Mabel and Fatty's Married Life (1915)

5/10

Enjoyable short film has some clever touches...

Doylenf25 June 2007

I'm sure FATTY ARBUCKLE and MABEL NORMAND deserved their popularity back in 1915 when silents were attracting audiences to this new thing called "the movies", but frankly it's easy to dismiss it today as little more than a nostalgic look at Hollywood's primitive beginnings.

Both are likable enough and the set-up is good for laughs, as they visit a park and interact with an organ grinder and his monkey. This leads to the scenes were Mabel is alone at home letting her imagination run away her and suspecting that the gangster described in the newspaper is trying to get into her home.

The mysterious quiver of the drapes frightens her for awhile, until the moment arrives when the organ grinder himself dares to part the curtains and reveal the culprit to be his monkey.

What strikes me most about the early silent films is the tackiness of the sets, not to mention the unbelievable bad taste in set decoration and furnishings. This is especially true here, as Mabel's house is a house of horrors as far as "set decoration" is concerned.

Summing up: Watchable but certainly not the best of the duo's collaborations.

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6/10

But What Became Of The Monk?

boblipton25 March 2021

When Roscoe has to go out of town on business, he leaves Mabel alone at home. She is terrorized by what she iamgines to be roving gangs of murderous foreigners, like organ grinder Glen Cavender. Like many a Keystone of this era, this is a burlesque of other movie themes. Also like many of them, it burlesqued the works of D. W. Griffith, who had followed Biograph's policy of making films about the evil foreigners who threaten good American women -- almost invariably played, it seems, by Joseph Graybill. The rest of it -- the woman at peril cowering behind a door, while family and police race to the scene -- was also a staple at Biograph, and the core of the editing techniques that Griffith -- had been a staple of Keystone farces at least since THE BANGVILLE POLICE had introduced the Keystone Kops. They show up here too. Although there's a certain realism about this -- Mabel drives herself to distraction through neurotic imagination -- that wasn't often at play in Keystones, there's a clear line of succession here; this seems to be based most securely on WON IN A CLOSET, which in turn seems to derive from the Giish sisters' 1912 movie debut AN UNSEEN ENEMY. I'm sure, if you look, you can find other movies in its structure.

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6/10

But WHO played the monkey?

cricket3018 January 2014

Warning: Spoilers

It's nice, I suppose, to know that Alice Davenport and Alice Howell are both "women" (according to the incomplete credits here), and that Josef Swickard played a "minor" role in this 14-minute short, MABEL AND FATTY'S MARRIED LIFE, but the organ grinder's monkey--with all of his ominous curtain rustling--plays a MAJOR role in the plot, and he's not credited at all. As far as we can know, John Doe Monkey MIGHT be the only cast member still alive, as there are dates of demise available on this site for the rest of the credited and even the uncredited cast. Whenever Luke-the-Dog appears in a Fatty Arbuckle film, he gets credited for sure. What was the problem for this musically-inclined member of our own primate family--did the anonymous monkey have agents and publicists inferior to Luke's? We want answers to these questions, and we would like them now!

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Fair Beginning, Builds Up Into Some Good Material In the Later Sequences

Snow Leopard9 February 2005

While a lot of the material in this Mabel Normand/Roscoe Arbuckle feature is somewhat routine by their standards, it eventually builds up the situation rather well into a funny final sequence. Both of the two stars are engaging, as usual, throughout the movie, so that it is still watchable even in the less impressive stretches.

The story has 'Fatty', as Mabel's husband, leaving Mabel by herself at home, where she becomes increasingly worried over a series of minor but odd events. Much of the earlier part of it features gags that are not all that creative, but this part of the story is pretty much necessary to set up the better parts towards the end, when things get more manic and entertaining.

Normand and Arbuckle do their usual solid job in performing all of the material. Mabel plays up her character's agitation a little more broadly than she usually handles such scenes, but the effect works.

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7/10

It's become a worn-out cliche that "The butler did it" but if not the . . .

tadpole-596-9182567 May 2021

Warning: Spoilers

. . . butler, who is the SECOND most likely crime culprit in a home-based criminal caper? Some film buffs may name "the housekeeper" as the logical counterpart to the male head houseman for the proverbial "inside job." REBECCA'S Mrs. Dandruff may not have brained Maxim's first bride with an anchor herself, but she seems guilty as sin of First Degree Arson. Alternatively, Bette Davis makes a strong case for THE NANNY. Of course, there have been plenty of flicks about homicidal chauffeurs, and NATIVE SON probably was not the first of these. But a Dark Horse may emerge from the field, if you get a chance of watch MABEL AND FATTY'S MARRIED LIFE. The monkey did it!

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8/10

I wonder why this film is rated so low on IMDb?

planktonrules16 July 2006

Warning: Spoilers

When I submitted my review, this film had a score of only 4.8--very low for a Fatty Arbuckle film. And that is very surprising, as it's one of the better ones I have seen! Fatty is married to a very impressionable wife. She reads about some recent neighborhood burglaries by some "foreigners" in the newspaper and becomes convinced they are in the house as she's reading! She gets the gun and begins shooting through the door--nearly shooting poor Fatty and his friend! Eventually, Fatty is able to enter the room and convinces her to stop! Later, when someone REALLY is in the house, she doesn't know what to do! The gun is gone and she's afraid for her life. She calls the police, but the Italian-looking guy keeps banging on her door--she knows he is trying to kill her!! And, to make things worse, there is someone in the other room behind the drapes! Eventually, the Keystone Kops arrive and their leader is scared to death to confront the guy behind the drapes! In fact, in some of the funniest scenes in the film, he approaches the stranger but keeps running away to hide whenever the curtains move. Eventually, the Italian-looking guy breaks away from the Kops who have apprehended him and races into the room with the person behind the curtain. He pulls it aside and reveals that it's his monkey--the guy was just an organ grinder in search of his lost co-worker!! All that zaniness over nothing! Fatty arrives home to see the mess that Mabel created and she is crying and worried about how he'll react. But, Fatty is a nice guy and can only laugh at all the commotion and kisses her to let her know it's alright. A pretty sweet ending to a funny film.

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Fair Beginning, Builds Up Into Some Good Material In the Later Sequences

Snow Leopard8 February 2005

While a lot of the material in this Mabel Normand/Roscoe Arbuckle feature is somewhat routine by their standards, it eventually builds up the situation rather well into a funny final sequence. Both of the two stars are engaging, as usual, throughout the movie, so that it is still watchable even in the less impressive stretches.

The story has 'Fatty', as Mabel's husband, leaving Mabel by herself at home, where she becomes increasingly worried over a series of explainable, but unexpected, events. Much of the earlier part of it features gags that are not that creative, but that part of the story is pretty much necessary to set up the better parts towards the end, when things get more manic and entertaining.

Normand and Arbuckle do their usual solid job in performing all of the material. Mabel plays up her character's agitation a little more broadly than she usually handles such scenes, but the effect works.

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10/10

Mabel and Fatty's Married Life is one of the most hilarious silent comedy shorts I've yet seen

tavm27 July 2007

Warning: Spoilers

Of the three Fatty Arbuckle/Mabel Normand shorts featured on the VHS tape titled The Original Keystone Comedies: Volume Four (the first two were Mabel's Wilful Way and That Little Band of Gold), Mabel and Fatty's Married Life was the most hilarious and best showcase for them, especially Mabel. See Mabel become very excited whether pulling a gun when she thinks a burglar is sneaking in her house while her husband's away (turns out Fatty came back in to get some papers) or showing fright when she sees a curtain shaking (turns out a monkey from earlier in the short was there). By the way, Ms. Normand's fright reactions rival those of Lou Costello's for the most thigh-slapping hilarity I've ever seen! There's also an organ grinder, a friend of Fatty's, and the Keystone Cops for added enjoyment of one of the best silent short comedies I've yet seen. Most highly recommended for any silent comedy fan out there!

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A good number

deickemeyer4 September 2019

A rapid-fire comedy number, full of amusing action. Fatty and Mabel offend an organ grinder traveling about with a monkey. The organ man gets his pal and plans revenge upon Mabel, who is alone at home. This is a good number and well photographed. - The Moving Picture World, February 20, 1915

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Middle Ground Fatty

Michael_Elliott25 February 2008

Mabel and Fatty's Married Life (1915)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

When Fatty Arbuckle leaves town, his wife (Mabel Normand) stays home alone and then gets scared thinking that gangsters are after her. These early Fatty shorts have been really hit and miss with me and this one here is a miss. There's really nothing too funny here, although there are a couple nice stunts where Fatty is standing in the road and nearly escapes getting hit by some passing cars.

Film can be found on The Forgotten Films of Fatty Arbuckle, which contains four discs worth of material including items directed by Arbuckle after he was blacklisted from Hollywood.

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