MABEL NORMAND: HER SILENT FILMS (1910-1915)

MABEL NORMAND – Born Amabel Ethelreid Normand on November 9th, 1893 in New York, this silent film comedienne blazed trails for countless subsequent actresses as well as female directors and screenwriters. Like so many silent film stars Normand is largely neglected today except for my fellow silent movie geeks and I.

Though known as a comic genius, Mabel’s big break came from a role in an 18-minute dramatic short titled Her Awakening (1911). Her performance caught the eye of up-and-coming film giant Mack Sennett, who hired her for his comedies. The two started a romantic relationship embellished decades later in the Broadway musical Mack & Mabel (1974).

A SELECTION OF MABEL NORMAND FILMS (1910-1915) – During her career, Normand starred in over 220 films, so I’m dividing her movies into time periods.

INDISCRETION OF BETTY (1910) – Mabel had her first starring role in this short drama but had appeared in an unknown number of previous films in smaller roles. Mabel played Betty, the wife in the marriage of a social-climbing couple.

Her husband’s income does not yet support the airs they try to put on, leading to some bitter lessons for the pair about life and marital finances.

HER AWAKENING (1911) – The above-mentioned short in which Mabel caught the eye of Mack Sennett, who then signed her for comedy collaborations. In this short drama, Normand played a young lady trying to snare a successful husband.

She is ashamed of her poor home and her elderly, handicapped mother and prevents her beaus from meeting the mother. The situation results in the tragic death of her mother.

THROUGH HIS WIFE’S PICTURE (1911) – Mabel Normand’s first film short with Mack Sennett. He directed and had a supporting role in this 9-minute comedy about a misunderstanding that threatens a marriage.

Mabel as the wife attends a costume party where she thinks she will catch her loyal husband trying to start an affair with another woman. The costumed pirate she mistakenly thinks is her husband is actually an unmarried friend of the husband. The “pirate’s” flirtatious conduct toward a young lady makes Normand furious.

THE INVENTOR’S SECRET (1911) – Another of the many, many silent movies which have not survived, this short saw Mack directing Mabel as well as sharing the lead with her as her boyfriend, Dan the cop.

Per Moving Picture World, a 1907-1927 film industry trade publication, an inventor creates an automatic, life-sized female doll. Meanwhile, a woman from a well-heeled family disappears and the family offers a $500 reward for finding her. 

Mabel works as a cook for the inventor and while he and his wife are out securing a patent for the life-sized female automaton, Mabel and Dan the cop mistakenly think the construct is really the missing girl and plan to collect the reward money. 

WHY HE GAVE UP (1911) – A 12-minute short with a supporting role filled by the one and only William Beaudine, future director famous as “One Shot” Beaudine.

Mabel portrays a former champion swimmer who is now married. One day her husband, looking for an excuse to slip out of the house for some fun with his pals at the beach, forces a quarrel over the price of Normand’s new hat and storms out of the house.

By chance, Mabel’s girl-chums at the Ladies Swim and Dive Club invite her to attend that day’s competition. As you could guess, it’s held at the same beach where hubby and the boys went to ogle the women swimming in the VERY modest swimsuits of the time period. (Hardly seems worth the effort.) The husband feels Mabel’s wrath. 

A SPANISH DILEMMA (1912) – Mack directed himself with Mabel again, this time as a man named Carlos. Fred Mace played his brother Jose and the two battle over a beautiful Senorita played by Normand.

Comically, the brothers’ various contests to win Mabel always end in a draw. Meanwhile, a third man comes along and Mabel picks him as her beau. This 8-minute short has a fairly similar story to another of Mabel and Mack’s 1912 comedies titled The Fatal Chocolate.

OH, THOSE EYES! (1912) – Mabel starred as Gladys in this flick. Her eyes and fluttering lashes virtually mesmerize men wherever she goes and she enjoys unleashing that power whenever she pleases.

When the list of countless men smitten with Gladys winds up including two of her father’s employees, he decides to make his daughter start taking her power over men more seriously by staging a fake duel in which it looks like one of Gladys’ lovesick admirers is shot to death. 8 minutes long.

THE WATER NYMPH aka The Beach Flirt (1912) – This was the first comedy short from Mack Sennett’s new Keystone Studio. He and Mabel moved from the East Coast, which had been the hub of the film industry for years, to California, where the movie business would go on to incredible success.

Mabel and her boyfriend, played by Mack, who also directed as usual, go to the beach. The man wants his stuffy father to like his athletic and mischievous gal that he hasn’t met yet, so he encourages her to vamp dear old dad a bit.

As you would expect, the father misinterprets the situation and, his libido in overdrive, pursues Mabel with one thing on his mind. (The tragic sinking of the Titanic earlier that year. I’m kidding!)  Nearly 8 minutes.

BANGVILLE POLICE (1913) – Another silent film comedy milestone shared by Mabel Normand! This short marked the very first appearance of the Keystone Kops, a troupe virtually synonymous with silent age comedy!

Mabel stars as a farmer’s daughter who overhears a pair of farmhands discussing what she thinks is a plan to burglarize her and her parents’ home. She calls the police in nearby Bangville and they come racing to the rescue, causing the kind of slapstick havoc that you’d expect.

The antics of the Keystone Kops are almost subdued and quasi-realistic in Bangville Police, but as their series went on their hilarious car chases would go on to defy the laws of physics even more than the Fast and the Furious movies. 8 minutes. 

MABEL’S NEW HERO (1913) – Mabel Normand’s first comedy short with one Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle! The pair would delight moviegoers in several more shorts after this. Mabel’s girlfriends snicker at how fat her boyfriend is, and at the beach Fatty proves ineffective at defending the ladies’ honor from a pushy lothario.

The always energetic Mabel hauls off and punches the jerk. Soon, Mabel test-rides a hot air balloon which the angry lech from earlier sets adrift. Fatty and a pair of Keystone Kops try to save our airborne heroine but naturally all their efforts go very, very wrong. In the end Mabel saves herself, but is still pretty sweet on her bumbling, morbidly obese beau. 10 minutes. 

MABEL’S STRANGE PREDICAMENT (1914) – More film history with Mabel! She co-starred with new arrival Charlie Chaplin, then in his first year of filmmaking.

Trivia buffs have to be careful with this one – this is the first comedy in which Charlie was filmed as his famous Little Tramp character, but another short, Kid Auto Races, though filmed AFTER Mabel’s Strange Predicament, was released to theaters before it. 

As for the story, the seedy Charlie stumbles into a hotel where he gets in trouble with the snobbish staff and guests. He and Mabel get into various comical predicaments and wind up making her husband jealous when he misunderstands what is going on. (17 minutes)

MABEL LOST AND WON (1915) – Mabel gets engaged at the party being thrown by her high-class mother. Naturally, other men pine after Normand and when one particularly oafish one insists on a dance, she politely agrees.

Mabel hilariously rushes through the dance and when it’s done she goes looking for her groom to be. He has gotten into an odd situation where he seems to be canoodling with another woman, following which Mabel and her mother unleash hell on him. 11 minutes.

MY VALET (1915) – Mabel’s longest film so far at 33 minutes. She plays a woman who instantly steals the heart of a man on his way to meet his arranged wife for the first time. He must hurry after Mabel or risk never finding her again.

The man, played by Raymond Hitchcock, orders his valet (Mack Sennett) to impersonate him in the meeting with the arranged bride and act very off-putting so she’ll call off the marriage deal. Naturally, it turns out Mabel is the wife arranged by his family.

Normand, Raymond and Mack eventually get the situation straightened out for a happy ending.

IN THE NEAR FUTURE, I’LL EXAMINE MORE MABEL NORMAND FILMS BEGINNING WITH 1916. 

FOR MY LOOK AT THE SILENT FILMS OF ACTRESS THEDA BARA CLICK HERE.