User Reviews

Maybe shorter is better in the case of early female filmmaker Alice Guy as her work here, the 14-minute "Matrimony's Speed Limit" was not really a great watch, even if the National Film registry thought otherwise. Guy was around the age of 40 when she made this film during a prolific 1913. The drama here is not really serious, so it is a comedy film from start to finish. Of course, looking at who made this and that it is already over 100 years old, this is a silent film and in black-and-white. Romance aspect is solid and there are one or two funny moments, but I felt that it simply was not enough to be an interesting watch, even if it runs just for a quarter of an hour, or maybe I should say for so long as this runtime was not common at all by 1913. There were also a few not-so-great moments like towards the end when the male protagonist decides to commit suicide because the payday does not seem to happen. I mean if he really loved his girl, then there's no way he would have even considered such a thing. The allegedly funny moment from briefly before that when he sees a woman whose face is covered and we know of course it is not his significant other, even if he thinks it is (or exactly because he thinks it is), has not aged too well either from a comedy perspective. The ending then is full-on happy as you may have guessed and the two are united in love, harmony and togetherness following a little bit of cheekiness. I still found it difficult at times to really follow and understand what was going on here, especially early on, and the plot was certainly not too complex, so the execution feels a bit shoddy. More intertitles would have been a wise choice. I also felt as if the male lead was laughing (or at least smiling) during moments early on when it was not appropriate given the story.

Anyway, I give this film a thumbs down, also because the whole plot and idea that you have to get married until noon to get the money is a bit too absurd for my liking and just as unrealistic as the car that the man is ready to succumb to includes his sweetheart then. What a coincidence! There are more negative or forgettable aspects to this film than there is good quality and that is why overall I do not recommend the watch here despite the two fairly prolific and talented actors from back in the day. If you speak German, you will maybe initially be confused by somebody named Fraunie Fraunholz being male. In the intertitles you also read his first name and the first name of lead actress Marian Swayne on several occasions and they/Guy just used their actual first names for the characters. For both actors it was still relatively early in their careers and overall Swayne acted in more films afterwards, also lived longer than Fraunholz, even if neither of the two managed to continue an acting career with the introduction of sound film. But that was a common fate for actors back then. If we go back to this film here, it also needs to be said that there are many other cast members with screen time included, even if all of them are featured only very briefly, but still the cast list should be or have been more than two names. That's it. Even if this film is easily available on the big video website everybody knows, I think that the best choice is to skip the watch.