Mabel's Busy Day

In this comedy the usual strenuous work of the Keystone artists, headed by Mabel Normand and Charles Chaplin, almost makes the screen on which it is thrown visibly, wobble. The scenes are located in the enclosure of a race course and Mabel is peddling hot-dog sandwiches. Chaplin is a butter-in and mixes things up generally; hot dog is his favorite fruit and he bankrupts Mabel's business. An exciting auto race lends to the picture; it is worth seeing. - The Moving Picture World, June 27, 1914

The respectfully dressed but violent cad played by Chaplin would pare down in later movies with Normand to a dignified tramp capable of effective outbursts of combat although less so against Mack Swain or an inflated dummy from which he would protect Mabel. In Caught in a Cabaret he would rescue Mabel from an attacker in the ubiquitous park. Here not yet a Tramp the cad provides support with Conklin for the prima Mabel whose spinning haymakers are as wild as any at Keystone. Mabel attained the top box office attendance ever in Mickey to be exceeded by Snow White twenty years later. Here with Chaplin briefly on second fiddle is the most talented twosome Sennett had.

While this isn't an exceptional silent comedy in most ways, it is worth seeing just to catch a glimpse of the huge number of future stars in this short. While the film stars Mabel Normand and she was a bona fide star at the time (so much so that she also directed the film), Charlie Chaplin was a bit of a new-comer as 1914 was his first year in films AND there are still quite a few faces you can pick out from the crowd if you know to look. Mack Sennet (owner of Keystone Studios) himself in a small roles, as does Al St. John (Fatty Arbuckle's nephew and his frequent foil on film), Chester Conklin (with his trademark mustache), Edgar Kennedy (of Laurel and Hardy fame) and a very young Charley Chase (who had a significant career as a solo comedian in the 1920s and 30s).

As for the plot, Mabel sneaks in to the race track to sell hot dogs. However, once there, jerks keep stealing her hot dogs. Chaplin, who did NOT interact with Mabel for the first half of the film and just seem to wander about aimlessly, then came to help but the problem continued. There were a few decent slapstick scenes and the film has a lot more continuity than most Keystone films of 1914, but it is still far from great and more a film to see for historical purposes than aesthetic ones.

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 Knockout', 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. 'Mabel's Busy Day' 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 one of Chaplin and Mabel Normand's collaborations.

'Mabel's Busy Day' 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, 'Mabel's Busy Day' 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 charming and has good comic timing, working well with Chaplin.

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'Mabel's Busy Day' 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, far from one of Chaplin's best but pretty good and perhaps one of his better efforts from the early Keystone period. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Mack Sennett and Keystone pioneered a type of Guerrilla Theater in the years 1911-1915. An event would be taking place, usually near Hollywood. Sennett would grab a bunch of actors and a camera and they would drive to the event. He would shoot the event and have the actors improvise a story around it. Here you have the Queen (Mabel Normand) and King (Charlie Chaplin) of comedy attending an auto race and both improvising slapstick. It is just amazing to watch and pure delight. You can see the crowds in the background rollicking with laughter as they see the future legends performing what would later be called street theater for them and the camera. You might also notice the genuine affection that Charlie and Mabel have for each other, especially in the last scene where they cry together.

This is bliss on film. In the online dictionary, when they give the definition of "happiness," they should show this film.