Mickey

The adventures of a gold miner's daughter, Mickey stars Mabel Normand, who was one of the biggest film stars of the teens and 20s. In a series of episodes that are loosely connected, Normand plays a Cinderella-like character who goes to live with a relative (Laura La Varnie) but when it's discovered the gold mine is a bust, she is made a maid in the household. But she catches the eye of the old lady's daughter (Minta Durfee) and is eventually sent back to the country just as the mine strikes it big. The suitor (Wheeler Oakman) follows her. The plot seems to stray here and there without much narrative thread. At one point, a lecher (Lewis Cody) is chasing Mabel around a mansion, and then we're off to the horse races. But while the episodes are tacked together, Mabel Normand holds the viewer's attention throughout the 90 minutes.

This film was co-produced by Normand and Mack Sennett. George Nichols, Minnie Devereaux, Tom Kennedy, and Edgar Kennedy co-star. And yes Minta Durfee was famous for being the wife of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, a famous co-star with Normand in many short films. And the music by Neil Moret (who died in 1943) is absolutely great. I hummed the songs for days and learned to play them on the piano.

Mack Sennett and star Mabel Normand co-produced this 1918 silent comedy/melodrama which, surely, satisfied the era's moviegoers. Normand, a natural comedienne, plays "Mickey," an orphan raised by a rough and grizzled down-on-his-luck miner abetted by a corpulent, exasperated but loving woman-of-all-chores.

Back East, New York to be exact, Mickey's aunt, as impecunious as she is extravagant, skirts with ruin as she hopes her daughter will win the affections of The Decent Man. Scheming mom and grasping daughter hope an engagement will bring them real solvency.

Not too hard to guess what happens. As the piano music goes on - and on and on and on - the hero goes West to handle a mine boundary issue. He meets the sparkling Mickey and her menagerie before she leaves for the East with her miner guardian. But the seeds of love have been planted.

Mickey's been cordially invited to live with auntie under that harridan's very mistaken and soon to be blown belief that the young girl is the key to a rich mine's bounty. Finding that to be very wrong, Mickey is ordered into domestic service by nasty auntie. Yep, Cinderella story, sort of. And we all know - as did the Great War audiences - how such stories MUST end. A happy Mickey and her guy.

Sennett was a master at comedies that entertained without surprising. No dazzling or innovative cinematography here, just a guaranteed good hour and a half at the theater (or, now, in front of a TV).

Normand strayed off the reservation of both respectability and sobriety not that many years after "Mickey" when she was at the height of popular acclaim with a Goldwyn contract. Stars didn't have the bounce-back capability many seem to enjoy today and her close association with two lurid murders, neither of which she was implicated in, hastened a downward spiral already in freefall.

She died fairly young of tuberculosis, her career practically ended. But she remains alive in films that show the depth of comedic ability of a talented actress who could make audiences laugh without their ever hearing her utter a syllable. "Mickey" is one of her best efforts.

In 1970, Bernadette Peters, who just opened in a well-received Broadway revival of "Gypsy," played Mabel in "Maude and Mack," a musical about the director/star duo. The play didn't do well on the Great White Way but it's become something of a staple for amateur theatrical groups. Normand would have appreciated that.

Well worth renting or buying.

8/10.

Mable Normand is forever remembered for her comedies for Mack Sennett. These two-reel films were fun but also quite short and were done strictly for laughs. "Mickey" was a major change for Ms. Normand, as now she was making a full-length film and one which was more of a melodrama. In fact, it's very much a style film that Mary Pickford made famous from the late 1910s through the 1920s--playing a very young lady who, by the end of the film, has found love and happiness.

Mickey is a young tom-boy (Normand) who lives with her father's old mining partner. It seems her father died and this man has cared for her for many years. However, as she gets older, he realizes he's not much good teaching her how to become a lady and he sends her off to live with her aunt. As for the aunt, she only wants Mickey because she learns she owns a mine. When she discovers the mine isn't productive, she makes Mickey a servant in the home--much like Cinderella. But, just after the aunt gets rid of Mickey, she learns the mine has finally paid off and Mickey is rich--and suddenly she DOES want Mickey to live with her! Well, in the meantime, there is a man who has fallen for Mickey--and he cannot find her in order to propose. But the aunt decides to sic her no-good son on her and he proposes to Mickey. Can the old boyfriend find her before it's too late?!

While this film is a VERY predictable old fashioned melodrama (aside from the bizarre horse race sequence near the end--I did NOT see that coming), it's a NICE predictable old fashioned melodrama! Sure, you can figure out what's going to happen long before it does, but the film is so well made and enjoyable you don't really mind. Sweet and quite charming. It's sure a shame that Mable's career and life were cut so short--I would have loved to see more films like this one.

By the way, I think parts of the end of this film must have been missing. That's because there are very few intertitle cards early in the film. Yet, near the end, there are several with extensive exposition--like it's filling in for gaps in the film.

Mickey (1918)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

When Mack Sennett and Mabel Normand's personal relationship took a hit (two stories are out there), he tried to bring some peace by forming the Mabel Normand Feature Film Company, a separate division of Keystone. This new studio only turned out one film but it was a hit for the studio even after a disastrous production. In the film Normand plays Mickey, a poor girl helping her uncle in a worthless mine. Feeling she's all grown up, the uncle sends her to New York to live with an aunt hoping that she will turn the young lady into a woman. MICKEY is pretty predictable from start to finish and I even though some of the 74-minute running time dragged in spots. Still, it's easy to see that everything going on was just done so that Normand could shine and I think she does just that. There's no question that it's Normand who makes the film worth seeing due to her very strong performance. She's pleasant no matter what situation is in front of her. It could be the early tomboy stuff in the mines, the scenes where she's trying to figure out you don't sweep dirt under a rug or the scenes where she must make decisions for the rest of her life. Mabel is clearly the star of this picture and without her the bland story would have killed any shot at an entertaining movie.

Mack Sennett had a strong reputation for producing wild, violent, fast- paced slapstick that often got its laughs without even a superficial attempt to make sense. He got that reputation for the simple reason that it's true. However, it's interesting to see how when Sennett knew he had on his hands a comedian whose laughs come from subtleties or reactions rather than fast antics, he knows to slacken the pace. That was true with many of the brilliant Harry Langdon shorts he would produce later, and it is true here in "Mickey" with Mabel Normand.

Mabel is the star and it is she on which the movie turns. She steals every scene she appears in and has infinite screen magnetism, with her attractive, fascinating face, constantly changing expression, and childlike and uninhibited yet somehow ironic manner. The greatest moments of comedy come in little bits of performance, as Mabel comes up with many ingenious ways to hide dust she has swept up, or simply can't resist eating cherries off a cake.

That said, there are not actually a lot of scenes of overt comedy in this film, and sometimes when there is overt comedy it comes out as a digression or bit of broad slapstick that is well-executed but has a different feel -- the battle in the country store (which looks a lot like the one Arbuckle worked at in "The Butcher Boy") over Mable's dog or the animal the scurries up her pantleg. It's not actually an uproariously funny film, but doesn't usually try to be, and it's always pleasant.

The plot is simple and of a kind that has spawned infinite variations. Mabel is a rough-hewn girl from a miner town who loves playing with animals and skinny dipping (from a very wide angle); she is sent to her rich aunt and becomes involved in a kind of love square through no fault of her own. It's really as much melodrama as anything else, but it comes off. There are plenty of twists, especially as the end draws near, involving who is rich and who is poor when; these remain able to keep the interest, and make a kind of commentary too, intentional or not, on the true insignificance of wealth.

This has been cited as the first feature-length comedy starring a single comedian rather than an ensemble cast, but even so it feels fairly developed as a form, with decent pacing and plot developing in two places at once. This is a simple story well told, and really made by its star, who is well showcased.