Customer Reviews

The Extra Girl (1923) / The Gusher (1913)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It has taken quite a while for THE EXTRA GIRL to make it to commercial DVD and now that it's finally here, we should all be grateful. But with that gratitude there should be some sadness as well for this 1923 film was the beginning of the end for one of the silent era's most gifted performers. Mabel Normand (1892-1930) began her career as a model for Charles Dana Gibson before breaking into films with Biograph in 1909. She moved over to Vitagraph and then left to be with Mack Sennett at Keystone in 1912.

In addition to being the silent era's greatest comedienne she was among the first women to write and direct her own material. She also directed Chaplin and Roscoe Arbuckle but was never given credit for it. She successfully moved from shorts to feature films before her run of bad luck began. Implicated but never charged in a series of scandals including the unsolved murder of director William Desmond Taylor, Mabel's career as a star unraveled during the 1920's. Drugs and alcohol aggravated the tuberculosis she had lived with for many years and she died at the age of 37 right at the dawn of the sound era.

Her association with Chaplin, Arbuckle, and the Keystone Kops have kept her face before the public but so little of her other work has survived and almost none of it is on DVD. This Kino International release of THE EXTRA GIRL along with the 1913 Keystone one reeler THE GUSHER will certainly help. It also shows how much the nature of American film comedy evolved over 10 years. The visual quality of this disc taken from a 1969 Killiam Collection print is excellent with an organ soundtrack provided by Jack Ward that is above average for Killiam.

The story of a small town girl who goes to Hollywood has been done many times but Normand makes it her own even though at 30 she's too old for the role and it shows. You can watch her physical appearance change throughout the film reflecting the health problems she was dealing with. Nevertheless the backstage look at moviemaking, Normand's screen test, the escaped lion sequence, and the unhappy/happy ending are among many highlights the film has to offer.

Hopefully more of her work like her biggest success MICKEY or some of her early films for Sam Goldwyn will resurface in quality releases. Mabel Normand was a true movie pioneer in every sense of the word who though not forgotten (there are websites devoted to her), still deserves to be better known than she is. This is one of three new releases in Kino's ongoing SLAPSTICK SYMPOSIUM series.

The Extra Girl (1923, 68 min.)
Mabel plays Sue Graham, a small-town girl whose picture is mixed up with that of a much prettier girl that a movie studio decides they want to put under contract. When Sue arrives on the scene the studio discovers its mistake and assigns Sue to the props department. Sue does overcome adversity, but not before she mistakes a dog dressed as a lion for an actual lion and her parents come out to Hollywood for a visit and end up exchanging their life's savings for some worthless oil stock. Note Vernon Dent, later of the Columbia comic shorts and specifically the Three Stooges series, as Sue's unwanted suitor.

"The Extra Girl" is one of the more charming silent films I have enjoyed recently, and it's too bad Mabel Normand is remembered more for the Hollywood scandals of the roaring 20's than her charming comic persona in silent films. Her frequent costar, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, suffered a much worse fate - the end of his career - over a crime of which he was acquitted. Like The Primitive Lover, I'm surprised more people haven't seen this film. Check it out, you won't regret it. The print is in very good shape, and detail is clearly visible. There are only a few signs of deterioration towards the middle of the film.

The two-reel short, "The Gusher", is one of 64 short comedy films Mabel Normand cranked out in 1913. This frantic pace of comic filmmaking, along with the constant injuries before the days of stuntmen, is among the reasons that so many of the early silent comics had substance abuse problems - they were pretty much all dealing with working constantly and while injured. The short itself is a good example of Keystone comedy in the teens - lots of pants-kicking comedy, and of course the Keystone cops show up at the end to make a bad situation worse. The film is about Mabel Normand choosing one beau over another and the rejected beau attempting to cheat the winner out of his money by selling him an alleged "gusher" of an oil well.

Kino has released THE EXTRA GIRL under its Slapstick Symposium banner, but the humor in this appealing 1923 Mack Sennett feature has little in common with the crazed tumult of his classic slapstick shorts. THE EXTRA GIRL is controlled comedy, "conceived and produced" by Sennett, the notes tell us, to "showcase" the talents of Mabel Normand. (Phyllis Haver was initially being showcased; she had already done some work on the film when Normand stepped in as her replacement.) Sennett, we know, free of his Triangle-Keystone obligations, was eager to produce feature-length films and serious about proving that Mabel Normand was capable of more than a superlative pratfall.

Was she ever! In THE EXTRA GIRL she is winsome, charming, romantic, petulant, disappointed, torn, remorseful, terrified, determined--and funny. We may miss, for a minute or two, the softer, daffier, more explosive Mabel of the Arbuckle Keystones, but that Mabel was suited to the episodic two-reeler. Structured narratives thrive on character development. THE EXTRA GIRL could easily have been presented as a straight (and somewhat pedestrian) drama; the plot elements are all in place. (The 1969 organ score by Jack Ward suggests just such an approach.) It is Mabel's light touch and perfect timing that bring the story to life and let her exploit the comic potential of each situation. (The comedy generally evaporates, it must be said, when she is offscreen.)

The bonus short, "The Gusher," made by Sennett in 1913, shows us a healthier, perhaps happier Mabel playing second banana to Ford Sterling. What changes a decade would bring! She appeared in more than fifty shorts in 1913; her 1923 output consisted solely of THE EXTRA GIRL, and she would complete only a handful of additional features and shorts before her death, in 1930, at the age of 36.

Both prints on the Kino disc are color tinted and highly watchable despite minor emulsion damage. Scratches on "The Gusher" are more than compensated for by the use of a sharp 35mm source print and a sprightly piano score performed by its composer, Ben Model. A few abrupt transitions in THE EXTRA GIRL suggest that bits of footage may be missing, but the film moves along at a natural pace and wraps up in a tidy 68 minutes. The Paul Killiam print is clear and detailed, giving us a full measure of the playful innocence and the indefinable sadness of Mabel Normand's expressive, wonderful face.

It's great to see a top quality silent comedy classic like "The Extra Girl" released by Kino International with excellent picture quality and a very suitable, traditional organ score so that further generations can enjoy the brilliant work of Hollywood's comedy pioneers. The producer of this film is none other than Mack Sennett, the creator of the Keystone Kops comedies in the early 1910s which have been enjoyed for decades around the world. In those early days Mabel Normand was a hugely popular star in Sennett's comedy capers, and this 1923 production is probably the pinnacle of their careers. Unlike those early short slapstick Keystone comedies of the 1910s, "The Extra Girl" is a product of the early 1920s when longer and more sophisticated stories were popular, but the clever wit and physical comedy which made Sennett and Mabel Normand so popular are definitely not lacking. Besides the trademark chase scenes, there is a most exciting, lengthy scene involving a real lion, mistakenly let loose by Mabel, which is one of the most amazing animal action sequences I've ever seen. While highlights like these are unforgettable, the overall story which runs for just over an hour is grounded in real life and has realistic moments of sadness, love and even triumph as Mabel overcomes various obstacles. The main theme is one that was - and still is - close to the heart of many young women who dream of becoming a Hollywood star, and when she actually arrives at the studio, finds herself working in the wardrobe department instead. There is never a dull moment in Mabel's further adventures, and her natural talent for comedic acting is always irresistibly appealing. Although she had been in poor health, and like many very popular stars, died much too young some years after making this film, the qualities that made her so beloved by audiences a decade earlier are still very evident. An extra on this DVD is a rare 1913 short comedy featuring Mabel, as a small sample of her successful career with Mack Sennett in the Keystone Kops days. As well as an important part of early Hollywood and silent comedy, this DVD is also a lovely tribute to Mabel Normand, a brightly shining star that gave so much to many audiences.

Mabel Normand stars as Sue Graham, a small town girl who dreams of being an actress. When her father decides she will marry a man she does not love, Sue enters a beauty contest as a last resort. She wins by mistake and carts herself out to Hollywood, where she is informed of the mistake and made to work in the costume department. Hijinx ensue.

Any film about early Hollywood is a treat to watch for film fans, and this one is no exception. We see extras shuffling into the wardrobe room to drop off their bulky and exotic costumes. We see a director directing a scene; he can yell to the actors as the scene is being shot because there were no sound restrictions then. We see a dog being dressed as a lion to get a shot. These are all great references to an era gone by, but one that we can glimpse in films like this.

Also included is a short film featuring Normand and Ford Sterling. It is done in typical Mack Sennett style on a low budget and with chaotic slapstick sequences. A man is swindled into buying oil land, but the oil has simply been dumped in a small ditch by the seller. Once he has bought the bogus property, the man thrusts a stick into the ground in anger, and up spouts oil! Now the original owner wants the money back and he'll go to any length to get revenge on the buyer for his good luck. This one has a great red tinted shot of the villian twirling his moustache and jumping around like a crazy man. The actors' movements are wildly exaggerated, especially Sterling whose gestures are meant to be comical. This type of acting became a trademark of the silent era, but it in no way exemplifies the entire era.

The Extra Girl is a fine Mack Sennett comedy that is jam packed with action, suspense--and lots of laughs. The acting is very convincing and the casting was perfect. The cinematography was very well done throughout the film; Mack Sennett certainly put a lot of effort into how he worked the camera! The choreography works best in the action scenes and that's terrific. The plot moves along at a very good pace and it held my attention every step of the way--I was never once bored, not even for a minute. The quality of the print was quite good overall except for some minor deterioration roughly halfway through the film.

When the action starts, small town girl Sue Graham (Mabel Normand) has a sweetheart crush on her boy-friend from her childhood, Dave Giddings (Ralph Graves). Although Sue's father (George Nichols) knows she's in love with Dave, he wants her to marry the comparatively wealthy druggist Aaron Applejohn (Vernon Dent). Meanwhile, Sue very badly wants a career as a glamorous Hollywood actress. To complicate matters even further, Dave is also catching the eye of a local widow. When the widow finds out that Sue wants acting work at a Hollywood movie studio, she secretly replaces Sue's real photo with a professional model's photo to get Sue away. The widow hopes that then she can finally have John all for herself.

And it works. Just as Sue's parents are about to force her to wed Aaron, Dave tells Sue that a telegram just came from Hollywood--they want her right away! Sue manages to escape in some mighty creative and funny scenes that must have been tough on the actors in the days when they didn't use many stuntmen. John tells Sue that he will come to California to be with her; and soon Sue's parents travel to California to live with her as well.

But all is not well. A crooked "businessman," T. Phillip Hackett (Ramsey Wallace) sweet talks Sue's parents into investing their life savings in a sham oil company; and Sue is forced to work in the studio props department after the studio realizes that she doesn't look at all like the girl whose picture they saw. Even more trouble and danger comes when Sue mistakes a real lion for a dog dressed up as a lion--and Sue decides to take the lion for a walk through the studio! Some of this is funny; but there's certainly a great deal of action and suspense here, too!

Will Sue's parents ever get any of their money back? Hackett says there's nothing left for them except five hundred dollars; and that's not much. What about Sue--will she or anyone else be attacked by the lion? And what happens to Sue and John--will they stay together or will Sue keep trying to make it in acting? Watch and find out!

The DVD comes with a 14 minute extra from 1913 entitled The Gusher; and it stars Mabel Normand with the Keystone Cops. When two men compete for a lady's affection, the one who gets rejected decides to sell the other a phony oil well. What happens when the man finds out it was a trick to swindle him out of his money? What happens if the well is actually a gusher? Even if it is a gusher, the end result could surprise you!

Overall, The Extra Girl has lots to offer fans of quality silent films; the actors turn in great performances. In addition, the bonus feature The Gusher is very well done and it gives us a look at Mabel Normand earlier on in her career.

I give this DVD only 4 stars because of the final credit at the end that states "Edited Sound Version (c) 1969 Paul Killiam. The word "Edited" bothers me, I have not seen any other version of this to know what has been edited.

KINO mislabels this as a "Slapstick Symposium" series DVD, but the movie is far from slapstick. Sure Mabel takes a couple of pratfalls, but the humor is light and the melo-drama is heavy. Others have described the story, so i will just add a few more notes of interest.

The title card is a new one designed to look like the original, but MABEL NORNAM's name now appears above the title. If you look at the cast listing which appears at the end of the film and not the beginning, MABEL gets 4th billing! I don't know if this is an original credit card, as they all seem to be new recreations, but MABEL IS the star without any question.

GEORGE NICHOLS gets top billing in the cast listing, he plays the father.
VERNON DENT gets second billing in the cast listing, but he only appears in the first half of the movie. You will recognize him as the heavy in many Three Stooges films.
ANNA HERNANDEZ gets third billing as the mother, Kino doesn't give her any credit on the DVD case.
MAX DAVIDSON is not mentioned on the DVD case, but is in the cast list playing the 'prop manager' at the studio.
BILLY BEVAN does a quick cameo on a movie set that Mabel brings a lion through. He is credited as playing himself.
WILLIAM DESMOND also makes a cameo credited as to playing himself. The name will be familiar as Mabel became suspect in his real life death scandal.

To me the main interest in this movie is seeing a 1923 movie studio in operation. Long shots show two hand cranked cameras recording the same scene. In those days the second camera negative was used to make the foreign versions. Print reproduction quality had improved decades later so that foreign versions can now use the same negative. But at the time, picture quality degraded with every re-print away from the original negatives.

Speaking of quality, the film master for this DVD is in very nice shape. The focus is very sharp and the contrast is perfect. There is just one 30 second spot in the middle of the film where there appears to be white blotches from negative damage. This brief section could have been computer corrected.

Film buffs will also enjoy the appearance of a 1923 home movie projector in the last scene of the movie! I don't know if I have ever seen one in any other silent movie. The motion picture nostalgia alone is worth watching this movie.