FEEL IT.STREAM
Mabel Normand

Mabel Normand

Acting

Biography

Mabel Normand (November 10, 1892– February 23, 1930) was an American silent film comedienne and actress, a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors. Onscreen she appeared in a dozen commercially successful films with Charles Chaplin and seventeen with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, occasionally writing and directing movies featuring Chaplin as her leading man as well as sometimes co-writing and co-directing with Chaplin in films in which they played the lead roles. At the height of her career in the late 1910s and early 1920s, Normand had her own movie studio and production company. Throughout the 1920s her name was linked with widely publicized scandals including the 1922 murder of William Desmond Taylor and the 1924 shooting of Courtland S. Dines, who was shot by Normand's chauffeur with her pistol. She was not a suspect in either crime. Her film career declined, possibly due to both scandals and a recurrence of tuberculosis in 1923, which led to a decline in her health, retirement from films and her death in 1930 at age 37. Mabel Normand has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Motion Pictures, at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard. Her film Mabel's Blunder (1914) was added to the National Film Registry in December 2009. In June 2010, the New Zealand Film Archive reported the discovery of a print of Normand's film Won in a Closet (exhibited in New Zealand under its alternate title Won in a Cupboard), a short comedy previously believed lost. This film is a significant discovery, as Normand directed the movie and starred in the lead role, making it a showcase for her talents on both sides of the camera.

Known For

The Pest
9.0

Naive country girl Jigs Blodgett makes friends with Gene Giles, the nephew of a wealthy judge. Shady John Harland is courting the judge's daughter Blanche because of her father's money and position. To amuse herself, Blanche invites Jigs to a party with her "sophiscated" friends, intending to humiliate and embarrass Jigs. Things don't quite go the way Blanche planned.

The Pest

1919
Mabel's Married Life
5.8

Mabel goes home after being humiliated by a masher whom her husband won't fight. The husband goes off to a bar and gets drunk.

Mabel's Married Life

1914
Anything Once!
6.8

ANYTHING ONCE! is a Cinderella story. Mabel works in a tailor shop, pressing clothes and dreaming of a better life. We're told that she's taken a lot of bumps in life and doesn't know where the next bump is coming from, which sounds uncomfortably close to the leading lady's real-life situation. Her boss is Jimmy Finlayson, but instead of playing the expected sourpuss Finn is quite benign here, and doesn't even punish Mabel when she accidentally sets his toupee on fire.

Anything Once!

1927
Days of Thrills and Laughter
6.0

An appreciative, uncritical look at silent film comedies and thrillers from early in the century through the 1920s.

Days of Thrills and Laughter

1961
No image
N/A

The boy, who is the idol of his widowed mother, returns from college with a collegiate record she is justly proud of. To mark the occasion his boyhood sweetheart and her mother come to spend a few days. The too-indulgent mother, however, is blind to the fact that the boy is spending most of his evenings in full dress, which should have told her that Bohemian society was engaging his attention. A showgirl, who learns that he will soon come into great wealth, determines to win him. Unsophisticated as he is, he is an easy prey. A friend of the family warns the mother of her boy's danger,

The Unveiling

1911
Tillie's Punctured Romance
6.2

A womanizing city man meets Tillie in the country. When he sees that her father has a very large bankroll for his workers, he persuades her to elope with him.

Tillie's Punctured Romance

1914
The Women Who Run Hollywood
7.1

The first talkie was directed by Alice Guy, the first color film was produced by Lois Weber, who directed more than 300 films over 10 years. Frances Marion wrote screenplays for the Hollywood Star Mary Pickford and won two Oscars, Dorothy Arzner was the most powerful film director in Hollywood. And what do all of them have in common? They are all women and they have all been forgotten. Incredibly, it also took until 2010 for the first woman, Kathryn Bigelow, to win the Oscar for Best Director. Even if underrepresented women have always played a big part in Hollywood and it is this part of the film history left untold that this documentary sets out to uncover.

The Women Who Run Hollywood

2016
Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
4.3

Before the G, PG and R ratings system there was the Production Code, and before that there was, well, nothing. This eye-opening documentary examines the rampant sexuality of early Hollywood through movie clips and reminiscences by stars of the era. Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Marlene Dietrich and others relate tales of the artistic freedom that led to the draconian Production Code, which governed content from 1934 to 1968. Diane Lane narrates.

Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema

2007
Near To Earth
N/A

This is the story of Gato, an Italian immigrant, who lives with his wife, Marie, and his younger brother, Giuseppe, on a small truck farm in the west. Gato becomes so intent on his work that he neglects to show his wife the little attentions she demands. A foppish wandering Italian, Sandro, sees in this an opportunity to work his ends, but is prevented by the timely interference of Giuseppe.

Near To Earth

1913
Mabel's Strange Predicament
5.3

A tramp gets drunk in a hotel lobby and, upstairs, causes some misunderstandings between Mabel, two hotel guests across the hall from her room, and Mabel's visiting sweetheart.

Mabel's Strange Predicament

1914
Pinto
9.0

When Pinto reaches her eighteenth birthday, the five wealthy Arizonans who adopted her upon the death of her parents decide that ranch life will never make a lady of her. Their old friend Pop Audry, formerly of Arizona and now a member of New York society, agrees to provide Pinto with the necessary education. Accordingly, Pinto and her cowboy nursemaid Looey are dispatched to New York where they lose Audry's address. ...

Pinto

1920
Mabel and Fatty’s Married Life
4.9

When a woman's husband leaves town, she begins to see odd things happening in her house. Afraid that gangsters are after her, she becomes increasingly anxious.

Mabel and Fatty’s Married Life

1915
Gentlemen of Nerve
5.7

Mabel and her beau go to an auto race and are joined by Charlie and his friend. As Charlie's friend is attempting to enter the raceway through a hole, the friend gets stuck and a policeman shows up.

Gentlemen of Nerve

1914
Mabel at the Wheel
5.6

A villain, competing with his rival's race car, kidnaps the rival before the race. Mabel decides to take the wheel in his place.

Mabel at the Wheel

1914
Caught in a Cabaret
5.7

Charlie is a clumsy waiter in a cheap cabaret, suffering the strict orders from his boss. He meets a pretty girl in the park and tries to impress her by pretending to be an ambassador. Unfortunately she has a jealous fiancé.

Caught in a Cabaret

1914
The Masquerader
5.7

Charlie plays an actor who bungles several scenes and is kicked out. He returns convincingly dressed as a lady and charms the director, but Charlie never makes it into the film.

The Masquerader

1914
Her Friend the Bandit
5.5

A comedy made by Keystone Studios starring Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand, both of whom co-directed the movie. This is Chaplin's only lost film as no copy is known to exist.

Her Friend the Bandit

1914
Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)
N/A

The edition of Screen Snapshots celebrates 25 years of production. It looks at the content of edition #1, then a tribute to movie people who have died in those 25 years. Finally there are tributes to the Screen Snapshots series by Cecil De Mille, Walt Disney, Louella Parsons and Rosalind Russell.

Screen Snapshots (Series 22, No. 10)

1942
A Film Johnnie
5.4

The Tramp, a film Johnnie (someone who loiters near theaters or studios to meet stars or get a job), attempts to meet his favorite movie actress at the Keystone Studio, but does not win friends there.

A Film Johnnie

1914
The Waiters' Picnic
5.0

Louis, the chef and Oscar, the head waiter, are in love with Mabel the pretty cashier. The Waiters' picnic is held, and Mabel is the cause of much trouble between Louis and Oscar.

The Waiters' Picnic

1913