Mabel's Busy Day

US 1914. PC: Keystone. D: Mabel Normand. Starring Mabel Normand, Charles Chaplin. Chaplin Opus 18. 304 m /16 fps/ 17'. Da Cineteca di Bologna, BFI/NFTVA, Lobster Films. Restaurato presso L'Immagine Ritrovata nel 2005. ♪ Donald Sosin. Thursday 7 July 2005, Cinéma Lumière 1, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna. In this film with a highly improvised look Charlie is an annoying disturber in a race, who intrudes without paying and keeps stealing from Mabel the sausage-seller. The vicious, lady-kicking Charlie is not in his tramp costume. The slapstick is crude and violent, even sadistic and misogynistic, although Normand was the director. Yet there are some redeeming aspects of pantomime in the slapstick, and the final battle is impressive.