Mabel’s Married Life
Tit. It.: “Charlot E Il Manichino” O “La Vita Coniugale Di Mabel”; Scen.: Charles Chaplin, Mabel Normand; Int.: Charles Chaplin (Il Marito Di Mabel), Mabel Normand (Mabel), Mack Swain (Un Casanova Sportivo), Alice Howell (Moglie Di Mack), Hank Mann (L’amico), Charles Murray (Uomo Nel Bar), Harry Mccoy (Altro Uomo Nel Bar), Wallace Macdonald (Fattorino), Al St John (Fattorino); Prod.: Keystone Film Company; 35mm. L.: 309 M. D.: 17’ A 16 F/S.
Film Notes
Although Chaplin did not realize it at the time, this film was a turning point in his career. Thereafter he alone would direct all his films – with the single exception of Tillie’s Punctured Romance (Keystone no. 33), directed by Mack Sennett. […] Some of Chaplin’s funniest comic business in this film would, in due course, be appropriated by other comedians: e.g., Charlie putting his leg over Mabel’s knee (a gag adopted by Groucho) and his cunning method for getting extra liquor (a gag taken over by Harpo). Chaplin himself reprised the battle with dummy for a scene between Charlie and a punchball in his Essanay comedy The Champion (1915). The same battle probably inspired the football practice-session with a dummy in Harol Lloyd’s The Freshman (1925) and Oliver Hardy’s struggle with the gum-ball machine in Two Tars (1928).
Harry M. Geduld, Chapliniana Volume 1. The Keystone Films, Bloomington & Indianapolis 1987