A domestic comedy about a starstruck wife and a sour husband. She challenges her spouse to follow the advice of Douglas Fairbanks and keep a smile plastered on his face but, of course, reality is much more complicated.
Home Media Availability: Stream courtesy of the Swedish Film Institute.
Life can be delish with a sunny disposish…
There was a menace stalking the men of Europe in the 1920s and his name was Douglas Fairbanks. Russia addressed the problem of Doug outshining all ordinary men in A Kiss from Mary Pickford and, in Live Life Smiling, director Pauline Brunius humorously shows how he inconvenienced Swedish men with his lifestyle advice.
In addition to his career in the movies, Fairbanks was something of a lifestyle guru, and published Laugh and Live in 1917. The book promised to share the keys to happiness with the Fairbanks philosophy. There’s more to the book (and you can read it here) but Brunius primarily focuses on a paragraph in the first chapter:
“Laugh and live long—if you had a thought of dying—laugh and grow well— if you’re sick and despondent—laugh and grow fat—if your tendency is towards the lean and cadaverous—laugh and succeed—if you’re glum and “unlucky’”—laugh and nothing can faze you —not even the Grim Reaper—for the man who has laughed his way through life has nothing to fear of the future.”
Fairbanks also offered advice on keeping fit (which he was famously more than qualified to give), early rising, improving the mind with good reading, yes yes yes, and on the subject of marriage (both getting married and staying married– divorce was right out in the Fairbanks philosophy)… well… Fairbanks had an affair with Mary Pickford and his subsequent marriage to Pickford would end with another indiscretion. Fairbanks had best to stick to laughing and physical fitness.
The Fairbanks book was translated into multiple languages and sold around the world. Sweden received its own slick, modern paperback and I imagine the “laugh at life!” advice, which was a bit much even in America, was met with a certain amount of Swedish skepticism.
Live Life Smiling was part of a series of domestic short comedies directed by Brunius. The shorts followed the adventures of the Vinner family of Stockholm. Mr. Vinner (Olof Winnerstrand) is a sour lawyer, while his wife Mrs. Vinner (Frida Winnerstrand) is jolly and a bit starstruck. They have a small daughter and a nightmare of a tween son (Palle Brunius), whom mom dotes on.
Mr. Vinner is getting ready for work and throwing a fit over his collar while the children laugh. Mrs. Vinner encourages her husband to be happier but how can he be happy when his son locks him in his own bedroom? Once freed, Mr. Vinner chases his son and begins to angrily scold him but Mrs. Vinner holds up a mirror so he can see his angry face. Does he want to show such a face to his children?
Mrs. Vinner has a solution: she has been reading Laugh and Live and she wants her husband to apply its lessons. Chastened, he agrees and his wife ties a knot in his handkerchief to remind him of his promise to smile.
He is soon tested as he has to deal with full trams. He finally gets on and meets a colleague with a severe toothache. “Just be happy and everything will be fine!” he chirps. Is the man drunk? He has to be, that’s the only possible reason for such outlandish behavior on the 9 a.m. tram! Vinner’s obvious day drinking soon becomes the topic of professional gossip.
More trouble on the tram as Vinner’s smiling is taken as flirtation by the women onboard. One of them is a young lady with a jealous fiance and he has good reason to be concerned: she is still married to her first husband. Now she is looking for a third lover? The very idea!
After more misadventures, including being forced to grin as children use his straw hat as a soccer ball and ruin it, Vinner arrives at his office. Seeing his absurdly happy mood, his secretary takes the opportunity to ask for raise, which is granted through cheerfully gritted teeth. Meanwhile, a potential client has heard that Vinner was drunk on the tram and declines to do business with him.
The young lady from the subway, the one who is trying to hop into one marriage with one foot still in the other, decides to make an honest man of her fiance and to engage an attorney to move forward with her divorce. Of course, she picks Vinner at random and once again, his smiling is taken as flirtation but it is not nearly so welcome now that she there on business. How dare he? She storms out.
Mrs. Vinner has been hearing about her husband’s new personality and has come to see him at the office with flowers. She meets the young woman storming out. Don’t engage that man’s services, he is a predator!
And all because he was supposed to live life smiling. Will the Vinners sort out their marriage? Will Mr. Vinner be forced to live the Douglas Fairbanks way forever? See Live Life Smiling to find out!
Pauline Brunius was an established star of the stage, who, like many of her colleagues around the world, tried her hand at film acting as well. Brunius took things a step further, though, quickly deciding to also give directing a shot. Live Life Smiling is the only entry in her Vinner Family comedy series to survive in complete form.
It’s a shame because, judging from this example, the complete six film series must have been quite a lot of fun. Brunius shows a sharp eye for detecting where fantasy meets reality and deriving humor from the natural responses of bystanders. Indeed, taking how-to, self-help, dating and pop psychology books at face value and seeing what chaos can ensue is a rich vein for comedy generally.
(Brunius returned to the stage and became the first woman to head the Royal Dramatic Theater is Stockholm. Her last film as director, False Greta, was released in 1934 and was another send-up of Hollywood’s international reach, based on Hollywoodized Swedish star Greta Garbo’s triumphal visit home. It is unfortunately lost.)
The film is a bit of a family affair all around, with the leads both actually married to one another and their son played by Brunius’s own boy. Both Winnerstrands bring the kind of well-worn, sturdy affection that would become to centerpiece of many later sitcoms. And as for their son… well, it’s probably fortunate for Ireland that Sweden was no longer in the monastery sacking business.
Live Life Smiling is also enjoyable as part of the discussion of the influence of movies that was being carried out in the movies themselves at the time. The amusing clash of expectation vs reality created meta humor that remains fresh and modern. It’s a cute film on its own but especially enjoyable to fans of silent films who will understand the references.
Where can I see it?
Stream courtesy of the Swedish Film Institute. It has bilingual Swedish and Finnish intertitles and no English subtitles yet but the story is easy enough to follow.
☙❦❧
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