Spite Marriage is a silent

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 starring Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton

Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

 and Dorothy Sebastian

Dorothy Sebastian

Dorothy Sebastian was an American film and stage actress.-Early life and career:Sebastian was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. In her youth she hoped to be a dancer and later a film actress. Her family frowned on both ambitions, however, so she fled to New York at the age of 15...

. Keaton and Edward Sedgwick

Edward Sedgwick

Edward Sedgwick was a film director, writer, actor and producer.-Biography:He was born in Galveston, Texas, the son of Edward Sedgwick, Sr. and Josephine Walker, both stage actors. Young Edward Sedgwick joined his show business family as one of the Five Sedgwicks, a vaudeville act...

 co-directed. It is the second film Keaton made for MGM and his last silent film. Keaton later wrote gags for some up and coming MGM stars like Red Skelton

Red Skelton

Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...

 and lifted many gags from this film in his 1943 film I Dood It

I Dood It

I Dood It is a 1943 MGM musical-comedy film starring Red Skelton and Eleanor Powell, and directed by Vincente Minnelli. The screenplay is by Fred Saidy and Sig Herzig and the film features Richard Ainley, Patricia Dane, Lena Horne and Hazel Scott...

, some shot for shot.

Plot

Elmer, a humble worker in a dry cleaning establishment, idolizes stage actress Trilby Drew (Sebastian). She, in turn, is carrying a torch for fellow actor Lionel Benmore (Edward Earle). When he spurns her for the younger Ethyl Norcrosse (Leila Hyams), she impulsively asks Elmer to marry her, only to regret it almost immediately. Her handlers extricate her from the marriage, and when Elmer finds himself first in the hands of criminals and then at sea, he is more than happy for the opportunity to forget her. But a series of coincidences throw Elmer and Trilby back together again and she will have cause to re-evaluate her opinion of him.

Cast

• Buster Keaton
  Buster Keaton
  Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...
  
   as Elmer Gantry
• Dorothy Sebastian
  Dorothy Sebastian
  Dorothy Sebastian was an American film and stage actress.-Early life and career:Sebastian was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. In her youth she hoped to be a dancer and later a film actress. Her family frowned on both ambitions, however, so she fled to New York at the age of 15...
  
  as Trilby Drew
• Edward Earle
  Edward Earle
  Edward Earle was a Canadian film actor. He appeared in almost 400 films between 1914 and 1956.He was born in Toronto and died in Los Angeles, California, aged 90.-Selected filmography:* The Purple Dress...
  
   as Lionel Benmore
• Leila Hyams
  Leila Hyams
  Leila Hyams was an American film actress. Her relatively short film career began in silent films, and ended in the mid 1930s.-Early life:...
  
   as Ethyl Norcrosse
• William Bechtel (actor) as Nussbaum
• John Byron
  John Byron
  Vice Admiral The Hon. John Byron, RN was a Royal Navy officer. He was known as Foul-weather Jack because of his frequent bad luck with weather.-Early career:...
  
  as Scarzi