This is one of one reelers (short films that lasted around 11 minutes) made in
the beginning of Keystone studios (which had been opened on the previous year in
California) with simple plots and straightforward gags, including overtly fake
facial hair, exaggerated gestures, actors falling on their butts and even weird
dancing (the latter being pretty much the case in this film). Mabel, so sweet
and cute, had two suitors, who fought each other in order to have her affection.
Mabel invited one of them (Schnitz, the grocer, a character played by Mack
Sennett himself, who was the founder and director of Keystone Studios in real
life) to her party. The problem is that Mabel also invited her other suitor
(Meyer, the cobbler, a character played by Ford Sterling, one of the most
popular comedians of the studio in its first years). Of course it would trigger
the rivalry between both men even more.
A short time later we could see that Meyer bought some fresh cheese. The reason
of it was not disclosed at first, but the audience would know it really soon.
Unfortunately it turned out that the cheese did not really smell well (actually,
it stink). Some time passed, both men got ready for the party and “dressed for
the occasion” as one of the intertitles says. Meyer arrived at the party and
gave some flowers to Mabel. People were dancing happily and Mabel and Meyer
joined them in the ballroom. Then Schnitz arrived and he brought flowers to
Mabel too. He gave them to her and started dancing with Mabel, pushing Meyer
away from them. Meyer did not take this insult easily and would take a revenge
in the first opportunity. Actually, “Schnitz scents trouble” as both men
confronted each other, Mabel got upset and the environment of the party, which
was happy until then, became tense.
The reason of the sudden change of vibe is that Schnitz started to stink all of
a sudden, scaring off even the other guests. He tried to puff perfume on himself
to disguise the problem but it seems the situation worsened because virtually
everyone left the party altogether. Schnitz was insulted, tried to dance with
Mabel again (to her despair) even though they were both literally alone in the
ballroom now. An argument was started and Schnitz left the party in anger,
carrying with him the flowers he gave to Mabel. Then Meyer was delighted because
he could have Mabel all to himself and his rival was defeated. However, when
Schnitz returned home he found out that the cheese on his shoe and he would not
accept to be deceived his way and decided to fight back. He returned to the
party, talked to a boy, who asked Meyer to go outside. While both of them
talked, Schnitz discreetly put the cheese on Meyer’s pocket.
The party continued, the guests were dancing in the same ballroom, having fun
while Schnitz was watching from a window the result of his plan to embarrass
Meyer in front of everyone and the guests run away from the ballroom as soon as
Meyer returned to the house. Mabel got angry, gave back to Meyer the ring he had
previously given her while Schnitz laughed in joy. After a while, Meyer found
out the cheese in his pocket. Meanwhile, Schnitz entered the party while the
disgusted guests were packing the living room as no one wanted to return to that
stinking ballroom. When Meyer saw Schnitz he threw the cheese on him and another
argument took place, but it did not last long because both Mayer and Mabel
fainted due to the strong smell while Schnitz watched it in shock.
Although the
plot might seem too simplistic for nowadays’ audiences, those short films stood
well the test of time as they have gags that can be easily understood to this
day, which might explain the success of those slapstick comedies in their own
era. The charm of a film that simply entertains and relaxes is something hard to
resist, regardless of era.
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