The Fatal Mallet | |
---|---|
Directed by | Mack Sennett |
Written by | Mack Sennett |
Produced by | Mack Sennett |
Starring | Charlie Chaplin Mabel Normand Mack Sennett |
Cinematography | Frank D. Williams |
Distributed by | Keystone Studios |
Release date |
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Running time | 18 minutes |
Country | United States |
Languages | Silent film English (Original titles) |
The Fatal Mallet is a 1914 American-made motion picture starring Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand. The film was written and directed by Mack Sennett, who also portrays one of Chaplin's rivals for Normand's attention. (Sennett and Normand were off-screen lovers during this period.)
The Fatal Mallet is one of more than a dozen early films that writer/director/comedian Mabel Normand made with Charles Chaplin; Normand, who had written and directed films before Chaplin, mentored the young comedian.
Three men will fight for the love of a charming girl. Charlie (in famous tramp guise) and one other suitor (unusually played by Mack Sennett himself) teams up against the third, and play dirty, throwing bricks and using a mallet. However, Charlie double-crosses his partner, thus losing his trust and the girl in the end.
A reviewer for Moving Picture World said of The Fatal Mallet, "This one-reeler proves that hitting people over the head with bricks and mallets can sometimes be made amusing."
A reviewer for Bioscope positively wrote, "Though rivals in love for the beautiful Mabel Normand, Charles Chaplin and Mack Sennett combine to rid themselves of a third poacher on their preserves, and the employment of a deadly mallet gives these indescribable comedians the opportunity for another genuinely funny farce."
The Keystone Cops are fictional, humorously incompetent policemen featured in silent film slapstick comedies produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917.
Mack Sennett was a Canadian-American producer, director, actor, and studio head who was known as the "King of Comedy" during his career.
Tillie's Punctured Romance is a 1914 American silent comedy film directed by Mack Sennett and starring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand, Charlie Chaplin, and the Keystone Cops. The picture is the first feature-length comedy and was the only feature-length comedy made by the Keystone Film Company.
Amabel Ethelreid Normand, better known as Mabel Normand, was an American silent film actress, director and screenwriter. She was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in their Keystone Studios films, and at the height of her career in the late 1910s and early 1920s had her own film studio and production company, the Mabel Normand Feature Film Company. On screen, she appeared in twelve successful films with Charlie Chaplin and seventeen with Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, sometimes writing and directing films featuring Chaplin as her leading man.
Keystone Studios was an early film studio founded in Edendale, California on July 4, 1912 as the Keystone Pictures Studio by Mack Sennett with backing from actor-writer Adam Kessel (1866–1946) and Charles O. Baumann (1874–1931), owners of the New York Motion Picture Company. The company, referred to at its office as The Keystone Film Company, filmed in and around Glendale and Silver Lake, Los Angeles for several years, and its films were distributed by the Mutual Film Corporation between 1912 and 1915. The Keystone film brand declined rapidly after Sennett went independent in 1917.
Twenty Minutes of Love is a 1914 American comedy silent film made by Keystone Studios. The film is widely reported as Charlie Chaplin's directorial debut; some sources name Joseph Maddern as the director, but generally credit Chaplin as the creative force.
Mack Swain was a prolific early American film actor, who appeared in many of Mack Sennett’s comedies at Keystone Studios, including the Keystone Cops series. He also appeared in major features by Charlie Chaplin and starred in both the world's first feature length comedy and first film to feature a "movie-within-a-movie" premise.
Alice Howell was a silent film comedy actress from New York City. She was the mother of actress Yvonne Howell.
Caught in a Cabaret is a 1914 short comedy film written and directed by Mabel Normand and starring Normand and Charlie Chaplin.
Mabel's Busy Day is a 1914 short comedy film starring Mabel Normand and Charlie Chaplin; the film was also written and directed by Mabel Normand. The supporting cast includes Chester Conklin, Slim Summerville, Edgar Kennedy, Al St. John, Charley Chase, and Mack Sennett.
Mabel's Strange Predicament is a 1914 American film starring Mabel Normand and Charles Chaplin, notable for being the first film for which Chaplin donned the costume of The Tramp, although his appearance in the costume in Kid Auto Races at Venice was released first. The film was directed by Normand and produced by Mack Sennett.
A Film Johnnie is a 1914 American-made motion picture starring Charles Chaplin, Roscoe Arbuckle, and Mabel Normand.
Tango Tangles is a 1914 American film comedy short starring Charles Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle. The action takes place in a dance hall, with a drunken Chaplin, Ford Sterling, and the huge, menacing, and acrobatic Arbuckle fighting over a girl. The supporting cast also features Chester Conklin and Minta Durfee. The picture was written, directed and produced by Mack Sennett for Keystone Studios and distributed by Mutual Film Corporation.
Mabel at the Wheel is a 1914 American motion picture starring Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand, and directed by Mabel Normand and Mack Sennett. The film is also known as Hot Finish.
Mabel's Married Life (1914) is an American comedy silent film made by Keystone Studios starring and co-written by Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand, and directed by Chaplin. As was often the case during his first year in film, Chaplin's character is soon staggering drunk.
Laughing Gas is a 1914 film starring Charlie Chaplin. The film is also known as Busy Little Dentist, Down and Out, Laffing Gas, The Dentist, and Tuning His Ivories. It is inspired by the 1907 film with the same name.
Gentlemen of Nerve is a 1914 American comedy silent film directed by Charlie Chaplin, starring Chaplin and Mabel Normand, and produced by Mack Sennett for Keystone Studios.
Getting Acquainted, subsequently retitled A Fair Exchange, is a 1914 American comedy silent film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin, starring Chaplin and Mabel Normand, and produced by Mack Sennett for Keystone Studios.
Mabel's Stormy Love Affair is a 1914 film directed by and starring Mabel Normand, and produced by Mack Sennett.
Madcap Mabel is a 2010 dramatic 35-minute short film about a guilty reporter who had helped sensationalize the scandals that damaged the career of dying silent film comedian/writer/director Mabel Normand. The film depicts another of Charles Chaplin's leading ladies, Edna Purviance, as well as Normand's lover Mack Sennett and young reporter Adela Rogers St. Johns, and was written by Cecera and directed by Dena Schumacher.