This film (along with a short outtake) is included in the Mack Sennett Collection, which I recently acquired.
Like many other people, I got interested in Mabel Normand primarily by way of her involvement in the 1922 William Desmond Taylor murder case, which has yet to be solved. While Normand seems to have been in love with the much older Taylor, and her cocaine addiction figured prominently in the case, she was never a serious suspect.
Anyway, Normand's swimsuit scenes are rather provocative in this film, and the audiences of 1912 may have been somewhat shocked, but of course it's all very quaint by today's standards. However, I found Normand to be rather on the chunky side, and the armpit hair she displays in the diving board sequence was a bit off-putting, but in 1912 women didn't seem to care about such things (and apparently the men didn't, either).
Still, Normand displays a personable charm that extends far beyond the 100-plus years since this film was made, and for this reason alone it's well worth viewing.
Like many other people, I got interested in Mabel Normand primarily by way of her involvement in the 1922 William Desmond Taylor murder case, which has yet to be solved. While Normand seems to have been in love with the much older Taylor, and her cocaine addiction figured prominently in the case, she was never a serious suspect.
Anyway, Normand's swimsuit scenes are rather provocative in this film, and the audiences of 1912 may have been somewhat shocked, but of course it's all very quaint by today's standards. However, I found Normand to be rather on the chunky side, and the armpit hair she displays in the diving board sequence was a bit off-putting, but in 1912 women didn't seem to care about such things (and apparently the men didn't, either).
Still, Normand displays a personable charm that extends far beyond the 100-plus years since this film was made, and for this reason alone it's well worth viewing.