MAX IN A TAXI.

There is a different four minute chunk of MAX COMES ACROSS in a fourteen minute compilation reel called MAX IN AMERICA. This clip had all the ship's passengers, including Max, suffering from seasickness, and also details Max's problems trying to sleep in an upper bunk in his cabin. It's preceded by a large chunk of MAX IN A TAXI and followed by MAX WANTS A DIVORCE. A stock footage house in Barcelona, Mercury Films, has this compilation and sent us a scan, but we weren't able to show it in the festival as they only have it on Beta. Serge has contacted them about the footage, but I haven't heard about the outcome.

Ed Watz
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Re: MAX COMES ACROSS (1917) Max Linder

Postby Ed Watz » Wed May 13, 2020 4:31 pm

Thanks, Steve, this is all very interesting - I wonder what happened to the fairly complete MAX COMES ACROSS that was shown at MOMA in 1976 - I don't recall which archive loaned the print, the titles were foreign, and it did contain what Walter Kerr considered the film's highlight, Max playing the ship's piano during a storm at sea. This reminds me of the case of the early Arbuckle Paramount THE ROUGH HOUSE (1917). A complete print from a foreign archive was shown at Cinecon in the early nineties. There was a lengthy scene of Keaton, Al St. John and Joe Bordeau running around NYC's Union Square after they're sworn in as policemen. The street is bustling with traffic and automobiles as the trio proceed to run downstairs at the 14th Street subway kiosk. This entire sequence is missing from all current versions of THE ROUGH HOUSE on DVD & Blu-Ray. The very next shot is where circulating copies pick up, with the three cops exiting at the 242nd Street subway kiosk, the last stop on the line. I don't recall offhand which archive had the complete print (I do have the Cinecon program stored here somewhere), but a few years ago that archive admitted it did not know what happened to their print.
"Of course he smiled -- just like you and me." -- Harold Goodwin, on Buster Keaton (1976)

Ed Watz
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Posts: 424
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 7:35 pm

Re: MAX COMES ACROSS (1917) Max Linder

Postby Ed Watz » Tue Jan 02, 2024 9:58 am

Here's yet another brief excerpt from the elusive MAX COMES ACROSS, sent to me by a friend who found it from she-doesn't-remember-where, and possibly had it in her possession for several years now. It appears to be a tattered print filmed off television but at this point I'm grateful to see anything once again on this rarity.

https://youtu.be/U29itcproPs
"Of course he smiled -- just like you and me." -- Harold Goodwin, on Buster Keaton (1976)


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