Mabel's Busy Day

Whenever you have both Mabel Normand and Charlie Chaplin in the cast, you can be fairly sure that there will be something worthwhile in the movie. While most of the material in "Mabel's Busy Day" isn't very imaginative, the two stars give it enough energy and personality to make it worth watching.

There really isn't much to the story, which has Mabel working as a hot dog vendor at a race track, and with lesser performers it probably would have worn thin pretty quickly. There's plenty of action, but not all of it makes sense, and sometimes the pace is a little too frantic for some of the gags to come off well. But it's not bad for its era, and to fans of the old silent comedies, this kind of silly but innocuous feature always has a certain charm.