La lessive de Mabel

Mabel and Fatty's Wash Day (1915)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Good-hearted and fun one-reeler from Keystone has a wife (Mabel Normand) slaving away at laundry while her worthless husband sleeps. Their neighbor (Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle) finds himself doing laundry for a worthless wife. Soon Fatty and Mabel meet up for some fun, which of course doesn't sit well with their "others." MABEL AND FATTY'S WASH DAY certainly isn't the best film that the team made together but there are enough small laughs to make it worth sitting through. There are some funny moments including the husband going off on Fatty early in the picture as well as another scene at the end when the husband is mistaken for a thief. The majority of the smiles come from the charm of Arbuckle who does a very good job here in regards to the acting. I thought he made for a very sympathetic character and at least made you feel for him and laugh. Normand is also good in her role even though she isn't given as much to do. The film runs at a very good pace as the director (Arbuckle) manages to keep everything flowing well.

This feature makes good use of the pairing of Mabel Normand and Roscoe Arbuckle. When they were in good form together, they could make even thin story ideas and gags look pretty good, and here they take a decent if familiar setup and make it work pretty well.

The setup has Normand's character married to a lazy, oafish husband, and Arbuckle saddled with a bossy, unpleasant wife. Things start off with the two put-upon spouses having a friendly meeting while washing clothes, and then this is followed by a sequence with all four characters in the park. The first half is the more enjoyable of the two, even though it does not have any uproarious gags. It shows the two stars at their most sympathetic, and even though the comedy is very light in itself, it takes on an added dimension because of the likable characters.

The second part features more of the kind of boisterous comedy for which Keystone movies were so well known. It's not bad either, and here too Normand and Arbuckle make the material work better than it would have on its own. But it's the gentler, domestic first half that best makes use of Mabel and Roscoe together.

There's an endearing quality about some of these old-fashioned shorts and this one from 1915 is no exception.

Mabel Normand and Fatty Arbuckle are neighbors on washing day. The simple device has both of them fed up with their annoying mates and meeting innocently on wash day when Arbuckle allows Mabel to use his wringer for her hubby's clothes. Jealousy rears its head and misunderstandings follow, especially after a day at the park involving a mix-up of purses that has the police joining in on a merry chase.

The usual blend of comedy and slapstick works well here with the park scene being the most enjoyable part of the short. Arbuckle and Normand obviously knew how to play comedy for the silents.

This looks like a typical flirting-in-the-park one-reeler from Keystone in this era, but this early Arbuckle-directed film shows a bit more care in plot construction than was usually taken: we are given a sense of connection and sympathy of Roscoe and Mabel, next-door neighbors, hard workers who are put upon by their spouses. Mabel's is lazy, Roscoe's gets to abuse him physically.

The gag construction is a bit thin. We are still in the world of Keystone in which speed and damage are all that are required to make it work. However, the prints are good and we get to see a little real acting by the leads. I doubt this will win any converts to Roscoe's fan club, but it isn't very long and is well done for the sub-genre.

Big stars in their time, Mabel Normand and Fatty Arbuckle saw their careers ruined by scandals, and they died a few years later. One of their movies was 1915's "Mabel and Fatty's Wash Day", depicting a series of goofs as the two attempt to wash and dry their clothes. Most of the movies from cinema's infancy were shorts with simple plots. This is a typical enjoyable short.

I wonder what direction Normand's and Arbuckle's careers would've taken had they not got ruined.