A couple names that kept coming up as I was reading about the earliest years of filmmaking were those of Mabel Normand and Ford Sterling. What a great name— Ford Sterling! I had to find out if that was his actual name, and of course it was not. He was born George Ford Stich Jr., so I can’t blame him for changing his name. I want to change my name to Ford Sterling, too!
Sterling got his start in 1911 at Biograph, but when director Mack Sennet left Biograph to form Keystone Studios in 1912, Sterling followed him. By 1913, Sterling was one of Hollywood’s top comic film stars, though The Gusher, released on December 15th, 1913, represents the beginning of the end of that run, as he was about to be eclipsed by Charlie Chaplin come February of the next year. At the moment, however, Sterling was the king of comedy.
The queen of comedy was his co-star in this film, Mabel Normand. Both worked for the Keystone Film Company, and Normand was their biggest star of all. Previously I’ve spoken about Florence Lawrence, the Biograph Girl, today we’ll meet the Keystone Girl, Mabel Normand.
Normand had starred in a large number of films for Keystone, playing the character of Mabel, a cute, somewhat scatter-brained young girl who always found herself at the center of some comedic adventure. As with Sterling, The Gusher was something of a bookend to that part of her career, and one of the final Keystones that presented Mabel as a crazy, half-witted ingenue. Normand began directing her own films shortly thereafter, convinced that audiences wanted more than a cute, naive girl getting into trouble. She continued to make “The Mabels,” as they were called, but soon began to add complexity to the storylines, and, against Mack Sennett’s advice, pathos and intelligence to Mabel’s character. It worked to great effect, and her post-Keystone Girl career blossomed. Ford Sterling also changed his style of acting as Chaplin took over, going on to play serious roles, often to great acclaim.
I watched The Gusher on a DVD, shown below, where it is included as a second feature to The Extra Girl, another Mabel Normand film, which I’ll watch down the road. Based on what I saw in The Gusher, and read about her, I’m looking forward to seeing more of Mabel. You can buy your own copy of the DVD by clicking the picture.
The story is straight-forward, as have been most of the comedic shorts I’ve seen so far. Sterling and Normand are engaged, and he promises to get rich before they marry. Enter Charles Inslee, another regular in the Mabels, and whom I saw in the lead role of George Redfeather in The Call of the Wild. He cons Sterling into buying worthless land by pouring some oil onto the ground. Sterling thinks he’s an oil king, until Inslee’s accomplice informs him otherwise. Crestfallen, he returns to his new property and angrily slams his cane into the ground. He strikes oil! He’s rich! For real this time! Until Inslee, upset that he missed his chance at becoming an oil kingpin, sets fire to the oil.
At this point, I understood why this film was made, because the scenes of the burning oil well were not shot using special effects. That is clearly a real fire at a real oil field. Keystone must have had the footage, no doubt impressive in its day, and built the film around it, because in truth, the fire doesn’t improve the plot. It lends something of an unhappy ending to what is otherwise a simple comedy, for when the Keystone Cops make their obligatory, bumbling, appearance and arrest Inslee, no one is in good shape. Sterling and Normand are still broke and Inslee is in jail. Everyone loses, except the audience, who definitely got their money’s worth.
Next I’m watching: Making a Living [1914], directed by Henry Lehrman.
The Gusher (Dec. 15, 1913)