Dans la chambre de Mabel

Despite its overworked plot with characters hiding under beds, falling down stairs and getting soaked with a hose, this is an amusing and ingratiating little comedy with the lovely Marie Prevost in her farcical element as the sexy but scatty, change-of-mind heroine. Harrison Ford registers okay as the stooge, even if he allows elderly William Orlamond to steal most his scenes. Aside from the nightclub ep with the frenetic orchestra and the prancing cuties, Hopper's direction is effective but steadfastly routine. The film was remade by producer Edward Small in 1944 with Gail Patrick (as the Mabel of the title, although her role is not that of the Mabel in the play), Dennis O'Keefe and Marjorie Reynolds.

I was giggling and laughing throughout this entire film. Anyone who doesn't see it is missing a comedy classic!

Marie Prevost (Mabel) plays an adorable and pert flapper beauty who marries and divorces Harrison Ford The First (Garry), an architect, in Paris in short order. She sees him buying a piece of intimate apparel and thinks it is for another woman. Only after she divorces her husband does she open the box and see it is embroidered with "To Mabel from Garry."

So back to Garry she goes trying to make it up with him, but Garry has his pride you see and "won't let the same woman divorce me twice!" Garry tries proposing to another girl who is crazy about him, in an attempt to throw Mabel off track, but it does quite the opposite. We know all along Garry is fighting a losing battle and is still crazy about Mabel, but it is fun to watch the games that are played until differences are resolved. The "doohicky" (intimate apparel) becomes the focus of the plot. Garry has to get it back before Mabel shows it to Phyllis, the other woman Garry has proposed to.

They made a variant of this film in the 1940's but it has nowhere near the humor and charm of the original silent version.

Fun, funny film. Don't miss it!

"Up In Mabel's Room" has a gentle slapstick sort of humor. Not like Buster Keaton, but a sort of subtle sit com sort of slapstick. Watching a silent movie is quite unlike a talkie in that you can't look away and still keep track of the storyline by just listening. The only sound is usually a piano. This movie is really funny. It's well written well directed and easy to follow. And the story is funny. But the title may be misleading because it is very clean. It's a shame that it is so difficult to rent silent movies. But I bought this one sight unseen because I remembered the 1944 version and I am very glad.

As with all good farces, the premise of this one is silly. While vacationing in Paris, Mabel and Garry meet, marry and divorce after she learns Garry has bought lingerie and assumes he has bought it for another woman. After she discovers that the sexy night apparel is embroidered with 'To Mabel from Garry,' she decides she made a big mistake and wants Garry back. After returning to America, Mabel visits Garry in his office and turns the charm on but to no avail. As with the best silent comedies, it is the title cards that add much of the humor. After a secretary catches Mabel sitting on Garry's lap, Garry insists that his reputation will be ruined and that "Now people will think I'm a swivel-chair sheik." But it's at a weekend house party that the frenetic farce really gears up. Garry is desperate to get the embroidered lingerie back. There is much running around, hiding under the bed and in a trunk, climbing in and out of a window and general craziness. As silly and naive as it all is, it is also very funny and Marie Prevost shines in the role of Mabel.