Mickey

Mable Normand is forever remembered for her comedies for Mack Sennett. These two-reel films were fun but also quite short and were done strictly for laughs. "Mickey" was a major change for Ms. Normand, as now she was making a full-length film and one which was more of a melodrama. In fact, it's very much a style film that Mary Pickford made famous from the late 1910s through the 1920s--playing a very young lady who, by the end of the film, has found love and happiness.

Mickey is a young tom-boy (Normand) who lives with her father's old mining partner. It seems her father died and this man has cared for her for many years. However, as she gets older, he realizes he's not much good teaching her how to become a lady and he sends her off to live with her aunt. As for the aunt, she only wants Mickey because she learns she owns a mine. When she discovers the mine isn't productive, she makes Mickey a servant in the home--much like Cinderella. But, just after the aunt gets rid of Mickey, she learns the mine has finally paid off and Mickey is rich--and suddenly she DOES want Mickey to live with her! Well, in the meantime, there is a man who has fallen for Mickey--and he cannot find her in order to propose. But the aunt decides to sic her no-good son on her and he proposes to Mickey. Can the old boyfriend find her before it's too late?!

While this film is a VERY predictable old fashioned melodrama (aside from the bizarre horse race sequence near the end--I did NOT see that coming), it's a NICE predictable old fashioned melodrama! Sure, you can figure out what's going to happen long before it does, but the film is so well made and enjoyable you don't really mind. Sweet and quite charming. It's sure a shame that Mable's career and life were cut so short--I would have loved to see more films like this one.

By the way, I think parts of the end of this film must have been missing. That's because there are very few intertitle cards early in the film. Yet, near the end, there are several with extensive exposition--like it's filling in for gaps in the film.

Country tomboy Mabel Normand (as Mickey) is sent from rustic Feather River, California to live on her snooty aunt's Long Island, New York estate. The free-spirited Ms. Normand enjoys cavorting with animals - and skinny-dipping for cameramen with very long lenses. Nobody is sure if Normand owns a gold mine or is penniless, so she is treated as both an heir and a servant (at different times). Normand attracts debonair millionaire Wheeler Oakman (as Herbert Thornhill) and overly amorous Lew Cody (as Reggie Drake). After numerous hi-jinks, "Mickey" ends up with a winning man and (we hope) lives happily ever after...

That Mabel Normand did not survive the ravages of fame was a great loss...

Normand was an excellent actress and comedienne. Unfortunately, she did not leave behind enough material to fully appreciate her worth. This production reportedly took two years to complete, with Normand's personal problems contributing to the delays. Fortunately, her "partying" lifestyle does not adversely affect Normand's performance as "Mickey". This was one of Normand's best feature-length films. The plot is rather ordinary, but the star handles each situation well. Herein, she is most memorable portraying a carefree servant girl, sliding down the banister and ingeniously sweeping her aunt's dusty mansion floors.

******* Mickey (8/11/18) F. Richard Jones ~ Mabel Normand, Wheeler Oakman, Lew Cody, George Nichols

Mabel Normand gives a very lively, engaging performance that makes "Mickey" an entertaining movie with several other strengths. The supporting cast all help out as well, and the story effectively moves back-and-forth between the backwoods and the big city. It combines comedy and melodrama effectively, and while it contains mostly familiar elements, it's the kind of movie that is quite enjoyable to watch.

The role of "Mickey" gives Normand some good material to work with, and as always she is sympathetic and charming. Part of the story is set in a mining settlement, where Mickey is right at home, and part of it moves into high society, where she is ill at ease. Both settings are believable and make good backdrops for comedy, and both are also used to bring things out about Mickey and the other characters.

The supporting cast, which includes Wheeler Oakman as Mickey's suitor, has its own comic moments, and Minta Durfee gives an effective performance as the snobbish society girl who is Mickey's romantic rival.

While none of the components of "Mickey" are especially imaginative or innovative, they are all of good quality. It all fits together to make an enjoyable movie.

The adventures of a gold miner's daughter, Mickey stars Mabel Normand, who was one of the biggest film stars of the teens and 20s. In a series of episodes that are loosely connected, Normand plays a Cinderella-like character who goes to live with a relative (Laura La Varnie) but when it's discovered the gold mine is a bust, she is made a maid in the household. But she catches the eye of the old lady's daughter (Minta Durfee) and is eventually sent back to the country just as the mine strikes it big. The suitor (Wheeler Oakman) follows her. The plot seems to stray here and there without much narrative thread. At one point, a lecher (Lewis Cody) is chasing Mabel around a mansion, and then we're off to the horse races. But while the episodes are tacked together, Mabel Normand holds the viewer's attention throughout the 90 minutes.

This film was co-produced by Normand and Mack Sennett. George Nichols, Minnie Devereaux, Tom Kennedy, and Edgar Kennedy co-star. And yes Minta Durfee was famous for being the wife of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, a famous co-star with Normand in many short films. And the music by Neil Moret (who died in 1943) is absolutely great. I hummed the songs for days and learned to play them on the piano.

'Mickey', as all Mabel Normand films, has her at the centre of attention from the beginning till the end. The camera, the action, the entire plot, are all attracted to her like magnets. And Normand is excellent in this film, establishing her status as silent era's first lady of comedy.

And we do have a great comedy. Full of suspense, 'Mickey' is never tiring, never boring. We are to witness the adventures of a mine-owner young girl, who cares for mining as much as donkeys care for belts being pushed down their throats. She is a mischievous child who, even when she is brought in the rich household of her aunt in the East, never tires to be a child. Yet it is remarkable what love can do.

The supporting cast is all first rate, with Wheeler Oakman, George Nichols, Minnie Devereaux or Laura La Varnie, all delivering some great comedic performances that seem to be untouched by the axe of time. But they are all there for Normand, who does everything from jumping nude into the water to riding horses and some impressive high altitude stunts. She was one of a kind, and 'Mickey' is there to prove it.