The Extra Girl

She was the actress who was the first recipient of a pie thrown in her face captured on film. She was the first to realize the great potential in a young Charlie Chaplin after his disastrous cinematic debut and convinced studio owner Mack Sennett to give him a second chance. Actress Mabel Normand had been with Sennett's Keystone Studio since it relocated to California in 1912. In October 1923's "The Extra Girl," Normand played her last role for Sennett. She later signed with producer Hal Roach for her final feature film, 1926's 'Raggedy Rose,' while starring in four shorts before her life abruptly ended at 37 with tuberculosis.

Film critics claim "The Extra Girl" is Normand's best movie in her career. "She is one of the actresses that the screen cannot spare." a reviewer at Photoplay wrote at the time. "Few have her freshness, her piquancy, her gift for comedy." Her portrayal is of an Indiana farm girl who dreams of stardom in Hollywood, makes the journey on a mistaken offer by a studio, only to find work at the studio's costume shop after being rejected to act. But Normand's persistence gets her an audition, with hilarious results.

The audition sequence offers a fascinating look at movie-making in the early 1920's. A wide high-angle shot reveals two cameras side by side cranking away, a practice studios undertook to insure two prints for editing. A pianist and a violinist are seen at the side playing music, setting the mood to inspire the actors.