My Wife's Relations

My Wife’s Relations is a 1922 American short comedy film written and directed by Buster Keaton and Edward F. Cline, and produced by Joseph M. Schenck. The film features Buster Keaton as he finds himself the husband of a brusque woman after a series of unlikely events. The film runs for 26 minutes and 36 seconds.

Plot

Keaton and his soon-to-be Wife

The film opens on Keaton who is an artist working as a candy puller to make money. It then cuts to a couple who is searching for an officiant to marry them in Polish. They find a man who ensures them that he speaks no other language than Polish and they set a time to meet at the town court. The film cuts back to Keaton and his taffy pulling antics as he accidentally engages in a fight with the mailman. In his escape from the mailman, Keaton trips over a prickly woman who marches him straight to the town court to file a complaint. The only official present at the courthouse is the Polish officiant who assumes that the couple is the one looking to get married. Due to the language barrier between the two parties, Keaton and the woman ultimately get married by accident.

The newlyweds simply accept their new relationship, and the Wife takes Keaton home to meet her family: her father and four brothers. The Father and the Brothers give Keaton a hard time about adjusting to their family dynamic and how things work in their household. Some highlights include a family dinner where Keaton is repeatedly asked to pass various food items back and forth, Keaton having to prepare his own bed, and getting into a fight with the Wife leading her to knock him unconscious. In the morning, Keaton is still unconscious and the entire family works together to try to wake him. They eventually use a copious amount of pepper to rouse the poor lad with a sneezing fit. As they calm down after the morning’s chaos, the Father finds a note in Keaton’s jacket pocket calling for someone to claim a hefty inheritance. Unbeknownst to the family, Keaton had picked up this note from the street and the inheritance is not actually for him. The family begins to treat him differently, with more respect. The family hosts a party to celebrate their marriage. The party begins to go awry as Keaton accidentally dumps a case of yeast into the dough his Wife was preparing. At the height of the event, the family learns that Keaton is in fact not the intended recipient of the note and intend to kill Keaton for misleading them. Keaton makes an extravagant getaway and is dragged down the street by a police car.

Family portrait

Cast

• Buster Keaton as The Husband
• Kate Price as Wife
• Monte Collins as The Father
• Wheezer Dell as Brother
• Harry Madison as Brother
• Joe Roberts as Brother
• Tom Wilson as Brother

Production

The film is set in “the foreign section of a big city”, possibly Greenpoint, Brooklyn a.k.a. “Little Poland”.

This is the first two-reeler film Keaton shot in the new enclosed stage, allowing the production crew to avoid rain delays during the wettest time of the year.

This film features actress Kate Price, who is the near antithesis of Keaton’s typical leading lady, Virginia Fox.