Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

"Mabel's Married Life" is a 14-minute black-and-white movie from 1914, so this one is already considerably older than a whole century. Wow. It was directed by the legendary Mack Sennett and the script is by the two protagonists themselves: Chaplin and Normand. The fact that Normand is mentioned in the title and not Chaplin in this movie already tells you what a big star she was back then, still in her 20s just like Chaplin. The story is relatively simple, even for such a brief movie. A bully hits on Mabel and Charlie is of course too weak and tiny to stand up to him. So Mabel gets him a dummy which Charlie is supposed to use for his training. But the dummy will not be subdued this easily. This little movie is certainly among Normand's most known works, also because of her famous co-lead of course. One of Chaplin's movies biggest strength is that, even without intertitles, the action and plot are so physical that you can not only understand the action, but even enjoy it. And this is a massive deal-breaker when it comes to silent films. I give this one here a thumbs-up. Worth checking out and the only slightly boring/forgettable thing was probably the bar scene. Mabel and Chaplin have great chemistry and work together very well.

Historically noted as Chaplin's first film he directed, wrote, edited, and starred in, Chaplin plays a ineffectual husband faced with the imposing oaf: Mack Swain. Swain is trying to make time with Charlie's wife, played by Mabel Normand (who co-wrote the film). The setting is in a park and soon it's apparent Swain is married also and the yolk is on him as they say. Chaplin goes through his drunk routine in a bar while Mabel receives a special delivery of what looks like a mannequin version of Mack Swain in the park. Chaplin arrives home and, being drunk of course, thinks the mannequin is real. It's here where the highlight of the film comes. Nineteen year old Mabel Normand must have been a sensation in those pajamas back in 1914. The film appears to follow a more logical progression than most Keystone Chaplin efforts. It's one of the earliest films of Chaplin with extensive footage of him engaging in physical comedy with prop(s). ** of 4 stars.

In one of the most effective and thorough characterizations in any of Chaplin's films up until that time, in Mabel's Married Life Charlie plays Mabel's husband, an feeble drunk incapable of deflecting the oafish advances of a huge man in the park, who hits on Charlie's wife right in front of him. Starting these films in the park was one of Chaplin's favorite things to do back in the earliest days of his career, but here he starts his film there and then takes us into the mind of one of the characters, rather than just having some on screen slapstick goofiness.Soon after the park incident, Charlie goes to a bar and is teased by the other patrons as he slowly gets drunk. His wife, meanwhile, is at home fashioning a blow-up doll to resemble the man in the park, thus providing a scenario from which her drunken husband can emerge her hero.There have been some criticisms that the scene involving the dummy wasn't fleshed out and made into the effective scene that it could have been, but I have to disagree. It is very stereotypical Chaplin comedy that comes out of the scene, but I can't think of any reason to expect anything different. What we do get is a brief but effective look at the desperation of a woman who is married to someone who wants to but is unable to protect her from undesirables, and her efforts to improve her husband's confidence. It doesn't seem to work too well, but I have a feeling that the film's original audiences were more than pleased.This film, by the way, is notable as being the first that Chaplin was allowed to write and direct on his own, and as compared to the rest of his films from this time, it is clear that he immediately began to prove his talent. Oh, and one more thing - you may notice that the film has French intertitles. I'm not sure why this is, but those of you lucky (and smart) enough to own a Mac, you can just type them into the translator on your Dashboard and have it translated into your language of choice...

I've seen quite a few Chaplin shorts from early in his career and I've noticed that his early stuff (done for Keystone Studios) is pretty dreadful stuff. Unlike his wonderful full-length films from the 20s and 30s, the films from 1914-1915 are incredibly poorly made--having no script but only vague instructions from the director. In most cases, the films had almost no plot and degenerated to people punching and kicking each other.Well, this film isn't really any better than the rest. Charlie and Mabel Normand spend much of the film slapping or being slapped. Charlie is powerless to stop a tough jerk from making unwanted advances on his wife. So, Mabel buys a punching doll and a drunk Charlie thinks it's real. That's it. No real laughs and no real plot.FYI--this short was from THE ESSENTIAL CHARLIE CHAPLIN COLLECTION from Delta Entertainment. Like a few of these early shorts, the captions are all in French! Well, lucky for me I have a pretty good understanding of the language. Others might be frustrated at this, but there are only a few captions.