User reviews

This is a short featuring the Divine Madcap Mabel (Normand) and her newest protégé, a young British vaudeville comedian by the name of Charles Chaplin. Chaplin does an early version of his little tramp character, but he's just a supporting actor. Mabel is the star here.

Mabel is playing with her dog in her hotel room, and gets locked out in the hallway in her pajamas. Chaplin's drunken buffoon sees her, and begins to chase her around. She runs into the room across the hall occupied by an old couple. She hides under the bed, avoiding the old man. Enter the old lady, Mabel's lover, and the drunken buffoon, add plenty of mix ups, and things get hairy. The ending is classic Mabel, with everyone frantically beating the snot out of each other while she comes out on top in the end, as she always does.

She's just adorable here, only 19 years old, fresh from modeling for Charles Dana Gibson (Yes, Madcap Mabel was a Gibson Girl. Who'da thunk?) with her saucer like eyes and expressive face. Unfortunately, this is not one of her best shorts. It's a bit amusing in parts, but not laugh out loud funny. If you want to catch Mabel in all her madcap glory, check out her shorts with Fatty Arbuckle; the two of them worked together wonderfully. Or her full length movies: Tillie's Punctured Romance, Mickey, and The Extra Girl.

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

He did do better in acting than 'Mabel's Strange Predicament', which is not also one of his and Mabel's better collaborations. Can understand why the Keystone period suffered from not being as best remembered or highly remembered than his later efforts, but they are mainly decent and important in their own right. 'Mabel's Strange Predicament' is a long way from a career high, but does have historical significance for obvious reasons.

'Mabel's Strange Predicament' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and a good deal of other shorts in the same period. The story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious. The comedy, though more frequent and knockabout, is amusing really at best and not enough to be hilarious.

For someone who was new to the film industry and had literally just moved on from their stage background, 'Mabel's Strange Predicament' is not bad at all.

While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable for so early on, though his style and Tramp character was still evolving and not properly found or settled yet (the promise is big though), and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick. Mabel's acting and directing contribution is more than competent and she holds her own.

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done better and became more refined later, 'Mabel's Strange Predicament' does have moments where it is very humorous, sweet and easy to like, though the emotion is not quite there. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short.

In conclusion, interesting and worthwhile but not one that makes one leap out of their chair. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Walt Disney stated that his prime inspiration for creating Mickey Mouse was Chaplin's Tramp character. However, the Mickey seen in 'Plane Crazy (1928)' and 'Steamboat Willie (1928)' bears little resemblance to the gallant hopeless-romantic whom Chaplin made famous in 'The Kid (1921)' and other classic features. Instead, the early "evil" Mickey Mouse probably took a few leaves from the book of Chaplin's early "evil" tramp, who is here portrayed as a drunken scumbag who tries to take advantage of a pajama-clad Mabel Normand. 'Mabel's Strange Predicament (1914)' was, in fact, the birth of Chaplin's Little Tramp character, though 'Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)' was released two days earlier. As the title suggests, the star of the film is actually Normand, who was a leading comedienne in her day, and this was the first film in a series of collaborations for the pair.

In a hotel lobby, an intoxicated tramp sloppily flirts with Mabel, somehow deciding that yanking on her dog's tail is a surefire way of attracting the girl's attention. Mabel huffily storms off to her room, but later runs into Chaplin in the hallway, after having locked herself out of her room wearing only pajamas. What follows is an amusing farce that resembles something the Marx Brothers would have cooked up, as Mabel evades the Tramp by taking cover under the bed of another man, whose wife arrives home and comes to the natural conclusion. This isn't high-class comedy, but Chaplin is clearly the shining light of the film: he staggers drunkenly from room to room, with an exasperated sneer beneath his moustache, and every time he falls down it is actually uproariously funny. Don't ask me how he did it, but nobody (except maybe Buster Keaton) could ever take a tumble like Chaplin could.

The real truth about the time line of Chaplin's tramp costume is as this. The first scene he "filmed" in the TRAMP costume was the hotel lobby scene from the film "Mabel's Strange Predicament". After this film completed shooting, Chaplin filmed Kid Auto Races In Venice. This film was easy to edit in comparison to Mabel's Strange Predicament and because of this, Kid Auto Races was released first. This is why people think the first time Chaplin wore the tramp costume was Kid Auto Races. It may be the first time Chaplin was seen by the public this way, but the first time he donned the costume in front of a camera was definitely, without a doubt, "Mabel's STrange Predicament". Making this film very important indeed!

While it's true that not all of Chaplin's short films are as stunningly brilliant as so many of the films for which he later became famous, it is also true that there is a distinct difference in quality between the early films in which he acted as well as directed, and those in which he was directed as an actor by someone else. Mabel's Strange Predicament is one of the ones in which he only acted; he was directed by Mabel Normand, with whom he did not have the most friendly relationship when the film was made.

The first unusual thing about this film is that it is in French – at least, the film is intertitled in French. Charlie plays the part of a drunken man at a hotel who comes across Mabel in an upstairs hallway, after having locked herself out of her room in her pajamas while chasing after a ball with which she was playing with her dog. When Charlie arrives and the two of them are embarrassed and amused, it seems that this is the strange predicament to which the title refers, but then Charlie chases her down the hall, and she ultimately winds up hiding from his drunken, amorous advances under the bed in a neighbor's room across the hall.

There is a lot of confusing action in Mabel's Strange Predicament, such as the well dressed man who bears a striking resemblance to Marlon Brando (Marlon Brando 1972, not Marlon Brando 2001) who comes into the room and seems exceedingly upset about Mabel and her dog under the bed (wasn't the dog locked in the room across the hall?), as well as the film's conclusion, which consisted of a huge amount of confusion and anger and fighting in the hallway.

Clearly, there is room for plenty of Chaplin's characteristic slapstick comedy with this type of film. The film starts off with him downstairs falling over various chairs and getting into brief brawls with the waiters, and there are also things like the scene where he is chasing Mabel down the hallway and accidentally winds up kissing a man after she evades him. Charlie Chaplin's and Mabel Normand's volatile relationship seems to have played a role in Charlie's character in this film, because he is little more than a drunk who gets out of hand and causes a lot of trouble. He is a mere nuisance on the restaurant level of the hotel, and at the end, his character has the grand exit of staggering off down the hallway, seemingly too drunk to even realize what is going on. In this way, this is a disappointment for Chaplin fans, but it is a curiosity piece to see what results when he works under a different, and far less talented, director.

A drunken Tramp (Charles Chaplin) causes havoc in a high class hotel lobby. Mabel and her dog cause too much noise for her neighbor who complain to the desk. Mabel gets accidentally locked out of her room in her sleepwear. To her embarrassment, the drunken Tramp tries to help.

This is the first time Chaplin constructed and played the Tramp. It's a work in progress and it's definitely not the Tramp that we're all familiar with. He's drunk and looks a bit ugly. The story doesn't make sense. A guy like that would either be kicked out or forced to sleep it off in his own room. It's interesting to see his first attempt. He shows off his physical humor. It's cinematic history. It's also not that good but one can see the goodness within it.

Mabel's Strange Predicament is the second film in which Charlie Chaplin dresses in costume as The Little Tramp (the first being Kid Auto Races in Venice). In here, he's just a drunk who's infatuated with the title character played by Ms. Normand. She's a lady who has a dog that she takes with her to the hotel room where, after dressing in her pajamas, gets locked out of with dog still inside. After Charlie chases her upstairs, she goes to another room where an elderly man lives and hides under his bed. Also mixed up in this are her suitor and the elderly man's wife. Most of the highlights are from Mabel's under-bed hiding and the slapstick that ensues when she's found out as well as some of Chaplin's falls from either being hit or just simply staggering. Should be amusing enough for fans of early silent comedy and the two stars especially very curious Chaplin enthusiasts.

The debut of the Little Tramp casts Charlie Chaplin as a man who runs into an elegant woman in a hotel. The movie makes ample use of Chaplin's flair for physical comedy. Like many flicks from cinema's early days, "Mabel's Strange Predicament" shows that a movie doesn't need words to be good (indeed, the action here is far more complex than anything in a Michael Bay movie). The best scenes here are the dog leash, and the running in and out of rooms.

The producer is Mack Sennett, who directed Chaplin in a few movies early on. Dan Aykroyd played him in Richard Attenborough's movie about Chaplin.

Pretty enjoyable movie.

English stage pantomimist Charlie Chaplin, who had just signed a year's contract with Keystone Studios, was disappointed in his movie debut. He was told by studio head Mack Sennett to improve his screen presence or he would break his contract. On a rainy afternoon waiting to rehearse for his next movie, February 1914's "Mabel's Strange Predicament," Chaplin spied on several costumes hanging and laying around in the Keystone dressing room. He began trying on several pieces of clothing, including a small bowler hat, a tight-fitting jacket, baggy pants, oversized shoes, and a fake mustache to make him look older than his youthful 24-year-old face.

His role in "Mabel's" was to play a vagabond drunk hanging out in a hotel lobby. Recalling vaudeville tramps who appeared on the English stage such as Lew Bloom, Chaplin admitted he drew inspiration from the British comic magazine's two tramp characters as well.

For "Mabel's Strange Predicament," actress Mabel Normand assumed directing duties while Sennett looked over her shoulder examining on set Chaplin's performance. The studio head couldn't have been as critical of Chaplin's screen presence as he was after his initial film since the new actor, upon reviews from the press, drew accolades such as "we do not think we are taking a great risk in prophesying that in six months Chaplin will rank as one of the most popular screen performers in the world." The public's first view of Chaplin's vagabond role appeared a few days earlier from "Mabel's" premier when his "Kid Auto Races In Venice" was shown, even though the later was filmed shortly after "Mabel's." Since the editing was minimal in "Kid Auto," Keystone Studio was able to release it before the more involved "Mabel's." Shot during Venice, California's Junior Vanderbilt Cup races, "Kid Auto" was filmed within a 45-minute period where Chaplin is seen hogging a camera's view intending to record the sporting event. Henry Lehrman, who directed the one-reeler, plays the cameraman who physically attempts to get Chaplin out of the way. Like a Monty Python skit, the Keystone Studio camera is recording another movie camera and operator recording an event, likely the first movie in cinema to do so.

Chaplin also drew praise in his role as a tramp wanting attention in "Kid Auto." As one movie reviewer wrote, "Chaplin is a born screen comedian; he does things we have never seen done on the screen before." Chaplin's tramp character would evolve through the many years the actor assumed his character. From "Mabel's Strange Predicament" initial drunken role to a caring but down-on-his-luck everyman during the Depression Era, Chaplin's on-screen personality would personify what many had experienced during those trying times. Chaplin portrayed the tramp in 25 of his 36 films he made for Keystone during his first year, and he continued to do so through his next 30 years on the screen.

Charlie is a drunk hanging around a hotel lobby ogling women, and while following one of them, comes across a woman in her pajamas who's locked herself out of her room. Naturally, he lecherously pursues her. :/ Mabel's strange predicament is that to avoid him, she ends up in the room of a stranger, a compromising situation to both of them. There's really not much else to it. The humor is lackluster, especially since it's so common to see Chaplin playing a drunk, and none of the physical gags is memorable. It's hard to actively dislike at just 17 minutes, but on the other hand the only thing I really liked was Mabel Normand getting flustered in her PJ's.

Mabel's Strange Predicament (1914)

** (out of 4)

A woman (Mabel Normand) is walking her dog through a hotel lobby when a Tramp (Charles Chaplin) takes notice and begins to follow her around. The woman escapes to her room to get into her pajamas but soon she finds herself locked out with the Tramp following her some more. This is an interesting short as we see Mabel at the height of her popularity just as an unknown Chaplin is starting to weave what would become the best known character in film history. Sadly the film isn't that good but there are a few nice scenes to be had. I found the opening sequence in the hotel lobby to be pretty funny in large part to Mabel's reactions to the Tramp. The middle sequence with Mabel running around in her pajamas aren't as funny as they should have been and this is where the movie wonders off. Chaplin doesn't quite have his Tramp character working here but it is a starting point.

... and that's illustrated here in this first short that was filmed with Chaplin versus the first short released which was "Kid Auto Races at Venice".

Here, Chaplin's Tramp is not some basically good-hearted character with an endearing amount of mischief, which is who the Tramp evolved into. Instead he is publicly drunk and harassing women he finds attractive as he loiters in the lobby of what appears to be an upscale hotel.

Separately, Mabel Normand is a guest at the hotel, awaiting the arrival of her sweetheart. Once in her room, she changes into her pajamas and begins to play with her dog. When the ball she is using to play with her dog bounces into the hall, she goes to retrieve it, but her hotel room door shuts behind her. The Tramp, who has wandered into this part of the hotel, sees Mabel in this state of undress and decides to take chase. Complications ensue.

You can see why audiences responded immediately to Chaplin. In these first film appearances he is, as Walter Kerr perfectly stated, "elbowing his way into immortality." With inebriation he can dictate a deliberate, slower tempo while retaining his dignity and show off his brilliant mime, while still getting laughs. His performance easily steals the show from Mabel Normand, Chester Conklin, and the rest.

We actually have two 'the first' Tramp movies. Although 'Kid Auto Races at Venice' was released before this one, 'Mabel's Strange Predicament' was the first time Charles Chaplin dressed up as The Tramp. Perhaps not the most sympathetic appearance of the beloved character - he is just a drunk who unpleasantly keeps hitting on women. The Tramp is just the side character in this one. The film's real star (and also the director) is Mabel Normand who was a big movie star at that time, so she is in the focus of the story - Mabel accidentally gets locked out of her room. She gets harassed by the drunk, she escapes into the neighboring room, meanwhile, her sweetheart comes to visit her. The plot is straightforward and it is enough to offer us a mildly entertaining slapstick comedy.

In this short Charlie Chaplin is his regular scampy self. The film takes place in a hotel where Chaplin loiters in the lobby looking as if he's had one too many. Mabel (Mabel Normand) catches his eye while also catching the ire of hotel neighbors due to her playing with her dog in her room. When she gets locked out of her room, chasing her dog's ball, chaos ensues. There was all kinds of misunderstandings and mistakes between Mabel, Chaplin, her beau, and the neighbors.

It wasn't one of Chaplin's best, but he put out so many films you can hardly blame him, plus the film was all of twelve minutes, so what could one possibly expect?

Rookie Charlie Chaplin provides support to peppy Mabel Normand in his first film in the iconic Tramp outfit (Kid Auto at Venice Races was filmed later but released first). As is to be expected, his character here is far from the finished article - he's a drunken lout rather than a lovable underdog - but his comic genius is already apparent. Sadly, the rest of the movie falls far short of his standards, and Normand's shortcomings - or perhaps it's the pre-Chaplin's movie industry's lack of finesse - are obvious.

This is a film from Chaplin's first year in films. During this VERY hectic year, he churned out film after film after film for Keystone Studios and the quality of the films are, in general, quite poor. That's because the character of "the Little Tramp" was far from perfected and the films really had no script--just the barest of story ideas. While some Chaplin lovers might think this is sacrilege, all these movies I have seen are pretty lousy. Yes, there are some cute slapstick moments but barely any plot--absolutely NOTHING like the Chaplin we all came to love in his full-length films of the 20s and 30s.

If I were to try to describe the plot, I'd be VERY hard pressed to do so. There really wasn't any and the film was awfully dull.

A great film to watch – and it is the first movie in which Chaplin plays the Tramp. What did the cast think of it? They were absolutely stunned at Charlie's actions on set. Charlie's initial lobby scene used 75 feet of film, an unbelievable occurrence at Keystone, and title-lady Mabel barely appears in the shot! If you're wondering what Mabel's saying in the lobby, she's probably cursing Charlie, who goes on to steal the entire scene from 'Our Cutest Trick' (as Sennett called her).

From this time onward Chaplin began to build his super- star status, and within three months he was the world's most loved comedy character. We can see that the early Tramp was very mean and cruel - he'd kick women in the derriere or stomach, punch them in the face, and steal sweets from babies. Keystone's remit after all was to offend polite society. The Tramp with pathos only began his genesis many months later, due to diligent reworking by the 'Englisher' (probably with help from a slapstick-weary Mabel).

In the film Mabel gets her chance to reign in the upstairs part of the hotel, which becomes the Queen Bee's kingdom. Here she runs rampant and gets into all kinds of scrapes over a dog, a ball and a bed. Eventually, Charlie invades the Kingdom, virtually molests pajama- clad Mabel and kicks, slugs and otherwise abuses everyone on that landing. Then there is the almost inevitable Keystone happy ending.

There are several interesting features in the film. The 'Fake Frenchman', Pathe Lehrman, appears in this film as an extra! After explosive arguments with Chaplin, his directorship of the film was revoked by Sennett, who took on the job himself. Lehrman later tried to have Chaplin's lobby scene cut, but failed. A cute touch occurs in some of the longer shots where Mabel's sweet face is just seen peering out from under a bed where she's hiding.

Mabel's dog is part of the action. Why is prim and proper Alice Davenport so infuriated at the sight of Mabel entering her room with a canine companion? Perhaps she knows the fancily-dressed maiden is going to frolic with the mutt in her pajamas.

This film seems to be the only one in which Mabel and Charlie really battle to outdo each other - Lehrman isn't even in the running. According to Minta Arbuckle (1970s interview), our little Mabel came to hate the unwashed and conceited Charlie. Had the Fake Frenchman been whispering in her ear? He loved her, you know. However at some point later, the Queen Bee and the coming Emperor of Comedy (Sennett was the King) appear to have called a truce and worked more harmoniously together.

Note the flowery bed cover that Mabel tries to hide her embarrassment with. It appears 10 days later on a washing line in Chaplin's 'A Thief Catcher'.

Early auteur Mabel Normand starred and directed this short farce in which Charlie Chaplin introduced his famed tramp character, though audiences would first in Kid Auto Races in Venice. Normand was a major star at the time writing, acting, directing for Mack Sennett who christened her Keystone Mabel in light of the comedienne's immense popularity.

In Predicament, Mabel and her dog have taken a room at a hotel awaiting the arrival of her fiancé. Down in the lobby an inebriated Charlie is creating a scene in front of guests and a very patient staff. Back in her room Mabel and her pup are creating a ruckus causing a female guest to go and complain. Mabel is then locked out of her room by her dog with her pajamas on and ends up in the complainant's room with her husband. Meanwhile a drunken Charlie makes his way upstairs to harass Mabel.

Mabel's Strange Predicament is a sloppy, poorly choreographed comedy with the characters mostly crashing into each other. Charlie performs some of his classic pratfalls before the excess scrimmaging upstairs gets out of hand while the dog who finds himself under the bed with Mabel in the next room simply disappears. A heavy handed, disheveled mess of a comedy.

Mabel's Strange Predicament marked several firsts in Charlie Chaplin's career. It was the first major short to feature his Little Tramp character (after a debut in the brief Kid Races at Venice), and it was the first of several films he made co-starring with Mabel Normand, who was the Cameron Diaz/Julia Roberts of her day in terms of comedy films. Reportedly, this was also the first of several Chaplin films that would also feature Fatty Arbuckle, though I'm not sure where he appears in the film (he might be the actor playing Mabel's boyfriend in this film, but I can't be sure).

Chaplin was still developing his character at this early stage (this was only his third or fourth film). The idea of the Tramp being a kind-hearted, heroic character had not yet been established. In this film, he's a drunk, a jerk, and a womanizer (if this were not a Chaplin film, one might even add would-be rapist to this list of "qualities"). In fact, Chaplin's character here is little different than the bad guy he played in his debut, Making a Living.

All this makes for somewhat uncomfortable viewing for those used to the Tramp being a good guy. He certainly has some funny scenes, though most involve him doing little more than falling down and menacing Mabel. There's no pathos to be found here.

He's also very much a secondary character in this film, since at the time, Mabel Normand was the big star. She spends most of the film running around in pajamas and hiding under a bed. In 1914, the sight of Mabel in her full length underwear was probably as shocking as American Pie is today, and indeed the film was banned in Sweden for being too suggestive. But these days, it's laughable in and of itself.

Normand was a fair-to-middling talent who is more famous for what she represented than for her actual on-screen efforts. She was the first woman to become a major movie star in America, and one of the very first to actually direct a film. But if it weren't for her lucky association with Charlie Chaplin in the early months of his film career, odds are very little of her work would have been preserved nearly a century later. Unfortunately, Mabel's Strange Predicament can hardly be included among her's or Chaplin's best efforts.

Charlie Chaplin is one of only a handful of men in the hundred years of the movie industry to be worthy of the title of genius. Each of his full length (by modern standards) films are excellent, as are many of his shorter earlier works - Mabel's Strange Predicament, however, is not one of these works. It is void of any meaningful social message (for which Chaplin is well known) it is equally, and sadly, also void of any real humor.

By all means watch most of Chaplin's movies; watch them over and over, for they are worthy of many repeated viewings - but do yourself a favor and don't waste your time with this.

By the way, it should be noted that Charlie neither directed nor produced this very early movie. It is doubtful that even he thought the story or scenes were funny, but one has to break into the business somehow.