F Gwynplaine MacIntyre
I saw 'The Jest' at the 2006 Cinema Muto festival in Sacile, Italy. This short film is a neat shaggy-dog tale: dramatic, with a shock ending that might arguably serve as a 'joke' punchline. It's a shame that none of this movie's actors are credited; they all give excellent performances.The opening scene is in Victorian times, 40 years before the present day. We see a young woman, Mary, leaving a note for her husband Dan: he and their marriage are too dull for her, so she is regretfully leaving. In the present (1921, apparently) we see her now-elderly husband: 40 years on, Dan has never recovered from his wife's decision to leave him. He is a hollow wreck of a man. He lives in a seedy London boarding-house, pining away, obsessively clinging to the delusion that eventually his beloved Mary will return to him. We see the boarding-house's landlady and two other lodgers, both sarcastic young men. These three make no secret of their contempt for Dan, mocking him openly.Eventually, it occurs to Dan to place a personal advert, seeking his wife's return. (I'm surprised he didn't think of this 40 years earlier.) We see his three tormentors, sniggering at Dan's pathetic obsession and conspiring to lead him on, as a 'joke'. Sure enough, the newspaper soon prints a reply to Dan's advertisement, purporting to be from Mary and seeking a reconciliation. (There was an unintended laugh here -- for me, at least -- when a close-up of the reply advertisement shows that Mary's return address is in Brixton: a London neighbourhood which is now very, very, VERY different from what it was in 1921.) Dan writes back to this address and urges Mary to come visit him.The more oickish of the two younger lodgers laughingly decides to pose as 'Mary' for the meeting. We see the landlady and the other conspirator grinning with approval as this yobbo dresses himself up in long skirts, a lady's hat, and a veil. (1921 must have been a good year for transvestites, since a man could so easily conceal his true gender in the female fashions of that time.) This being a silent film, we don't bother wondering if this young man can feign the voice of an older woman whom he's never met.Dan returns to the boarding-house, and is smirkingly told by the landlady and the other lodger that 'Mary' is waiting for him in his room. Eagerly, he rushes thither. We see a veiled figure sitting in the room. Dan takes out a latchkey, and locks the door so he and Mary can have some privacy.SPOILER NOW. As soon as I saw the latchkey, I knew what was coming. Sure enough, a moment later Dan emerges from the room, cackling shrilly. What remains of his hair is wild and in disarray. Gleefully, he tells his landlady and the other boarder that at last he has been able to give his wife what he's wanted to do all these long years: he has KILLED her! 'The Jest' is an excellent little yarn, although perhaps it would have worked better as either a short story or as a talking picture. Quite as it stands though, there's splendid work all round from the cast, director, scripter and photographer. The only flaw is that the 'surprise' ending is a bit too obvious: I suspected it before Dan took out the latchkey, and from that moment I was certain of it. My rating: 8 out of 10.
