Hot Stuff (USA,1912)

Opposite to what some people might think on first inspection, Mack Sennett did not start starring and directing comedies when he founded the Keystone studios in the second semester of 1912. He already did both back to the days when he worked for Biograph studios, the same studio that gave D.W. Griffith to the world. 

Sennett was in charge of comedies of Biograph and we can see in his output the initial elements he would further develop at Keystone studios, even actress Mabel Normand already worked for him. At the time, comedy shorts where usually one-reelers, which means they lasted around 11 minutes, and the length of films was slowly increased in the next few years. 

Although this film does not have the frantic pace of subsequent films by Keystone, we can see Sennett shaping his own style. He plays Mabel Normand’s sweetheart, but his girl is stolen from him by the cigar drummer, as the first intertitle says. The drummer takes Mabel to a park, where he starts to court her and Sennett follows them.

It is interesting that the drummer is shown as having “stolen” the girl from her old sweetheart (Sennett), but the plot does not show Mabel’s side of the story, why she left Sennett, etc. which can be perhaps interpreted as a effect of a more chauvinistic society or merely there was no time to make a deeper psychological development of the characters, as films where still very short on early 1910s. 

Mabel takes the drummer to a house and  he “makes a hit with the girl’s folks”, which means that her friends instantly liked him very much. Then, there was a party and Sennett’s character was not invited. He’s still following the new couple, as he was very upset to have lost Mabel’s love. Sennett even tried to enter the party, but his presence disturbed the group and he was kicked out by some of the guests.

A short time later, “the drummer makes the taffy” and he left the candy at the window to cool. Upon seeing it, Sennett realized he would have a perfect opportunity for revenge, so he ruined the candy, so the party’s guests would put the blame on the drummer. At first, his plan worked and the guests detested the taffy, but after a while Sennett is found out even though it does not prevent him from winning Mabel’s love back.

Although it is just a one reeler, the film lacked some more development of the character’s reason’s, which would have given a even better understanding of the plot by the audience. However, the film is a valuable witness of lifestyle of an era and its humor matched the kind of humor that was made at its time. 

Max Juggles for Love (France, 1912)

Max Linder was one of most influential comedians of early cinema and one of first characters to be recognized on screen. His screen persona was one of a dandy, often in hot water due to his fondness for the so-called good life and beautiful girls and Linder gave a touch of sophistication to comedy shorts in a time when slapstick was considered vulgar and working-class related by many people. It helped to give comedy more respectability in a time when cinema was at its infancy (Linder started making films before 1910). Linder’s influence was so deep that he was highly regarded even by Charlie Chaplin, who considered him his teacher. Unfortunately Linder’s death in 1925 by committing suicide together with his wife sometimes overshadow his successful career.

The setting of this film is the living room of what seems to be a healthy French family. Max wants to court a girl and brought flowers to her. The girl vehemently refused the flowers and is rather temperamental. Weirdly enough, she claims she will only accept Max’s courtship if he learns how to juggle and she was apparently quite skilled in it too. It seemed that the girl wanted to be too demanding and make Max give her up. 

Max accepted the girl’s challenge and tried to learn how to juggle, but he did not have any skill whatsoever and even ended up in trouble with a passer-by on the street on his way home. He tried to practice some more at home, but all he got was to break his own furniture. 

As he was determined to win the girl’s hand he pretended to juggle while somebody else was actually doing it behind a room divider. Unfortunately he was discovered, his plan failed and the girl laughed at him.

An interesting thing to pay attention to is that the actress has a much more stagy acting than Max Linder’s, with broad gestures and everything. On the other hand, Linder’s acting and body language were subtle, quite adapted to cinema language. Another highlight of the film is the beautiful furniture shown, which can also be seen in a plenty of 1910s French films.