Charlot #3: Mabel’s Strange Predicament

I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the makeup made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked on stage he was fully born.

Chaplin, My Autobiography

Ladies and gentlemen, Mabel Normand.

I briefly considered doing this series on Mabel Normand instead of Charlie Chaplin, for reasons that will be evident later. She was, besides Chaplin, the preeminent comedy star of the mid-1910s. She was a regular player for D.W. Griffith at Biograph before joining Mack Sennet at Keystone to produce an eponymous comedy series. For our purposes, she appeared on screen with Chaplin 12 times, as well as 17 times with Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, who we’ll meet 3 films from now. Ultimately, the allure of the great clown won out.

The actual first film produced with the Tramp character gives us some insight into how he was received and how he evolved at Keystone. Charlie is meant to be a supporting character to Mabel, but, especially in the early shots, he completely distracts the camera’s attention away from her. The first shot in the hotel lobby plays out for a full minute instead of employing the rapid cut style that was becoming fashionable in the wake of D.W. Griffith’s work. Ostensibly a supporting character to Mabel, Charlie gets entire scenes to himself where Mabel is not present. It’s not hard to imagine the decision being made between laughter on-set to give Chaplin’s new character some extra screen time. The pratfalls are virtuosic. It’s hard not to laugh even now when slapstick has lost much of its comedic power.

It’s actually a somewhat sad state to see our friend Charlie in. He is inebriated throughout the short, chasing laughs by chasing women in the hotel lobby. I know of two future shorts where Charlie appears drunk, and in them he pays more mind to the portrayal. The act is convincing here, but it also puts the character in a rather unflattering light.

But we can’t let Charlie take all the focus away from Mabel Normand, who remains the star of this short. Her comedic style is markedly different from Chaplin’s. She gesticulates more wildly than the Tramp’s relatively subtle manner, even appearing to acknowledge the camera on occasion. She wields her beauty as a tool. She and Chaplin were both made to be movie stars, though her career will unfortunately end much soon than Chaplin’s.

Her story takes place in the hallway between bedrooms of the hotel, where her dog has locked her out of the room wearing only her nightgown (scandalous!). The arrival relentlessly lascivious Tramp forces her to hide in the neighboring couple’s room. The misunderstanding, and the rest of the short, writes itself.

The Tramp was, of course, an immediate hit, which makes me wonder if Chaplin’s next film, where he does not play the character, was produced before or almost concurrent with this one. Tramp or no, it’s significant for other reasons.