![Raggedy Rose (Wallace [in collaboration with Stan Laurel], 1926)
My Fall Movies # 18
__________
In Raggedy Rose, Mabel Normand is carrying the ball alone. There’s no Chaplin, no Fatty, no Keystone Kops, and she is clearly taking herself more seriously as an artist. There’s no Chaplin, no Fatty, no Keystone Kops, and she is clearly taking herself more seriously as an artist. In a frail story about a little ragamuffin who works for a junk dealer. In a frail story about a little ragamuffin who works for a junk dealer, she’s partly reminiscent of Chaplin’s Little Tramp and partly a satire on the waifs with fluttering hands played by Lillian Gish. (In some scenes, she looks a bit like Giulietta Masina.) Her comedy playing is, as always, perfectly timed, sharp, and precisely delineated. When Mabel is given the typical Keystone comedy routine to do, she’s superb. Having heard that a friend of hers who got run over by a car was given a thousand dollars and put in a hospital where she could «eat anything» she wanted, Mabel sets out to get the same treatment. Standing in front of a speeding open-air automobile, she is firmly resigned. The car, a rattletrap, slams on its brakes and falls totally to pieces, and the driver gets out and bops Mabel with one of the fenders. he starts a pillow fight with a rival and her mother, jumps in and out of bed, and does a splendid routine in which she finds a dime in the pocket of one of the old coats she is gathering in her rag-picking work. And there is a glamorous moment in which she dreams of herself dressed beautifully in one of the dresses she’s collected, an elaborate costume with ruffles. In her mind she dances with her dream prince, wearing the dress and a beautiful hat. (Jeanine Basinger, Silent Stars, Wesleyan University Press, 2000, p. 94)
(Image via Looking for Mabel)](http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/conductor71/1705566233/1/tumblr_lc4u3iWnjT1qbnfbz)
Raggedy Rose (Wallace [in collaboration with Stan Laurel], 1926)
My Fall Movies # 18
__________
In Raggedy Rose, Mabel Normand is carrying the ball alone. There’s no Chaplin, no Fatty, no Keystone Kops, and she is clearly taking herself more seriously as an artist. There’s no Chaplin, no Fatty, no Keystone Kops, and she is clearly taking herself more seriously as an artist. In a frail story about a little ragamuffin who works for a junk dealer. In a frail story about a little ragamuffin who works for a junk dealer, she’s partly reminiscent of Chaplin’s Little Tramp and partly a satire on the waifs with fluttering hands played by Lillian Gish. (In some scenes, she looks a bit like Giulietta Masina.) Her comedy playing is, as always, perfectly timed, sharp, and precisely delineated. When Mabel is given the typical Keystone comedy routine to do, she’s superb. Having heard that a friend of hers who got run over by a car was given a thousand dollars and put in a hospital where she could «eat anything» she wanted, Mabel sets out to get the same treatment. Standing in front of a speeding open-air automobile, she is firmly resigned. The car, a rattletrap, slams on its brakes and falls totally to pieces, and the driver gets out and bops Mabel with one of the fenders. he starts a pillow fight with a rival and her mother, jumps in and out of bed, and does a splendid routine in which she finds a dime in the pocket of one of the old coats she is gathering in her rag-picking work. And there is a glamorous moment in which she dreams of herself dressed beautifully in one of the dresses she’s collected, an elaborate costume with ruffles. In her mind she dances with her dream prince, wearing the dress and a beautiful hat. (Jeanine Basinger, Silent Stars, Wesleyan University Press, 2000, p. 94)
(Image via Looking for Mabel)
