The Fatal Mallet (1914) User Reviews

Mabel stars

[Igenlode Wordsmith · 6/10 · 20 February 2007]

Rather to my surprise, I actually quite liked this one. Considering that I don't care for slapstick, that the entire plot of this film consists of people hitting each other, and that I'm not Charlie Chaplin's greatest fan, this was extremely unexpected; but in fact, there are good things to be said for a film that consists of nothing whatever but a single, simple gag ingeniously elaborated. Mack Sennett gets better and -- dare one even suggest it in such a context? -- more subtle results here by simply staging repeated variations on a theme than he would have done by throwing in the semblance of a plot (or what passes for one in Keystone territory), let alone by introducing more characters or invoking the Keystone Kops...

Despite or even because the whole film is occupied by hitting people over the head, there is scope for some finer detail, such as the shifting alliances of convenience between the various opponents as old grudges are overlaid by more immediate opportunity, and moments of realisation: my favourite was the sequence where Mack Swain comes to and realises that he has been locked in with a Mack Sennett who is going to be *very* angry when he wakes up... and the way that his knees (all that is visible) shake beneath the sackcloth while he tries to hide. But I felt that the player who really shines in this film is Mabel Normand, who has the advantage over the men of being on the receiving end of less constant violence, and thus can really milk her outraged reactions when her suitors' attacks accidentally spill over. The little sequence at the beginning where she sweet-talks Charlie into a close approach after he kicks her in error -- only to knock him unexpectedly flying with the full strength of her diminutive frame -- is laugh-out-loud funny, which is more than can be said for much of Keystone's standard fare.

Mabel's Trilemma

[boblipton · 6/10 · 7 November 2002]

A nice little comedy, in which Mabel has three suitors: Charlie, Mack Swain and Mack Sennett. Although Sennett's character -- a country bumpkin with a face that looks like he's been eating lemons -- never appealed to me, he does know how to do slapstick. And the three men all pound each other, while Mabel looks on gleefully.

Now, considering who owns the studio, who do you think gets the girl?

The Fatal Mallett Is Fatally Unfunny

[CitizenCaine · 4/10 · 22 June 2008]

Mabel Normand again teams up with Chaplin in another slapstick comedy. Mack Sennett is on hand as a fellow suitor with Chaplin. The film starts immediately with violent brick throwing between Chaplin, Mabel Normand and her beau. Pretty soon there are three men after Mabel, trying to best each other or bop each other in the head. Charlie and Mack Swain end up all wet and Mack Sennett ends up with Mabel, surprise surprise. Many familiar slapstick moments are in this film, and the violent brick-throwing is a bit jarring and unnecessary. However, in silent comedy there was a need to provoke reactions in the audience rather then having to employ over-exaggerated mannerisms to get points across. I saw two versions of this film with reverse camera angles in each film, and I'm wondering if this was a mistake on the restoration part of it. One version appeared to be restored, although they both could have been. *1/2 of 4 stars.

Bonking people on the head

[planktonrules · 2/10 · 23 May 2006]

In 1914, Charlie Chaplin began making pictures. These were made for Mack Sennett (also known as "Keystone Studios") and were literally churned out in very rapid succession. The short comedies had very little structure and were completely ad libbed. As a result, the films, though popular in their day, were just awful by today's standards. Many of them bear a strong similarity to home movies featuring obnoxious relatives mugging for the camera. Many others show the characters wander in front of the camera and do pretty much nothing. And, regardless of the outcome, Keystone sent them straight to theaters. My assumption is that all movies at this time must have been pretty bad, as the Keystone films with Chaplin were very successful.

The Charlie Chaplin we know and love today only began to evolve later in Chaplin's career with Keystone. By 1915, he signed a new lucrative contract with Essenay Studios and the films improved dramatically with Chaplin as director. However, at times these films were still very rough and not especially memorable. No, Chaplin as the cute Little Tramp was still evolving. In 1916, when he switched to Mutual Studios, his films once again improved and he became the more recognizable nice guy--in many of the previous films he was just a jerk (either getting drunk a lot, beating up women, provoking fights with innocent people, etc.). The final evolution of his Little Tramp to classic status occurred in the 1920s as a result of his full-length films.

The entire plot involves Charlie bonking Mack Sennett on the head with a mallet repeatedly. That's all,...really.

Ah, the mallet, for when bricks just won't do the trick!

[Anonymous_Maxine · 7/10 · 10 May 2007]

The Fatal Mallet is full of unexplained, unnecessary, and gratuitous 1914 violence, like most of Chaplin's films for Keystone, but at least the plot is very easy to follow because it stays simple and doesn't try to tell more of a story than the technology of the time would allow. It begins with a lot of brick throwing between Chaplin and a man and wife (the wife does most of the throwing), until ultimately Charlie and the man are engaged in a brawl. Meanwhile, the wife finds another man, a huge brute of a man who is unaffected by Charlie and the first husband hitting him on top of the head with bricks. When he fails to notice that anything is happened, the two love scorn men are forced to regroup and come up with a new plan while the new guy makes his affections known to the woman.

The two enemies now working together allows Chaplin to do some of his usual tricks and pranks but to actually have a reason to do them this time, and ultimately it turns into a brawl that is every man for himself, since they are all enemies to begin with. Chaplin's love of falling into the lake and throwing other people into the lake is certainly not forgotten here, but among the films of the time, I think this one stands out as one of the clearer and more entertaining ones, even though so much of it is the same as so many others.

Also of note here is what I think might be the first appearance of a small boy in an important role in one of Chaplin's films. I say important role, however, only to mean that there is a kid in more than a background role. I am not sure if it is more disturbing than amusing, but I would lean toward amusing just because, even though the kid shows up just long enough for Charlie to punt him off screen like a football, he is clearly having a great time and his imitation of Chaplin's backwards fall is uncanny. Certainly not the best, but this is among the better of Chaplin's Keystone comedies.

Will prove acceptable

[deickemeyer · 23 September 2018]

Weber and Fields have made millions laugh with the aid of just such comedy business as is employed in this release and the picture, purporting to be nothing other than a melange of rough-house happenings, will prove acceptable on the majority of programs. This one-reeler proves that hitting people over the heads with bricks and mallets can sometimes be made amusing. - The Moving Picture World, June 13, 1914

Just Another Blow in the Head

[nukisepp · 5/10 · 9 February 2021]

'The Fatal Mallet' is pretty much a movie about hitting people in the head. In the center of the story is a woman (Mabel) and three men fighting over her. After throwing pricks constantly at each other's head, one has to wonder - does it really take only one mallet blow to take a person out? Then again - it is a FATAL mallet.

I noticed that when Mack Sennett and Charles Chaplin worked together to take out the third suitor they formed a nice dynamic duo - their on-screen chemistry seemed something like between Abbott and Costello, or Laurel and Hardy.

Not among the best of Chaplin's Keystone pictures but as the film is only 12 minutes long it's not a huge time waster.

Charlie in the early days

[lee_eisenberg · 6/10 · 27 October 2018]

One of Charlie Chaplin's early shorts features him as a man vying for a woman's attention. Mack Sennett's movie is nothing sophisticated. In 1914 most movies were shorts, and "The Fatal Mallet" is the typical enjoyable silly thing. Worth seeing.

They probably never imagined that the director would get played in a movie by a man best known as both a Blues Brother and a Ghostbuster (with Chaplin played by Sherlock Holmes/Iron Man).

Mallet of fatality

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 26 May 2018]

Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.

He did do better than 'The Fatal Mallet', still made very early on in his career where he was still finding his feet and not fully formed what he became famous for. Can understand why the Keystone period suffered from not being as best remembered or highly remembered than his later efforts, but they are mainly decent and important in their own right. 'The Fatal Mallet' is a long way from a career high, but has a lot of nice things about it and is to me one of the better efforts in the 1914 Keystone batch and a decent acting collaboration with Mabel Normand.

'The Fatal Mallet' is not as hilarious, charming or touching as his later work and some other shorts in the same period. The story is flimsy and the production values not as audacious. Occasionally, things feel a little scrappy and confused.

For someone who was still relatively new to the film industry and had literally just moved on from their stage background, 'The Fatal Mallet' is not bad at all.

While not audacious, the film hardly looks ugly, is more than competently directed and is appealingly played. Chaplin looks comfortable for so early on and shows his stage expertise while opening it up that it doesn't become stagy or repetitive shtick. Mabel Normand is quite charming.

Although the humour, charm and emotion was done even better and became more refined later, 'The Fatal Mallet' is humorous, sweet and easy to like, though the emotion is not quite there. It moves quickly and doesn't feel too long or short.

Overall, pretty decent. 6/10 Bethany Cox

AKA: 'I've Got a Headache'

[ducatic-82290 · 8/10 · 12 December 2016]

This is typical Keystone with lots of butt-kicking, and the added bonus of skulls being smashed with big hammers. How strange were audiences in those days. Anyhow, we have in this film just about the best casting combination Keystone could muster. We have the coming genius Charlie, the divine Mabel, oafish Mack Swain, and the more than oafish Mack 'The Hick' Sennett. We may wonder why the latter cast himself in so many pictures, but he was there (according to Mack) by popular demand! We might unkindly ask 'Why?', but the truth is that he needed to keep an eye on naïve Mabel and the young and virile Charlie. Would the Englishman procure Mabel for another studio, and lure her from her aging Svengali? Mack was the first producer to realize Chaplin would go through actresses on the lot like a fox in a chicken coop. Charlie could do what he liked with Peggy Pearce, Peggy Page and Virginia Kirtley, but Mabel was Mack's personal property — touch at your peril.

As usual Sennett is acting the part of Mabel's boyfriend, and the opening scene makes this amply clear. While they stand in what seems to be some sort of a grove, Mack clumsily goes through the amorous stuff. Then, who should come along but the licentious Charlie, someone Mabel seems to know. She introduces Charlie to Mack, but the former takes exception to the latter, and begins to push him around. Suddenly Charlie points off-camera, and while the stupid country boy looks away, he runs off with the fair maid. Behind a shed, Charlie starts to impress the stunningly beautiful Keystone Girl with a range of comical tricks, but Mack creeps up on them, and slyly kicks Charlie in the rear. Charlie is shocked, and obviously thinks Mabel did it, so kicks her in the derriere. Mabel is equally shocked, but soon recovers her composure, and, smiling sweetly, she beckons Charlie forward, then smashes him in the face. Predictably, Mabel runs off, but Charlie soon finds her being pushed on a swing by Mack. As he approaches, Mack, of course, rams the swinging Mabel into him, and all-out war begins. Charlie throws a brick at the couple, hitting Mabel in the face, while Mack gallantly ducks behind a tree. Plucky Mabel throws the brick back, and an angry Charlie confronts the couple. Of course, Mack has to take some action, and Mabel is delighted when her hero pushes up his sleeves ready to knock Charlie out. Unfortunately, it's Mack who gets knocked out, prompting Mabel to run off into the arms of Mack Swain, who has conveniently arrived on the scene. It is highly amusing to see Chaplin mock defeated Sennett by imitating his trademark spewing of tobacco juice.

To cut a long story short, the film now enters mallet mode where Mack and Charlie first dispose of Swain with a whack on the head, then try to kill each other with mallets and bricks, while Mabel suffers collateral damage. An unusual scene then occurs, when a boy discovers Mabel alone, and takes the opportunity to manhandle (boyhandle?) the forlorn beauty. This is surely the luckiest kid in Edendale, for in no other film has any actor got to fondle the fair Mabel without getting a slap in the face. In any event, Charlie makes short work of the kid by drop-kicking him into performing a 108. Unfortunately, both Chaplin and Swain then end up in Echo Park Lake, while Sennett gets the goods in the form of Mabel the enchanting.

There is plenty going on in this film, which was clearly padded out with numerous gags from the talented and experienced quartet – the audiences would have certainly have got their money's worth. As for Mabel she gets something of a respite in the picture, although she clearly collected a few bruises. In an interview many years later she said 'I am glad to report that many of those that kicked me and abused my person down through the years, have now been consigned to oblivion'.The lovely dress Mabel wore in the film, seems to be the one worn by Eva Nelson a few weeks earlier in Twenty Minutes of Love (with the bow on the front rather than on the back).

Struggle between rivals in love

[luigicavaliere · 8/10 · 20 February 2019]

A man, Charlot, throws a mallet against a couple near a tree. The girl raises the mallet to the first pitcher who reaches the couple, for a moment of slapstick between men. The girl goes to another man with whom she sits on the swing. From the tree the two men go towards the swing and one of them pushes the one on the swing, which launches a mallet to the other two, who take refuge in a nearby shack. The character played by Chaplin goes to take with the other who is with the girl and take him to the shack. Chaplin hits the other two and goes to the girl, chasing a child who had arrived just before. The two men free themselves and one of the two chases Chaplin, who duels on the edge of a pond with one of the two while the other is with the girl. Chaplin drops his opponent into the lake but the other makes him fall too and goes for a walk with the girl.The movie focuses on the mechanism of slapstick and chase in this struggle between rivals in love.

4 Early Chaplin

[Michael_Elliott · 8 March 2008]

Fatal Mallet, The (1914)

*** (out of 4)

Chaplin, along with two other guys, fights for the affection of a woman. Instead of using their fist the guys instead throw bricks at one another. This is a very funny film that has some outrageous violence that makes for a good time.

A Busy Day (1914)

** (out of 4)

Chaplin plays a woman(!) who gets tired of her husbands and decides to fight with him in public. This here really doesn't have a single funny moment but it's still interesting to see Chaplin playing a woman.

Caught in a Cabaret (1914)

*** (out of 4)

Chaplin is mistaken as a Greek Ambassador and must keep a girl's family from finding out. This one here is a real riot with some wonderfully funny fight scenes but the real highlights are the title cards, which feature some very funny one-liners. Also of note is that this storyline would play a big part in future Chaplin films.

Knockout, The (1914)

*** (out of 4)

To show off his braveness, Fatty Arbuckle challenged a professional boxer to a fight. Fatty is funny as usually and like the above film, this one here gets the laughs from violence ranging from punches to items being thrown. Chaplin has a small but funny cameo as the referee.