Country: United States
Language: English
Director: Mabel Normand
Stars: Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle,
Mabel Normand and Edgar Kennedy
Release Date: 19 March 1915 (USA)
Filming Locations: Golden Gate
Park, San Francisco, California, USA
Production Co: Keystone Film
Company
Sound Mix: Silent
Color: Black and White
Genres: Short | Comedy
As Mabel is in the park with her
over-protective mother, she sees her boyfriend and asks him to join them. When
the couple slips away to be by themselves, a thief steals Mabel's mother's
watch. While the mother is trying to get help from a policeman, the thief
encounters Mabel and her boyfriend. Soon a complicated situation develops.
WISHED ON MABEL is a pleasant
little ensemble piece set entirely in a park. The film features two of
Keystone's most popular stars, Mabel Normand and Roscoe Arbuckle, though
neither one dominates the proceedings. They play a pair of happy young lovers,
enjoying a day outside with Mabel's mother. Early on they're harassed by a
persistent bumblebee (which results in a memorably funny close-up of Mabel
looking cross-eyed as the bee lights on her nose), but otherwise everything is
peachy, at least at first. Complications set in when a watch is stolen from
Mabel's mother; confusion escalates and the watch changes hands several times
before the matter is resolved.
The ensemble work in this film is
a treat for silent comedy buffs: the thief who swipes the watch is played by
Joe Bordeaux, a supporting player who appeared in many of Arbuckle's comedies
but seldom so prominently featured as he is here. Bordeaux is pursued by
perennial cop Edgar Kennedy, best remembered as a latter-day foil for Laurel
& Hardy, still quite young and athletic in 1915 and not so bald as he would
become. It's Kennedy the Cop who sets this little saga in motion, indirectly
anyhow, by rousting the sleeping Bordeaux from a park bench (so that he can
stretch out himself, naturally), prompting the watch-grabbing crime spree.
Along the way we get a quick look at Glen Cavender, best remembered as the
chief Union spy in Buster Keaton's THE GENERAL.
Viewers unfamiliar with Keystone
comedies may be surprised at how quickly the characters resort to violence:
Kennedy the Cop swings his billy club with abandon, not only at Bordeaux but at
an innocent bystander, while Mabel rebuffs Bordeaux's mild advances with
several swift punches. Still, this comedy is less violent than most others the
stars made at the time, and the tone is generally light-hearted. Both Roscoe
and Mabel did more memorable work elsewhere, but it's a pleasure to see them
looking so sprightly and happy as they do here. WISHED ON MABEL is a pleasant
little comedy, not hilarious but less frantic than some of the other Keystones,
and certainly worthwhile for silent comedy fans.
Trivia
Eleventh of twelve movies that
starred The Keystone Cops.
