Max victime du quinquina (1911)
Directed by Max Linder

Film Review

Max, victime du quinquina is widely considered one of Max Linder's finest short films, one that amply demonstrates Linder's unrivalled penchant for inventive slapstick and economical storytelling.  The film takes two simple premises - (a) Max getting high on an overdose of quinine and (b) Max being mistaken for other people by virtue of the fact he has pocketed their business cards - and develops from these a wonderfully daft story filled with comic possibilities which Linder comprehensively mines.  "My arms appear to have shrunk!" cries Max, unaware that he has wrapped himself around a lamp post.  The masterstroke comes at the end of the film when Linder repeats an earlier sequence almost shot for shot, and of course it is much funnier the second time round.  In his early comedy shorts, which were popular the world over, Linder practically invented the language of film comedy, which others - Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, etc. - would adopt and build upon.  Linder may not be as well known today as his successors but he deserves to be recognised as the first of the comedy giants, the original Mad Max.

Film Synopsis

Lacking his usual vitality, Max consults his doctor, who advises him to take a glass of Bordeaux quinine every day.  Back home, Max takes the bottle of medicine and pours it into one large glass.  Having drunk the entire bottle, Max feels the effects immediately.  In a drunken state, he sets out for a night on the town and soon gets into a fight with a local dignitary.  He then proceeds to make a fool of himself in a restaurant.  In the course of various altercations, he picks up business cards from a police commissioner and a foreign ambassador.  On his return home, he stumbles into a policeman, who kindly takes him to the address indicated on one of the business cards.  Thrown out of the house by its owner, Max runs into another policeman, who repeats the same mistake with the second business card.  This time, Max ends up getting into bed with the wife of the ambassador...