The Extra Girl

Girls have dreamed of getting into the movies for a century now. Back in the 1920s, the fan magazines offered a way to make the dream come true: enter the magazine's beauty contest, send in your photo, and hopefully win the grand prize: a Hollywood screen test. This method actually worked for a young Brooklynite named Clara Bow, and it's also the foundation for Mabel Normand's comedy-drama The Extra Girl. Though produced by Mack Sennett, the king of the slapstick two-reeler, this is a feature-length film offering romance, thrills and sentiment along with the comedy.

There's probably no film that showcases the range of Mabel's talent better than this one. Plucky, energetic, scrappy but feminine, she's now one of the most beloved of the silent stars, treasured more today than she was in her own era. Director F. Richard Jones creates a world of small-town charm in the early reels, and an utterly unglamorous Hollywood afterward. The performances are relaxed and real. Many silent comedies tell a story only intermittently, between bursts of slapstick, but this one moves along smoothly from start to finish, telling a charming and human story.

The Extra Girl is a funny, sweet confection from the 1920s, a testament to the artists who made it, and to the star who still makes it shine today.

When she was good, she was very, very good.

Silent charmer Mabel Normand's last feature film is also one of her most entertaining. Mabel lives in the tiny rural town, but like many girls living in tiny rural towns in the twenties, she dreams of life as a movie star. When her parents refuse to let her marry stolid sweetheart Ralph Graves, Mabel enters a movie contest and wins...sort of. One case of mistaken identity later, we find plucky Mabel working in the wardrobe department at a studio. Her show business career devolves from there as comic misadventures ensue, culminating in one of Normand's best known scenes--walking a lion on a not-very-substantial-looking leash. She convinces her parents to join her in Hollywood, but when they are taken in by a swindler and lose all their money, Mabel embarks on a mission to get the swindler and her parent's money back. Will Mabel prevail?

Mabel Normand was American comedy's first female superstar. Sadly, if she is remembered at all today it is probably as the lead female character in the stage musical Mack and Mabel or as the unwitting co-star in two of silent film's more famous scandals. She was thirty at the time she filmed The Extra Girl and a bit long in the tooth to be sporting Pickfordian curls; ill-health and personal issues were taking their toll on her looks, but none of her legendary warmth and appeal is diminished. This was Mabel's last film with Mack Sennett, but The Extra Girl is as sweet and entertaining as her any of her previous films.

Unknown Video's release of The Extra Girl has an excellent score by Ben Model and two spiffy bonuses, the short film Mabel's Blunder from 1914, and a gallery of rare stills. If you've not yet learned to love Mabel, give Unknown Video's excellent release of The Extra Girl a try.
March 11, 2008

A crowd-pleasing performance from Mabel

I had heard (and read) much about Mabel Normand, who was the silver screen's premiere comedic actress. Forget Mae West. Forget Lucille Ball. Mabel was on the scene first!
So much of her film work has evaporated into the past that so little is available today. I had never seen a Normand movie before; thankfully, I got the chance to view what is considered her best, "The Extra Girl". More a balance of elements--comedy, melodrama, romance--it utilizes Mabel's talents to the last drop. It is easy to see why audiences fell in love with Mabel, in spite of her personal life frought with excessive partying, reported drug abuse, and scandals.
Although she looks pale and wan in this film, she continues to work wonders with that expressive face.
Her other work from 1918, "Mickey", is also available on DVD. A big hit for Mabel (and Mack Sennett) back then, I can't wait to see it!
As an added bonus, Unknown Video includes a magnet of Mabel as well as a brochure detailing the film and star herself within the DVD of "The Extra Girl". Plus, a rare short (directed by Mabel) from 1914, "Mabel's Blunder". Nice touch, Unknown Video! August 21, 2007

Unexpected gem!

I really enjoyed this Mabel Normand movie. She is absolutely adorable in it. Good story -- fast paced. Having gobbled up as many of her Keystone shorts I could get my hands on, I found "The Extra Girl" to be quite a departure. Better than "Mickey." It's a darn shame this woman isn't better known today. The print quality is fantastic, or it's a great restoration! Funny to see Vernon Dent (of 3 stooges fame) in a good ol' silent. I HIGHLY recommend this film to Mabel fans! November 17, 2006

Unexpected Treat

I'm familiar with the work of Mabel Normand, and I've seen a lot of her short comedies, but "The Extra Girl" stayed out of my grasp for a lot of years, until I saw this DVD. I'd heard about the big scene where Mabel has to deal with an escaped lion in a movie studio, but I didn't know much else. I figured this would be an okay movie with one great scene in it. Turns out that the movie is really nicely done all the way through, and it's not really the slapstick comedy I was expecting. There definitely are some funny scenes in it, but it's kind of more like a Mary Pickford movie, where there's a girl who struggles to get along and you root for her all the way to the happy ending. The film has more romance in it than I was expecting, but it worked out very well. When that scene with the lion came up, I thought that would be the climax of the story, but it went on and ended up with a slam-bang scene that I'd never heard about before. "The Extra Girl" was a really entertaining film, with something for everybody. I don't know why it isn't as famous as some of the other big comedies of the 1920's. It's a good show and the DVD looked beautiful. August 8, 2006

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