Mabel’s Married Life - Charlie Chaplin | clown ministry

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Mabel’s Married Life, starring Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand, originally released June 20, 1914

Charlie Chaplin in The Tramp Art Print
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Mabel’s Married Life is another early Charlie Chaplin comedy from Keystone Studios. By this time, the studio was aware of what a large box office draw Charlie Chaplin was, which explains why they kept teaming him with Mabel Normand, one of their largest stars. In this particular short silent film, Charlie and Mabel are married, but Charlie is too timid (or has too strong a sense of self-preservation) to step in when another man (Mack Swain, one of Charlie Chaplin’s regulars) tries to hit upon his wife romantically. Charlie is crushed, his self-confidence gone, feeling that he has utterly failed his wife—and like so many other men in that situation, he goes to a bar and gets drunk.

In the meantime, Mabel decides to do something more constructive, and purchases a boxing dummy, in hopes that Charlie can build up both his muscles and his confidence. However, it’s much later that evening when a now-tipsy Charlie finally comes home, and sees the boxing dummy—thinking that it’s the masher, Charlie attacks the dummy, in the movie’s funniest scene.