Seven Chances is a 1925 American silent comedy film directed by and starring Buster Keaton, based on the play of the same name by Roi Cooper Megrue, produced in 1916 by David Belasco.
A lawyer (whom they dodged, mistakenly believing he was trying to add to their woes) finally manages to inform Jimmie of the terms of his grandfather's will.
Though Jimmie's heart is set on Mary, Meekin persuades him to try proposing to other women to save them both from ruin or even possibly jail.
Unaware of this, Meekin has his partner's predicament (and potential inheritance) printed in the newspaper, asking would-be brides to go to the Broad Street Church at 5 p.m. Hordes of veiled women descend on the place.
Joseph Schenck bought the rights to Roi Cooper Megrue's play Seven Chances thinking it might be a good project for Keaton or for Norma, Constance or Natalie Talmadge.
It was an enormous hit on Broadway and touring, and Schenck paid stage director John McDermott $25,000 with the promise he would direct the film.
Keaton hated the play and called it a sappy farce, but he owed money to Schenck and had to make the film to settle his debt.
However, the preview audience laughed loudest when Keaton's character accidentally dislodged a rock, which struck two others, sending them tumbling down after the hero.
Keaton had 150 papier-mâché and chicken wire fakes made in various sizes, up to 8 feet (2.4 m) in diameter, for what is now considered one of his most memorable sequences.
"[8] Time Out London gave the film a positive review and wrote, "Less ambitious and less concerned with plastic values than the best of Keaton, this is nevertheless a dazzlingly balletic comedy in which Buster has a matter of hours to acquire the wife on which a seven million dollar inheritance depends... From this leisurely start, the film takes off into a fantastically elaborate, gloriously inventive chase sequence, in which Buster escapes the mob of pursuing harridans only to find an escalating avalanche of rocks taking over at his heels as he hurtles downhill.
The International Buster Keaton Society recreated the Seven Chances "Bridal Run" in the streets of Muskegon, Michigan, at their 2010 convention.