Matrimony's Speed Limit

Matrimony's Speed Limit is a 1913 silent short film produced and directed by pioneering female film maker Alice Guy-Blaché. It was produced by Solax Studios when it and many other early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based in Fort Lee, New Jersey at the beginning of the 20th century.[1][2][3]

Matrimony's Speed Limit
Directed byAlice Guy-Blaché
Produced byAlice Guy-Blaché
StarringFraunie Fraunholz
Marian Swayne
Production
company
Solax Film Company
Release date
  • 1913 (1913)
Running time
14 minutes
CountryUnited States

The story concerns a young man (Fraunie Fraunholz) who refuses to accept financial assistance from his wealthy girlfriend (Marian Swayne) in favor of earning his own fortune on the stock market. She concocts a plan to convince him that he will collect an inheritance from a wealthy aunt if he marries before noon. While he desperately proposes to every female he meets, she is trying to reach him before he finds a girl who will say yes. With only minutes to go before the deadline expires, he gives up his search and intends to commit suicide under the wheels of the next passing car. However, the vehicle contains both his fiancée and a minister who marries them on the spot.[4][5]

One of two of Guy-Blaché's films to survive out of her ouvre of more than 300, its preservation initially was financed by the Women's Film Preservation Fund upon its inauguration in 1995.[6] It was selected to the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress in 2003.[7][8]

In December, 2018 Kino Lorber released a six-disc box, Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, made in cooperation with the Library of Congress, the British Film Institute and others. The first disc of the set is devoted to the films of Alice Guy-Blaché and includes Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913).[9][10]

References
  1. Koszarski, Richard (2004), Fort Lee: The Film Town, Rome, Italy: John Libbey Publishing -CIC srl, ISBN 0-86196-653-8
  2. "Studios and Films". Fort Lee Film Commission. Archived from the original on 2011-04-25. Retrieved 2011-05-30.
  3. Fort Lee Film Commission (2006), Fort Lee Birthplace of the Motion Picture Industry, Arcadia Publishing, ISBN 0-7385-4501-5
  4. "Matrimony's Speed Limit (1913)". Silentera.com.
  5. Wollstein, Hans J. "Movies: Matrimony's Speed Limit". All Movie Guide.
  6. "Women's Film Preservation Fund". New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT). Archived from the original on 2009-02-03. Retrieved 2009-01-15.
  7. "Films selected to the 2003 National Film Registry". Associated Press. December 16, 2003.
  8. "Complete National Film Registry Listing | Film Registry | National Film Preservation Board | Programs at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  9. Castillo, Monica. "Kino Lorber's Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers Box Set is a Treasure Trove of Silent Film History | TV/Streaming | Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  10. "'Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers' Brings Forth a Time When, Unlike Today, Women Made Lots of Movies". PopMatters. 2019-01-25. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  • Matrimony’s Speed Limit essay by Margaret Hennefeld on the National Film Registry website
  • Matrimony's Speed Limit on IMDb
  • Matrimony’s Speed Limit essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN 0826429777, pages 28-29


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