Love's Surprises
About Love's Surprises
At a family meal, one son pretends to be ill, takes a hidden bouquet, and slips out. His brother leaves with flowers he had under the bed, and their father follows with a bouquet of his own. All three call on the same young woman. Each arrival hides the man already there: the father under a chair cover, one son in a cupboard, the other inside a piano. Her girlfriend sits on the chair and plays the piano. The three men tumble out. The father chases his sons until they point out that he came with flowers too. He gives them money and tells them to keep quiet.
Cast & crew
More about Love's Surprises
Pathé catalog number 3110, 140 meters, released in France in October 1909. Austria had it on October 15, 1909, and Germany on November 10, 1909, as Was Liebe zusammenbringt. British titles were Love's Surprises and The Surprises of a Flirtation. Several filmographies credit Max Linder as director. Carl Bennett's Silent Era list leaves the director blank and calls it a split-reel.
Themes
Background
Pathé was turning out comic split-reels for the European programs of 1909, the year Linder's 'Max' costume was becoming a character audiences could recognize from one short to the next.
Making
Linder was Pathé's leading comic by 1909, after André Deed had left the company. This short uses that dandy in a furniture-farce rather than a chase.
Reviews
The Bioscope (October 21, 1909) said the last scene, in which the father buys his son's silence, might be the best thing of its kind Pathé had done.
Preservation
Silent Era records a surviving print in the Lobster Films collection at FPA France.
Notes
- Max Linder and Jacques Vandenne are the credited players.
- The Bioscope of October 21, 1909, described the father and both sons paying separate calls on the same girl.
- German and Austrian prints used the title Was Liebe zusammenbringt.
- A print is in the Lobster Films collection at FPA France.
- The hiding places are a chair cover, a cupboard, and a piano.
Scenes
- Each new caller stuffs the previous suitor into a different piece of furniture.
- The girlfriend plays the piano and sits on the chair cover while the men are still inside.
- The father pays his sons to say nothing about his own bouquet.
Also available
- Internet Archive (SurprisesDeLamour1909)
