Mabel's Busy Day, Gentlemen of Nerve, 3 Minutes with Mabel Normand

Top-notch Vaudevillian Shtick

A yearning for Mabel Normand shorts sent me to the You Tube during our mutual confinement. Knockabout comedy seemed an easy cure for the doldrums and it was; Mabel's Busy Day particularly. A 1914 short filmed by Mack Sennet, it features hot dog vendor Mabel being bedeviled by Charlie Chaplin, here monikered "Tipsy Nuisance".  The backdrop is an auto racing track, the Ascot Park Speedway in Los Angeles. Sennet uses the track and its crowd to frame Norman and Chaplin's vaudeville shtick. Charley Chase, Chester Conklin, Edgar Kennedy and Slim Summerville are on hand. It spawned a sequel, of sorts, also filmed in 1914 at the same location, Gentlemen of Nerve. Like most sequels, it fails to match the inspiration of the original. Mack Swain joins the action this time to get his prat (or posterior) abused. I also recommend 3 Minutes with Mabel Normand, a video montage made with love.

Why build sets? Why pay extras? Sennet lets the performers loose and they perform.

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