This past month (Feb. 2012) I've been uploading numerous Mabel Normand films, and others, to the Internet Archive. Here's one of them -- "Molly O'" -- with more to come.
Later. To see a current list of the MN films now uploaded by me to the Internet Archive, see: http://www.mn-hp.com/mn-internet-archive.html
Although I would not care to dwell on the matter here, I will mention in passing that it is my considered opinion that the purported "Won in a Closet" aka "Won in a Cupboard," that was said to have been discovered in New Zealand not long ago, is, in fact, a hoax film. There are several reasons I can enumerate for this surmise; one being that "Won in a Closet" is on record as a one reeler and this is about a reel and half. But as I've in effect suggested, I'll have to defer further explanation to another occasion. Meanwhile -- caveat emptor.
No one ever gave Mabel tougher competition than Topeka, Kansas' Fay Tincher in the 1919 "Rowdy Ann." If you haven't seen this most precious of silent comedic (or is that comediennic?) gems, here's a nice chance to do so.
Note. If memory serves, I believe there is a somewhat longer version of this film than the one shown here.
Ken Gordon very kindly sent us this latest. (Thanks once more Ken for helping to keep us in the loop!)
"We are presenting a Chaplin-based silent screening on April 3rd at the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. It also looks at the two essential leading ladies from his short films, Mabel Normand and Edna Purviance. Edna was, of course, important to the eventual development of this Tramp character, but Mabel was, really, crucial to the Tramp being born and nurtured in his first year of life at Keystone. The two Mabel shorts are being shown, thanks to the recent restoration of Chaplin's Keystones, courtesy of Flicker Alley. It's a window on Chaplin but, for me, as always, another reason to celebrate Mabel.
"SILENT MOVIE MATINEE
With Live Piano Accompaniment by Stuart Oderman
Curated & Hosted by Ken Gordon
"Sunday, April 3, 2011
CHARLIE CHAPLIN: Birthing The Tramp
We celebrate the birthday of master comedian Charles Chaplin, born on April 16, 1889, and the birth of his Tramp character, in early January 1914, on film at the Keystone Studios. We begin with an embryonic Tramp's first appearance in a film starring, and directed by, Mabel Normand:
MABEL'S STRANGE PREDICAMENT (1914) 12 Minutes
Re-visit him near the end of his year at Keystone, where Chaplin directs and co-stars with Mabel:
HIS TRYSTING PLACES (1914) 21 Minutes
And conclude, two years and studios later, as a more soulful Tramp co-stars with Edna Purviance:
THE RINK (1916) 24 Minutes
THE VAGABOND (1916) 26 Minutes
"All Screenings are at:
Brooklyn Public Library
Central Branch
Dweck Auditorium
10 Grand Army Plaza
Brooklyn, NY 11238
(718) 230-2100
www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org"
The following are some outtakes of an interview with Lester Predmore done by Ira H. Gallen, of TVDays.com, from 1971; in which the former describes witnessing and assisting D.W. Griffith's Biograph company, including Mary Pickford and Mabel Normand, at Cuddebackville, N.Y. in 1911. Be advised, as these are only outtakes the editng happens to be rather choppy; indeed annoyingly so. Yet this understood, the glimpse Predmore provides of the very early years of film producing with Griffith and friends some will doubtless find of unusual interest.
["LESTER PREDMORE ABOUT D.W. GRIFFITH at CUDDEBACKVILLE 1971"]
"Wilful Peggy" (1910) starring Mary Pickford is the first known film Mabel did for the Biograph Company. About 6 minutes in (in "Part 1") you can catch her as part of the garden party, about mid camera and just behind the foreground; standing next to a wigged gentleman dressed in black.
*----*
["Wilful Peggy (1910) 1/2"] and ["Wilful Peggy (1910) 2/2"]
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["DW GRIFFITH GIBSON GODESS 1909 CLASSIC SILENT FILMS on DVDS at TVDAYS.com"] and ["Those Awful Hats 1909"]
Later Note. Yet another and similar Sennett Biograph comedy is "A POLITICIANS LOVE STORY" (1909)
*---*
Two recent editions added to the book-shelf silent film afficianados will not want to miss are William M. Drew's Silent Films on American Screens in the 1930s, and the latest (though reportedly not last) installment to Thierry G. Matieu's "Chaplin at Keystone" series #21 Tillie's Punctured Romance. Both scholars as usual and by now to be expected have done a laudable job in their respective projects. Nor is it little consolation, and at a time when much of the veteran, old school silent film studies, circa 60's-80's, becoming an even more distant memory to see silent film studies maintained at such a high level of quality, thoroughness, and integrity.
Within the past month, two more films, in this case two Roscoe Arbuckle sound shorts, have been added to our "MNHP (Video) Collection"; they are:
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