The Extra Girl

The Extra Girl (1923)

*** (out of 4)

Producer Mack Sennett and star Mabel Normand made a great number of films together but this here would turn out to be the last one as they'd go their separate ways and not to mention that this was filmed during the actresses troubled aftermath of the William Desmond Taylor murder. In the film Normand plays a small town girl who decides to go to Hollywood where she knows she's gonna make it big. As soon as she hits town she gets a job but it's not in front of the camera but instead behind it sweeping floors. Soon her parents and her sweetheart (Ralph Graves) come to visit her and things don't get better. THE EXTRA GIRL is far from perfect but I thought it had enough very good moments to make it worth sitting through and not to mention some fine performances. Many have labeled this a comedy but I think that's pretty far-fetched as there's really not any funny moments throughout the film. The majority of the time is actually dealing with some dark subjects and situations and not to mention we get some pretty intense sequences that would have made D.W. Griffith proud. One such sequence has Normand accidentally letting a lion loose, which then goes on a chase throughout the studio. This sequence was extremely well shot and edited and you can feel the creature breathing down your spine. The ending, which I won't spoil, is also excellently done and contains some first rate drama. Normand is extremely good in her role as you can believe her every step of the way. She's perfectly charming in the picture and I thought she handled the drama just fine. Graves, probably best remembered for his films with Frank Capra, is also excellent in his role as are supporting players Vernon Dent, George Nichols and Anna Dodge.

It has taken quite a while for THE EXTRA GIRL to make it to commercial DVD and now that it's finally here, we should all be grateful. But with that gratitude there should be some sadness as well for this 1923 film was the beginning of the end for one of the silent era's most gifted performers. Mabel Normand (1892-1930) began her career as a model for Charles Dana Gibson before breaking into films with Biograph in 1909. She moved over to Vitagraph and then left to be with Mack Sennett at Keystone in 1912.

In addition to being the silent era's greatest comedienne she was among the first women to write and direct her own material. She also directed Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle but was never given credit for it. She successfully moved from shorts to feature films before her run of bad luck began. Implicated but never charged in a series of scandals including the unsolved murder of director William Desmond Taylor, Mabel's career as a star unraveled during the 1920's. Drugs and alcohol aggravated the tuberculosis she had lived with for many years and she died at the age of 37 right at the dawn of the sound era.

Her association with Chaplin, Arbuckle, and the Keystone Kops have kept her face before the public but so little of her other work has survived and almost none of it is on DVD. This Kino release of THE EXTRA GIRL along with the 1913 Keystone one reeler THE GUSHER will certainly help. It also shows how much the nature of American film comedy evolved over 10 years. The visual quality of this disc taken from a 1969 Killiam Collection print is excellent with an organ soundtrack provided by Jack Ward that is above average for Killiam.

The story of a small town girl who goes to Hollywood has been done many times but Normand makes it her own even though at 30 she's too old for the role and it shows. You can watch her physical appearance change throughout the film reflecting the health problems she was dealing with. Nevertheless the backstage look at moviemaking, Normand's screen test, the escaped lion sequence, and the unhappy/happy ending are among many highlights the film has to offer...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.

This is not the usual Keystone comedy that we associate with Miss Normand. However, it should be understood that no 'Madcap Mabel' pictures had been produced since 1916, and the last of these contained little slapstick. The post-Goldwyn Sennett films are a build up to Extra Girl, which may be seen as the culmination of Mabel's art.

Extra Girl is a Cinderella story – sort of. The twist is that the heroine, Sue Graham, does not find happiness by marrying a prince, but an old friend. This plot is in total agreement with a then-current Hollywood maxim that no-one should come to tinsel town expecting to be put into movies, let alone become a star. Of course, Sue does go to Hollywood, but, for several reasons, finds life very tough indeed.

In the early scenes, Mabel is very pretty and passes tolerably well for the teenage small-town girl Sue with her banana curls. However, when she throws her arms around Ralph and exclaims 'My Sheik', the straining in her neck and face put more than a few years on her apparent age. By contrast, when she falls back into Ralph's arms, her face becomes relaxed and Mabel is instantly, and radiantly, beautiful. She is, fleetingly, the dying Cleopatra.

Mabel demonstrates a whole repertoire of facial expressions and eye movements while showing Ralph her acting ability. These are definitely worthy of the 'old Mabel'. Curiously, Mabel also uses certain facial expressions that are reminiscent of Stan Laurel. Now Stan didn't use these until after 1930, and after Mabel had collaborated with him at Hal Roach studios. I leave it to others to determine where the 'world's greatest mimic' got his famous face from. Elsewhere Mabel uses some of the classically cute Keystone Girl actions, like the poignant wave from the train, her head forward and one shoulder pulled up protectively (last seen in Mabel At The Wheel). Equally cute is the way she leans forward and points while delivering a firm message to the studio owner (also seen in Suzanna).

In this film, Mabel is fairly slim, but not overly so. Compared to the Mabel of, say, 'A Spanish Dilemma' (1912), Mabel does seem strangely flat chested, indicating, perhaps, that the common Sennett practice of chest strapping was used here. It is also clear that in some scenes, especially later in the film, Mabel looks quite ill and drained. Apparently, scenes requiring Mabel to look out of salts (e.g. when she was being married off and when her acting career was failing) were filmed on her worst days. The effects of the W.D. Taylor scandal cannot be underestimated in respect of these observations. It is odd to see Mabel in the film lying in wait for the swindler of her parents with a gun, considering the W.D. Taylor affair – a joke too far. The effect is doubled, as the Courtland Dines shooting occurred just after the film's completion, and another Dines affair weapon, a bottle, appears in the scene. Other aspects of the film that may reflect reality are the location of the Graham household at River Bend and the great swindle. Mabel had a good friend, Helen Holmes (of 'Hazards of Helen' fame), who originated in South Bend Indiana (like River Bend, between Pittsburgh and the Rocky Mountains). Helen's family were swindled of their money when they first moved to California.

Mabel ends up being a wardrobe girl, but persuades a director to give her a screen test. Due to various events the test turns out to be a hilarious farce. The wardrobe girl is wearing an old-fashioned crinoline hooped dress with the usual long pantalettes underneath. Unbeknown to her, as she bends over to pick some love letters up she exposes her white pantalettes, which have acquired the black imprint of a prop man's glove (she sat on the glove earlier). Everyone behind the camera begins to laugh, including Mack Sennett who has suddenly appeared in the scene. Was he there to ogle Mabel in her underwear, or was he there to laugh at the joke?

The best part of the film occurs later on when Mabel leads a lion around the studio thinking it is the Keystone dog, Teddy. It is hilarious to see the various actors running for their lives, while Mabel walks around totally oblivious to the danger. Mabel herself told a story about the director making her come close to the camera with the lion in tow, following which there was a sudden noise in the studio. This unnerved the lion who jumped and knocked Mabel flat, whereupon he bit into her posterior. However, it transpired that the 'bite' was the penetration of a pointed implement wielded by the director in order to drive the lion off – he'd missed! After the lion breaks away he chases Mabel around the studio in the old cranked-up way, with our heroine jumping and jerking in the old cranked-up way.

The Dines affair should have destroyed the box-office take of this film. However, Mack and Mabel (who had a 25% stake in the profits) made a supreme, nationwide effort to save it and were successful in their efforts. In court, nonetheless, Mabel ridiculed the prosecutors, and, as the newspapers were quick to relay, affected a pompous English accent and made continuous 'French' hand gestures. Mabel's career trickled away following the affair, and Mack canceled her next film 'Mary Anne'.

THE EXTRA GIRL (Pathe' Exchange, 1923), a Mack Sennett production, directed by F. Richard Jones, is a feature-length silent comedy starring Mabel Normand. With story and supervision by Mack Sennett, there's no traditional Keystone Kops nor climatic car chases, but basically a semi-comedy of one girl's dream to become a movie star and how almost everything seems to go in the wrong direction.

Opening with a title card: "Between the Rocky Mountains and Pittsburgh, but a long way from Hollywood, lies River Bend (Illinois) where the Graham family lives," followed by introduction to characters: "Pa" Graham (George Nichols), who runs a River Bend garage that was once his blacksmith shop; Aaron Appleton (Vernon Dent), a well-to-do druggist and Graham's choice for his future son-in-law; "Ma" Graham (Anna Hernandez) a wife and mother who copes with her movie struck daughter, Sue (Mabel Normand) by sitting back in her rocking chair and watching her act, as does Dave Giddings (Ralph Graves), Sue's childhood sweetheart and neighborhood mechanic. Realizing that their attachment to one another is more than "puppy love," "Pa" Graham insists Dave is to no longer visit Sue, and have Aaron calling and have her as his future bride. While answering a movie contest advertisement, Sue submits her frightful photograph. About to mail out her entry form, Sue finds she's unable to leave her parents and decides against it. Wanting to see Sue fulfill her dream, Dave has Belle Brown (Charlotte Mineau), known as the "grass widow," submit the photo herself. Wanting Dave all to herself and Sue out of the way, Belle substitutes her own photo over Sue's instead. Having not heard anything about the movie contest, Sue reluctantly agrees to please her father by marrying Aaron. Moments before the wedding is to take place, Dave arrives with a telegram that Sue has won the contest, and must catch the next train to Hollywood within fifteen minutes. With Dave's help, Sue escapes from her dreaded wedding and races over to the train station with Pa Graham and Aaron in hot pursuit. As the train pulls out, Sue watches her father at a distance and tearfully bids him farewell, with the old man waving back with his rejected would-be son-in-law beside him. Arriving at the Golden State Film Company, Sue meets with the studio manager who realizes the photos have been switched. Instead of getting a screen test, the studio manager, telling Sue to return home, decides on giving her a break working in the wardrobe department. Sometime later Dave comes to Hollywood, and to be near her, acquires employment at the same studio as a stage hand. As for the Grahams, it's Christmas and they become lonely for Sue. The couple decide to sell their home and accompany their daughter in the movie capital of the world, in spite the fact that she's not yet acted in a motion picture. Situations become more complex when Sue falls into the clutches of T. Philip Hackett (Ramsey Wallace), who swindles her parents by investing their entire savings in some"worthless oil stock.

Mabel Normand, whose movie career began with comedy shorts as early 1910, was nearing the end of her career by the time THE EXTRA GIRL went into theatrical release in early 1923. With other movies similar in theme dealing with the ups and downs of a movie hopeful (The 1926 release of ELLA CINDERS starring Colleen Moore, being one of the better ones), THE EXTRA GIRL goes a step further, taking a realistic approach as to what happens when a talented small town girl fails to succeed. Not precisely as sad as it all seems, THE EXTRA GIRL does present itself with some good intentional comedy. The most famous one involving Mabel mistaking a lion for a tamed one named Teddy, toggling the king of beasts on a rope behind her, eventually leading to a wild chase around the studio set after she discovers that she has the wrong lion. This five minute sequence must have stirred roars of laughter back then. Another funny scene finds Mabel making her screen test opposite actor William Desmond in a period setting wearing her hoop skirt and pantelettes. During the filming, she accidentally sits on a black glove leaving a hand print on her bottom tush, conveniently captured on film whenever she bends down. A screen test for a costume drama provokes laughter from the staff working behind the camera, but distresses the director, of course.

Aside from appearing a bit too old to be wearing those Mary Pickford curls during most of the story, indicating that the character of Sue Graham being a teenager or a girl of her early twenties, Mabel Normand, does show signs of exhaustion and worry, possibly due to personal problems of her own or over extensive retakes during production.

THE EXTRA GIRL, at 70 minutes (possibly longer in its initial premiere), was one of thirteen selected silent features to be presented during the summer months in the PBS weekly series of "The Silent Years" (1971), as hosted by Orson Welles, accompanied with an organ score by Jack Ward. In later years it turned up on cable television's Turner Classic Movies (TCM premiere: September 20, 2012, with piano score). As for her final screen appearance in a feature length comedy, the movie itself isn't as good as one would want it to be, but in spite of mixed comments and reputation, it can only be enjoyed by those who appreciate rare finds like Mabel Normand as THE EXTRA GIRL. Available on video and DVD from Kino International. (***)

Cute, fast-paced romantic comedy starring Mabel Normand as a small town girl who wants to be an actress and has two local rivals for her affections - Aaron Applejohn (Vernon Dent), not exactly a heartthrob, but well-to-do (her dad's choice for a son-in-law, of course) and Dave (Ralph Graves), her handsome longtime sweetheart who she loves. Mabel decides to mail in her photo to a Hollywood movie contest, but the "Widow Brown" decides to help things along and hopefully get Mabel out of town (and get Dave for herself) by switching the photo in the envelope to one of a beautiful young woman (hmmm - I think Mabel is beautiful too, so why the switch?!). Anyway, in the meantime dad decides to MAKE her marry Applejohn (and is actually ready to take his belt to her!) when the telegram from Hollywood arrives saying she won the contest - just in the nick of time! When she arrives and the movie studio sees that she is not the same woman, she is put to work in the costume department. Soon her parents, and Dave too, are all in Hollywood with her - but nothing works out the way she expects.

Well, this film is well done and full of fun - Mabel is a charmer in this, as usual, I just love her expressive face! There is a lively, fast chase at one point, where Mabel is trying to get to the train station before she has to get married, with dad and Applejohn in hot pursuit - all well done on real rural (looked like suburban twenties L.A.) streets. I also enjoyed the scene where Mabel leads a lion through the studio, under the belief it is actually "Teddy the dog" in a lion suit - quite amusing. The DVD version of this I saw featured a very decent looking print and excellent piano score by composer Ben Model that really suited the film well. A very entertaining film.