Charlie Chaplin's third film Mable's Strange Predicament; aka, Hotel Mixup (1914) co-stars him with the well-famed Mabel Normand, a bigger star than Charlie at this time.

Charlie's in his Little Tramp outfit but he's not the innocent associated with this appearance. He's an unpleasant drunk hanging out in a hotel lobby.

When Mabel walks by with her dog, the tramp for no reason beyond pure obnoxiousness grabs the dog's tail, only to fall on his butt, taking another long pull on his flask before trying to stand.

Mable turns in in her room, putting on her pajamas & letting her hair down, & playing happily with her collie. She's simply cute as a button.

When Charlie wanders into her room, she's horrified to be caught in her PJs & tries to get him to leave, but he refuses & even tries to assault her lasciviously, but ends up grabbing a man by accident.

Luckless Mabel has two men in her room, the bellboy having accidentally let a second man rent the room, totally aside from the invading Charlie. Frightened Mabel is hiding under the bed with her collie. The second man seems completely untroubled by the fact that there's a bum in his room, & knows nothing of the girl under the bed. Finally Charlie returns to the lobby to harrass some other woman.

Sundry incomprehensible antics ensue, Mabel's misunderstanding boyfriend added to the character array coming & going in Mabel's bedroom. None of it is particularly funny.

The man who was given Mabel's room by mistake has a wife who finds the girl hiding under the bed & thinks her husband has been cheating, resulting in a fight scene between the husband & wife (they're played by Chester Conklin & Alice Davenport). Meanwhile out in the hall Charlie's entire role is restricted to falling down a lot because he's so drunk.

Mabel does shine in this thing but it's not because the film is any good. Everyone else is just awful, including Charlie sad to say.

copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl