''Fun With the Bridal Party'' (french: Le Mariage de Thomas Poirot) was a 1908 French

silent comedy film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

directed by

Georges Méliès Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès (; ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French illusionist, actor, and film director. He led many technical and narrative developments in the earliest days of cinema. Méliès was well known for the use of ...

Plot

Two pranksters, finding out that a couple is about to apply for a

marriage license A marriage license (or marriage licence in Commonwealth spelling) is a document issued, either by a religious organization or state authority, authorizing a couple to marry. The procedure for obtaining a license varies between jurisdiction ...

at the town mayor's office, sneak into the office to pull a

practical joke A practical joke, or prank, is a mischievous trick played on someone, generally causing the victim to experience embarrassment, perplexity, confusion, or discomfort.Marsh, Moira. 2015. ''Practically Joking''. Logan: Utah State University Press. ...

. First they rig up the furniture with string; then they hide in the room, inside some big boxes they put in place of the mayor's desk. When the bridal party arrives for the license, the pranksters go to work, making the chairs and "desk" move of their own accord, foiling the bride's and groom's attempts to sit and the mayor's attempts to write. Finally, the pranksters appear, disguised under white sheets as ghosts. The bridal party rushes in surprise out of the office as the joke comes to a successful close..

Themes

''Fun with the Bridal Party'' was an early example of a silent comedy in which a wedding event was spectacularly disrupted; comedies with similar themes flourished in the 1910s and 1920s, such as '' A Quiet Little Wedding'' (1913), ''On Her Wedding Day'' (1913), ''A Muddy Romance'' (1913), ''Hushing the Scandal'' (1915), ''The Fatal Note'' (1915), ''Roaring Lions and Wedding Bells'' (1917), ''Shot in the Getaway'' (1920), and ''Cutie'' (1928).

Release

''Fun with the Bridal Party'' was released by Méliès's

Star Film Company The Manufacture de films pour cinématographes, often known as Star Film, was a French film production company run by the illusionist and film director Georges Méliès. History On 28 December 1895, Méliès attended the celebrated first public ...

and is numbered 1294–1300 in its catalogues. It was registered for American copyright on 10 September 1908. The film is currently presumed

lost Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography * Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland *Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

References

External links

* Films directed by Georges Méliès French silent short films 1908 films 1908 comedy films French comedy films Lost French films French black-and-white films Silent comedy films 1900s French films {{1900s-France-film-stub