Monday 22 October 2018

The Godmother of Slapstick… Mabel Normand Shorts with Meg Morley Trio, BFI


Mabel was one of those who “made” screen comedy having, as she said: “…no precedent, nothing to imitate… I had to cleave a new path to laughter.” Whilst that sounds suspiciously like studio guff, it’s pretty much what happened for a woman who wrote and directed her own films and mentored Charlie Chaplin amongst others.

Arguments still rage – you know what cineastes are like – about how much that mentoring involved but looking at Mabel’s films pre-Charlie you can see how much of his gestures, reactions, and sensibilities came from her…. Also, it’s impossible not to look at her face-pulling and not see Stan Laurel’s defeated innocence there too.

His partner Oliver Hardy was in tonight’s programme, along with Charlie, Roscoe Arbuckle, Mack Sennett (of course) and Ford Sterling. The boys are funny but Mabel, Mabel understands
Normand became an artist’s model at 14 and at 17 she starred in her first film going on to make Her Awakening (1911) with DW Griffith and William J. Humphrey’s Tale of Two Cities (1911) – both when she was just 18. She started a relationship with Mack Sennett who saw more than comic potential in the perfectly natural performer with no theatrical training and, the rest is history…

Writer, performer, stunt person... director: pioneer
Tonight’s completion is part of the BFI’s Sonic Cinema strand as well as it’s Comedy Genius programme which runs up until the New Year with funny films both silent and sound. Tonight, was a live performance of four Mabel Normand films that will be playing across the country over the next few months.

Meg Morley a regular silent film accompanist is also an accomplished jazz musician and here she has been given the chance to combine both interests by accompanying Mabel with her Trio – a score jazzed up with improvisations with the pianist, double bass player Richard Sadler and drummer Emiliano Caroselli showing the intuitive musical connection you would expect yet all watching the films and working with Mabel not around or over her.

Normand has a quick wit and her face emotes in double time as the broader strokes of her comedy unwind in plots of confusion, reaction and ill-tempered misunderstandings.

Mabel's Blunder...
In Mabel’s Blunder (1914) we see Mabel being pursued by a young co-worker (Harry McCoy) and his father (Charles Bennett) (what this says about the sexual norms of the times…). This delicate balance is thrown out when a young woman (Eva Nelson) comes to visit and Mabel’s jealousy knows no bounds.

She disguises herself as her brother (Al St. John) who chauffeurs them off to an afternoon party whilst her brother dresses as Mabel and, with face covered in a veil, still gets plenty of attention from dad. The truth is revealed at the party where we also meet Harry’s pal Billy Bronx (played by a young fella name of Charley Chase who, mark my words, will one day be big in talking pictures!).

Mack Sennett and Roscoe Arbuckle watch Mabel on screen
Mabel’s Dramatic Career (1913) gave us the chance to see Mack and Mabel in the same film and for me she is much funnier than he, better stick to the gags and directing Mr Sennett.

Mack is engaged to Mabel but he’s distracted by Virginia Kirtley – not for the first time – and drives Mabel away. She becomes a movie star – Mabel was one of the first to have her name in film titles and this rather meta reference shows the audacity of the Sennett group as they set the template – and Mack soon discovers what he’s missing.

Mack watches his former love in a movie theatre and is beside himself, unable to separate fiction from reality, much to the annoyance of his neighbour played by Roscoe Arbuckle.  He tries to shoot the baddie in the film – Ford Sterling (and who wouldn’t!) only to find he’s happily married to Mabel.

Responsible parenting...
His Trysting Place (1914) showed that Normand and Chaplin were amongst the highest energy double acts in slapstick with the two trading gags, falls and blows at the rate of at least one every few seconds, sometimes more. Their punishing scenes in the kitchen would have been improvised but when Charlie picks up their baby by the scruff of his neck, walks in to make himself comfortable on the kid’s crib and then hands him a six-shooter to play with, you know we’re reached a higher level of daft.

This was the funniest film and if this was Mabel mentoring our Charlie, it was as much a joy to watch as Charlie Parker’s improvisational bouts with Dizzy Gillespie, John and Paul trying to out-write the other or Cleese/Chapman trying to outthink Palin/Jones… red-hot talents trying to outdo the others to the benefit of all.


By the time of Should Men Walk Home? (1927) Mabel was not in the best of health when she made this, her final film but she’s still recognisably the star of Mickey and all those Sennett classics. It’s odd to see her in late twenties fashions but she carries it off alongside Creighton Hale who is as funny as I’ve ever seen him – I loved it when he corpses playing a statue spouting water… The pair play a couple of crooks in search of a necklace at a society party and in addition to being pursued by Eugene Pallette they also have a robust encounter with a Mr Oliver Hardy.

Meg’s trio played some swinging tunes accompanying the rhythms of the humour with rag-time and twenties swing – they were tight and they were flowing with their lead’s silent film experience keeping the jam in tune with the action on screen. This isn’t free jazz but improvisation within tight boundaries and all the more so because of the need to score a narrative: it was a blast and they found so much freedom within this tightest of “briefs”. They soul of early jazz was there but there was a modern sensibility which helped bring Mabs right up to now.


The Mabel Normand tour continues through the next few months nationwide, check the BFI site for details as they are confirmed. This woman was the first of either sex to throw a custard pie, she broke the fourth wall to glance directly at the audience before anyone else and she was a great collaborator: The Godmother of Slapstick and much else besides.

Mabel Normand was a one-off and her time has come again: make mine Mabs!

1 comment:

  1. I hope you're right that Mabel's time has come again!Absolutely right that Mabel was the chief influence on Chaplin and the reborn Stan Laurel.
    Chaplin was a slap-sticker, while Mabel was a trained tragedienne, so who exactly brought melancholy to comedy? A very good read.

    ReplyDelete