Mabel's Strange Predicament

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

He did do better in acting than 'Mabel's Strange Predicament', which is not also one of his and Mabel's better collaborations. Can understand why the Keystone period suffered from not being as best remembered or highly remembered than his later efforts, but they are mainly decent and important in their own right. 'Mabel's Strange Predicament' is a long way from a career high, but does have historical significance for obvious reasons.

'Mabel's Strange Predicament' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and a good deal of other shorts in the same period. The story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious. The comedy, though more frequent and knockabout, is amusing really at best and not enough to be hilarious.

For someone who was new to the film industry and had literally just moved on from their stage background, 'Mabel's Strange Predicament' is not bad at all.

While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable for so early on, though his style and Tramp character was still evolving and not properly found or settled yet (the promise is big though), and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick. Mabel's acting and directing contribution is more than competent and she holds her own.

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done better and became more refined later, 'Mabel's Strange Predicament' does have moments where it is very humorous, sweet and easy to like, though the emotion is not quite there. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short.

In conclusion, interesting and worthwhile but not one that makes one leap out of their chair. 6/10 Bethany Cox

This is a short featuring the Divine Madcap Mabel (Normand) and her newest protégé, a young British vaudeville comedian by the name of Charles Chaplin. Chaplin does an early version of his little tramp character, but he's just a supporting actor. Mabel is the star here.

Mabel is playing with her dog in her hotel room, and gets locked out in the hallway in her pajamas. Chaplin's drunken buffoon sees her, and begins to chase her around. She runs into the room across the hall occupied by an old couple. She hides under the bed, avoiding the old man. Enter the old lady, Mabel's lover, and the drunken buffoon, add plenty of mix ups, and things get hairy. The ending is classic Mabel, with everyone frantically beating the snot out of each other while she comes out on top in the end, as she always does.

She's just adorable here, only 19 years old, fresh from modeling for Charles Dana Gibson (Yes, Madcap Mabel was a Gibson Girl. Who'da thunk?) with her saucer like eyes and expressive face. Unfortunately, this is not one of her best shorts. It's a bit amusing in parts, but not laugh out loud funny. If you want to catch Mabel in all her madcap glory, check out her shorts with Fatty Arbuckle; the two of them worked together wonderfully. Or her full length movies: Tillie's Punctured Romance, Mickey, and The Extra Girl.

... and that's illustrated here in this first short that was filmed with Chaplin versus the first short released which was "Kid Auto Races at Venice".

Here, Chaplin's Tramp is not some basically good-hearted character with an endearing amount of mischief, which is who the Tramp evolved into. Instead he is publicly drunk and harassing women he finds attractive as he loiters in the lobby of what appears to be an upscale hotel.

Separately, Mabel Normand is a guest at the hotel, awaiting the arrival of her sweetheart. Once in her room, she changes into her pajamas and begins to play with her dog. When the ball she is using to play with her dog bounces into the hall, she goes to retrieve it, but her hotel room door shuts behind her. The Tramp, who has wandered into this part of the hotel, sees Mabel in this state of undress and decides to take chase. Complications ensue.

You can see why audiences responded immediately to Chaplin. In these first film appearances he is, as Walter Kerr perfectly stated, "elbowing his way into immortality." With inebriation he can dictate a deliberate, slower tempo while retaining his dignity and show off his brilliant mime, while still getting laughs. His performance easily steals the show from Mabel Normand, Chester Conklin, and the rest.

While it's true that not all of Chaplin's short films are as stunningly brilliant as so many of the films for which he later became famous, it is also true that there is a distinct difference in quality between the early films in which he acted as well as directed, and those in which he was directed as an actor by someone else. Mabel's Strange Predicament is one of the ones in which he only acted; he was directed by Mabel Normand, with whom he did not have the most friendly relationship when the film was made.

The first unusual thing about this film is that it is in French – at least, the film is intertitled in French. Charlie plays the part of a drunken man at a hotel who comes across Mabel in an upstairs hallway, after having locked herself out of her room in her pajamas while chasing after a ball with which she was playing with her dog. When Charlie arrives and the two of them are embarrassed and amused, it seems that this is the strange predicament to which the title refers, but then Charlie chases her down the hall, and she ultimately winds up hiding from his drunken, amorous advances under the bed in a neighbor's room across the hall.

There is a lot of confusing action in Mabel's Strange Predicament, such as the well dressed man who bears a striking resemblance to Marlon Brando (Marlon Brando 1972, not Marlon Brando 2001) who comes into the room and seems exceedingly upset about Mabel and her dog under the bed (wasn't the dog locked in the room across the hall?), as well as the film's conclusion, which consisted of a huge amount of confusion and anger and fighting in the hallway.

Clearly, there is room for plenty of Chaplin's characteristic slapstick comedy with this type of film. The film starts off with him downstairs falling over various chairs and getting into brief brawls with the waiters, and there are also things like the scene where he is chasing Mabel down the hallway and accidentally winds up kissing a man after she evades him. Charlie Chaplin's and Mabel Normand's volatile relationship seems to have played a role in Charlie's character in this film, because he is little more than a drunk who gets out of hand and causes a lot of trouble. He is a mere nuisance on the restaurant level of the hotel, and at the end, his character has the grand exit of staggering off down the hallway, seemingly too drunk to even realize what is going on. In this way, this is a disappointment for Chaplin fans, but it is a curiosity piece to see what results when he works under a different, and far less talented, director.

A drunken Tramp (Charles Chaplin) causes havoc in a high class hotel lobby. Mabel and her dog cause too much noise for her neighbor who complain to the desk. Mabel gets accidentally locked out of her room in her sleepwear. To her embarrassment, the drunken Tramp tries to help.

This is the first time Chaplin constructed and played the Tramp. It's a work in progress and it's definitely not the Tramp that we're all familiar with. He's drunk and looks a bit ugly. The story doesn't make sense. A guy like that would either be kicked out or forced to sleep it off in his own room. It's interesting to see his first attempt. He shows off his physical humor. It's cinematic history. It's also not that good but one can see the goodness within it.