The Forced Marriage

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

A man lives a normal family life during the day, but late evening he becomes a different person, taken to night-clubs and their attractions of songs and bohemia.

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.

On the day before Easter in 1911, Don Hewes is crushed when his dancing partner (and object of affection) Nadine Hale refuses to start a new contract with him. To prove Nadine's not important to him, Don acquires innocent new protege Hannah Brown, vowing to make her a star in time for next year's Easter parade.

Maurice returns out of habit in the apartment from which he has just moved and turns the lives of the new tenants upside down.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

"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)

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.

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

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