The Fatal Mallet

The Fatal Mallet is full of unexplained, unnecessary, and gratuitous 1914 violence, like most of Chaplin's films for Keystone, but at least the plot is very easy to follow because it stays simple and doesn't try to tell more of a story than the technology of the time would allow. It begins with a lot of brick throwing between Chaplin and a man and wife (the wife does most of the throwing), until ultimately Charlie and the man are engaged in a brawl. Meanwhile, the wife finds another man, a huge brute of a man who is unaffected by Charlie and the first husband hitting him on top of the head with bricks. When he fails to notice that anything is happened, the two love scorn men are forced to regroup and come up with a new plan while the new guy makes his affections known to the woman.

The two enemies now working together allows Chaplin to do some of his usual tricks and pranks but to actually have a reason to do them this time, and ultimately it turns into a brawl that is every man for himself, since they are all enemies to begin with. Chaplin's love of falling into the lake and throwing other people into the lake is certainly not forgotten here, but among the films of the time, I think this one stands out as one of the clearer and more entertaining ones, even though so much of it is the same as so many others.

Also of note here is what I think might be the first appearance of a small boy in an important role in one of Chaplin's films. I say important role, however, only to mean that there is a kid in more than a background role. I am not sure if it is more disturbing than amusing, but I would lean toward amusing just because, even though the kid shows up just long enough for Charlie to punt him off screen like a football, he is clearly having a great time and his imitation of Chaplin's backwards fall is uncanny. Certainly not the best, but this is among the better of Chaplin's Keystone comedies.

A nice little comedy, in which Mabel has three suitors: Charlie, Mack Swain and Mack Sennett. Although Sennett's character -- a country bumpkin with a face that looks like he's been eating lemons -- never appealed to me, he does know how to do slapstick. And the three men all pound each other, while Mabel looks on gleefully.

Now, considering who owns the studio, who do you think gets the girl?

One of Charlie Chaplin's early shorts features him as a man vying for a woman's attention. Mack Sennett's movie is nothing sophisticated. In 1914 most movies were shorts, and "The Fatal Mallet" is the typical enjoyable silly thing. Worth seeing.

They probably never imagined that the director would get played in a movie by a man best known as both a Blues Brother and a Ghostbuster (with Chaplin played by Sherlock Holmes/Iron Man).

A man, Charlot, throws a mallet against a couple near a tree. The girl raises the mallet to the first pitcher who reaches the couple, for a moment of slapstick between men. The girl goes to another man with whom she sits on the swing. From the tree the two men go towards the swing and one of them pushes the one on the swing, which launches a mallet to the other two, who take refuge in a nearby shack. The character played by Chaplin goes to take with the other who is with the girl and take him to the shack. Chaplin hits the other two and goes to the girl, chasing a child who had arrived just before. The two men free themselves and one of the two chases Chaplin, who duels on the edge of a pond with one of the two while the other is with the girl. Chaplin drops his opponent into the lake but the other makes him fall too and goes for a walk with the girl.The movie focuses on the mechanism of slapstick and chase in this struggle between rivals in love.

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 than 'The Fatal Mallet', still made very early on in his career where he was still finding his feet and not fully formed what he became famous for. 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. 'The Fatal Mallet' is a long way from a career high, but has a lot of nice things about it and is to me one of the better efforts in the 1914 Keystone batch and a decent acting collaboration with Mabel Normand.

'The Fatal Mallet' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and some other shorts in the same period. The story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious. Occasionally, things feel a little scrappy and confused.

For someone who was still relatively new to the film industry and had literally just moved on from their stage background, 'The Fatal Mallet' 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 and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick. Mabel Normand is quite charming.

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'The Fatal Mallet' is humorous, sweet and easy to like, though the emotion is not quite there. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short.

Overall, pretty decent. 6/10 Bethany Cox