Originally posted to Facebook on 8/19/2017
Our fourth and final film from 1923 was The Extra Girl, starring Mabel Normand. This is the second feature in which we've seen Normand, the first being 1914's Tillie's Punctured Romance made almost a decade earlier. And, while she was one of the three principal leads in that film, in this film she is clearly the star. She is easily up to the task of carrying the film -- and one imagines she might well have had a long career if she hadn't died of tuberculosis at the age of 37 in 1930. (Strangely, the director, F. Richard Jones, also died of tuberculosis at the age of 37 in 1930.)
The film was interesting in that it belongs to that durable genre of Hollywood films about Hollywood films. I don't believe it is the first of its type, but it is the first that we have seen as part of this project, and it is clear that by 1923, the glamour and mythologization of Hollywood and its stars was already firmly established. While in some ways the film enhances that mythology -- depicting the dream of someone from middle America moving to Hollywood and getting into the movie business -- in other ways it helps to puncture that mythology, showing how the relatively few on-screen stars are made possible only by an enormous network of people and infrastructure acting in various off-screen capacities.
The film begins in Normand's hometown, and spends a lot of time on a subplot revolving around her parents trying to marry her off to a local suitor played by Vernon Dent, despite her preference for another local played by Ralph Graves. In the midst of this she enters a Hollywood contest, and ends up winning, which provides her with a good reason to leave town. The remainder of the picture takes place in Hollywood, where Normand works in some of the above-referenced support roles in the film industry. There is a long set piece in which a lion gets loose, and chases Normand and others around a studio lot, spectacularly jumping through a transom above a door at one point. I think most or all of these scenes are shot artfully so that the actors do not appear to be in danger, though I wouldn't be shocked if that were not the case, given what we've seen in previous films. The lion does seem genuinely enraged at one point, so I am pretty confident that modern standards of animal treatment were not in place.
A third set of scenes revolve around Graves and eventually Normand's parents following her out to Hollywood. Her parents end up being swindled out of their life savings, the consequences of which account for most of the remainder of the film. The film ends on a rather sexist and tacked-on note, but on the whole it is fairly entertaining, though a bit fragmented plot-wise.
Our next film will be our first from 1924, and our second directed by F. W. Murnau: The Last Laugh. I've also added our planned list of films from 1925 to the spreadsheet, which is, as always, here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT
Showing posts with label Mabel Normand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mabel Normand. Show all posts
Monday, February 18, 2019
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Shorts (1915-1917)
Originally posted to Facebook on 12/14/2016
This was our first of two weekends watching shorts from the teens. We saw five films:
The Tramp (1915)
A Burlesque on Carmen (1915)
Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916)
Teddy at the Throttle (1917)
The Immigrant (1917)
Three of them were Chaplin shorts, the best of which was The Immigrant, which included a brief scene that I half-recognized from somewhere, specifically a few seconds in which Chaplin is half-walking / half-hopping in order to keep his balance on a rocking boat. The Immigrant is split into two parts, the first of which takes place on a ship bringing immigrants to the United States, including their sighting of the Statue of Liberty (which, as I believe I mentioned when discussing 1915’s The Italian, had been built just thirty years earlier.) The second section takes place mostly at a restaurant, once Chaplin and his co-star have settled in America. The best scenes are on board the ship; things slow down a bit once he comes ashore. His costar in all three shorts is Edna Purviance, who was also his co-star in 1918’s Shoulder Arms, which we saw several weeks ago. (The distinction between shorts and features during this period is a bit arbitrary; The Immigrant was half an hour, while Shoulder Arms was only forty-five minutes.)
A Burlesque on Carmen was interesting in that it was a direct parody of Cecil B. DeMille’s 1915 version of Carmen, which we watched back in May. The sets and costumes and plot points were quite similar, though the jokes were mostly shoehorned into the plot, rather than constituting any real satire of the earlier movie.
The Tramp was the earliest of the three, and probably the least inventive, with most of the jokes consisting of people being hit with bricks or poked with pitchforks or having things fall on them.
Fatty and Mabel Adrift starred Mabel Normand (who we last saw in 1914’s Tillie’s Punctured Romance, with Chaplin) and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. The villain was played by Al St. John, Arbuckle’s nephew. His acting in this short was extremely broad, even by the standards of early silent comedies, but apparently he went on to a long career as a Western sidekick in the thirties and forties, including many B movies with Buster Crabbe. This movie was basically about Arbuckle and Normand’s characters' romance and eventual marriage, and St. John’s jealous attempts at sabotage.
Teddy at the Throttle starred Gloria Swanson, whom we saw a few weeks ago in Male and Female. Her costar was Bobby Vernon, who was only an inch taller than Swanson at 5’2. The main villain was played by Wallace Beery, who was married to Swanson at the time. Like her, he bridged the gap between silents and talkies, winning a Best Actor Oscar in 1932. He was also famously referenced in Barton Fink (“Wallace Beery. Wrestling Picture. What do you need, a roadmap?”) The plot of this was similar to a few other films we’ve seen, in that Swanson and Vernon are due to inherit some money if and when they are married, and Beery and his sister attempt to use this information to enrich themselves.
I can’t say any of these films really struck me as worthy of recommendation, but The Immigrant and Teddy at the Throttle were probably the best of the bunch. Next week we see four more shorts, and then move on to features from the 1920s. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT
This was our first of two weekends watching shorts from the teens. We saw five films:
The Tramp (1915)
A Burlesque on Carmen (1915)
Fatty and Mabel Adrift (1916)
Teddy at the Throttle (1917)
The Immigrant (1917)
Three of them were Chaplin shorts, the best of which was The Immigrant, which included a brief scene that I half-recognized from somewhere, specifically a few seconds in which Chaplin is half-walking / half-hopping in order to keep his balance on a rocking boat. The Immigrant is split into two parts, the first of which takes place on a ship bringing immigrants to the United States, including their sighting of the Statue of Liberty (which, as I believe I mentioned when discussing 1915’s The Italian, had been built just thirty years earlier.) The second section takes place mostly at a restaurant, once Chaplin and his co-star have settled in America. The best scenes are on board the ship; things slow down a bit once he comes ashore. His costar in all three shorts is Edna Purviance, who was also his co-star in 1918’s Shoulder Arms, which we saw several weeks ago. (The distinction between shorts and features during this period is a bit arbitrary; The Immigrant was half an hour, while Shoulder Arms was only forty-five minutes.)
A Burlesque on Carmen was interesting in that it was a direct parody of Cecil B. DeMille’s 1915 version of Carmen, which we watched back in May. The sets and costumes and plot points were quite similar, though the jokes were mostly shoehorned into the plot, rather than constituting any real satire of the earlier movie.
The Tramp was the earliest of the three, and probably the least inventive, with most of the jokes consisting of people being hit with bricks or poked with pitchforks or having things fall on them.
Fatty and Mabel Adrift starred Mabel Normand (who we last saw in 1914’s Tillie’s Punctured Romance, with Chaplin) and Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle. The villain was played by Al St. John, Arbuckle’s nephew. His acting in this short was extremely broad, even by the standards of early silent comedies, but apparently he went on to a long career as a Western sidekick in the thirties and forties, including many B movies with Buster Crabbe. This movie was basically about Arbuckle and Normand’s characters' romance and eventual marriage, and St. John’s jealous attempts at sabotage.
Teddy at the Throttle starred Gloria Swanson, whom we saw a few weeks ago in Male and Female. Her costar was Bobby Vernon, who was only an inch taller than Swanson at 5’2. The main villain was played by Wallace Beery, who was married to Swanson at the time. Like her, he bridged the gap between silents and talkies, winning a Best Actor Oscar in 1932. He was also famously referenced in Barton Fink (“Wallace Beery. Wrestling Picture. What do you need, a roadmap?”) The plot of this was similar to a few other films we’ve seen, in that Swanson and Vernon are due to inherit some money if and when they are married, and Beery and his sister attempt to use this information to enrich themselves.
I can’t say any of these films really struck me as worthy of recommendation, but The Immigrant and Teddy at the Throttle were probably the best of the bunch. Next week we see four more shorts, and then move on to features from the 1920s. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Tillie’s Punctured Romance (1914)
Originally posted to Facebook on 4/29/2016
Tillie’s Punctured Romance was our third film from 1914. It is claimed that this was the first feature-length comedy, and would therefore also be the first feature film of many of the comedians present, including Chaplin. It is definitely the first film we’ve seen that contained a significant number of people that are still somewhat famous today. Charlie Chaplin, of course, is the most famous, but it also contained Marie Dressler, who starred in many silent films, and had a resurgence in popularity in early sound films twenty years later, winning an Oscar for Best Actress, and being nominated for another. Also present was Mabel Normand, who was a popular silent star, and Edgar Kennedy, who I remember as the food vendor tormented by Harpo and Chico in Duck Soup, but who also appeared in many films up through the forties. However, this assemblage of talent sadly does not result in anything very funny. There were a few moments where I smiled, such as when people were throwing bricks at one another, or when Chaplin slapped a newspaper boy, but in general it is full of people chasing each other, and falling down and knocking each other over, to such an extent that it becomes monotonous. Chaplin does not play his Tramp character, though he looks somewhat similar. Instead he plays a character given in IMDB as “The City Stranger,” who woos Marie Dressler because he thinks she is rich. Mabel Normand plays his actual pre-existing girlfriend, who is not terribly happy about the whole situation. Marie Dressler is also not happy when she finds out that Chaplin already has a girlfriend. They both express their frustration via violent and repetitive slapstick. So, anyway, something of a disappointment. On the plus side, the film print was bright and clear, which was the first time that’s been true for a couple of weeks. Also, I liked the title -- even without knowing you’d almost guess that “Tillie’s Punctured Romance” was a silent movie title, or failing that a single by The Decemberists.
Next week we watch our final film from 1914: Cabiria, which apparently was one of the first films where camera movements beyond simple pans began to be used routinely. The spreadsheet, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT
Tillie’s Punctured Romance was our third film from 1914. It is claimed that this was the first feature-length comedy, and would therefore also be the first feature film of many of the comedians present, including Chaplin. It is definitely the first film we’ve seen that contained a significant number of people that are still somewhat famous today. Charlie Chaplin, of course, is the most famous, but it also contained Marie Dressler, who starred in many silent films, and had a resurgence in popularity in early sound films twenty years later, winning an Oscar for Best Actress, and being nominated for another. Also present was Mabel Normand, who was a popular silent star, and Edgar Kennedy, who I remember as the food vendor tormented by Harpo and Chico in Duck Soup, but who also appeared in many films up through the forties. However, this assemblage of talent sadly does not result in anything very funny. There were a few moments where I smiled, such as when people were throwing bricks at one another, or when Chaplin slapped a newspaper boy, but in general it is full of people chasing each other, and falling down and knocking each other over, to such an extent that it becomes monotonous. Chaplin does not play his Tramp character, though he looks somewhat similar. Instead he plays a character given in IMDB as “The City Stranger,” who woos Marie Dressler because he thinks she is rich. Mabel Normand plays his actual pre-existing girlfriend, who is not terribly happy about the whole situation. Marie Dressler is also not happy when she finds out that Chaplin already has a girlfriend. They both express their frustration via violent and repetitive slapstick. So, anyway, something of a disappointment. On the plus side, the film print was bright and clear, which was the first time that’s been true for a couple of weeks. Also, I liked the title -- even without knowing you’d almost guess that “Tillie’s Punctured Romance” was a silent movie title, or failing that a single by The Decemberists.
Next week we watch our final film from 1914: Cabiria, which apparently was one of the first films where camera movements beyond simple pans began to be used routinely. The spreadsheet, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT
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