Buster Keaton’s last silent film is a very good comedy, but shows emerging signs of studio meddling and restriction of Keaton’s creative process. Tightly scripted and shrewdly planned to hold down production costs, Spite Marriage (1929) nonetheless still succeeds with audiences.

This collection of Buster Keaton’s first three films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer also includes the modern documentary So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton at MGM by Kevin Brownlow.

The quality of the 35mm source materials for Spite Marriage range from very-good to excellent. The film is presented with its original synchronized music score from 1929, well-reproduced in digital mono sound.

Also included as supplementary material is audio commentary by Glenn Mitchell, author of A-Z of Silent Film Comedy: An Illustrated Companion on The Cameraman; commentary by John Bengston, author of Silent Echoes: Discovering Early Hollywood Through the Films of Buster Keaton and Jeffrey Vance, author of Buster Keaton Remembered on Spite Marriage; and photo montages from the silent films.

USA: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.com.
Canada: Click the logomark at right to purchase a Region 1 NTSC DVD of this edition from Amazon.ca.