Max Is Stood Up

Max Linder buys some pastries at a patisserie for lunch with his current amour and her parents. Unfortunately, it being a warm day, the pastry-shop owner is pestered by flies/ Fly paper is put up, which gets stuck to Max.

It's Max's puzzled, annoyed reactions, and the variety of objects stuck to him which is the comic point of this short subject, and Max is certainly up to portraying the annoyance and humor in the situation.

Although it wouldn't have taken much for the film to be filled with baked goods, director Lucien Nonguet chose to have the loaves of bread in the shop painted on the sets. Was it cheaper to have an artist draw them? Was there already a flat with the bread painted on in the warehouse?

This does not mean that Max is filled with egotistical pride, but that he gets involved in a few sheets of flypaper on the way to dine with his lady. He gets stuck up for fair in trying to extricate his hands, feet and person from plates, tumblers, napkins and tablecloths, and at last lands on top of a baker's man and gets even more adhesive material. Max, the genial gentleman, rises above all this debris and impossible situations and makes one amused in spite of himself. - The New York Dramatic Mirror, Mar. 29, 1911

French comic Max Linder wrings about as many laughs as he can from a situation in which he finds himself stuck to sheets of fly paper, and various other objects. It's fairly primitive, but is pretty good for 1910.

This is one of a few dozen Max Linder comedies which still exist today. The bulk of Linder's films, like most silents, have decomposed over the years due to their being made on nitrate film stock. It's a shame, as Linder was one of the earliest film comedians and Chaplin himself credits Linder with inspiring his work. But, due to changing interests and the ravages of time, Linder is all but forgotten today.

"Max is Stuck Up" is a very enjoyable comedy for its time. While folks today would probably find the plot way too simple and the action a bit over-exaggerated, it compares very well to the REALLY broad slapstick films of the day.

The film begins with Max being invited to dinner with his fiancée and future in-laws. To be polite, he stops on the way at a bakery to bring along a small gift for the in-laws. Unfortunately, he steps on some flypaper and has a devil of a time getting it off himself. When he arrives at the dinner, he's quite sticky and this causes LOTS of problems--which would have all been alleviated had he told them of his flypaper predicament. But, you need to suspend disbelief about such things and just sit back and enjoy. Worth seeing if not exactly inspired.