Seven Years Bad Luck (1921)

SEVEN YEARS BAD LUCK  (1921)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Max Linder
    Max Linder, Alta Allen, Ralph McCullough
Max Linder was a French silent comic who achieved worldwide fame before Charlie Chaplin ever stepped in front of a camera. He was injured while serving in the First World War (some accounts say he was exposed to poison gas) and made fewer films after that, some in Europe and some in the United States. In this Hollywood production, a broken mirror triggers a series of sight gags, some of them real funny. The best ones involve the mirror, an impromptu dance, a glue pot and a lion. Unfortunately, depression and the war had caused Linder's health to deteriorate, and his career faded as Chaplin's peaked. He and his wife committed suicide together in 1925.