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Le veuf joyeux
Also known as The Happy Widower in the USA
(1909) France
B&W : Short film
Directed by Georges Monca
Cast: (unknown)
Compagnie Genérale des Établissements Pathé Frères Phonographes & Cinématographes production; distributed by Compagnie Genérale des Établissements Pathé Frères Phonographes & Cinématographes. / Scenario by [?] Edgar Favart? / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format. / The film was released in the USA as The Happy Widower by Pathé Frères on 25 December 1909; in a split-reel with The Good Doctor (1909).
Comedy.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Not wishing one of her own sex to enjoy the companionship of her husband after her death and also have the benefit of her fortune, an heiress in making her will by which she bequeaths everything to her better half, adds a clause that should the latter marry she will haunt him for the remainder of his days. When the maker of the will passes away the husband at first pays little attention to the strange clause, taking it all as a joke. He soon finds out however, that his wife meant what she said for every time he begins to flirt with a pretty woman an invisible hand grabs him by the leg and throws him headlong on his face. No matter where the widower happens to be, in the street, in the house, it matters little where, the ghost (a tall thin woman enveloped in a filmy white veil) is always on the watch and causes the poor man no end of embarrassment. Realizing that he cuts anything but a romantic figure as he goes crashing down on his face while whispering some impassioned words in the ear of a beautiful woman, the widower comes to the conclusion that the only thing to do is to renounce all right to his former wife’s fortune if he wishes to retain his dignity as a man and marry the woman of his choice without fear of being molested by the ghost of his former life partner.
Reviews: [The Moving Picture World, 8 January 1910, page 17] A bit of comedy which represents an unfortunate widower haunted by a ghost of his former wife, who pitches him headlong to the ground whenever he undertakes to make love to another woman. He finds that he must obey his first wife’s will and renounce all claim to her fortune, otherwise he will not be permitted by her ghost to marry again.
Survival status: (unknown)
Current rights holder: (unknown) [France]; Public domain [USA].
Listing updated: 22 January 2025.
References: MovPicWorld-19100108 p. 17 : Website-IMDb.
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