Mabel’s Married Life – A Chaplin Wiggle And A Swedish Fika

Alright so, been watching Mabel’s Married Life again, this time with a cup of too-strong Gevalia and Västerbottenost on the side. Sometimes I forget how Charlie Chaplin, with his little moustasche and his wiggly walk, can make me giggle thirty years later in a tiny lägenhet in Malmö… This one, directed by Mack Sennett (who basically made slapstick slap), is from 1914, which is almost as old as my dad’s terrible sense of humour. Mabel Normand is there too – big eyes, a bit cheeky, and honestly she holds her own next to Chaplin. She’s not just background noise, which I love.

I’ll admit, it’s not Chaplin’s smoothest work. The plot kinda whizzes by, you know? Chaplin gets jealous because Mabel’s talking to some guy in the park and ends up bringing home a, I dunno, sex doll for self-defence training? Bit weird by today’s standards, maybe even dåligt med smak, but that’s old comedy for you. Got to laugh at how the fake husband ends up being more athletic than the real one. That hits differently if you’ve ever felt bland at a school disco, just hanging at the wall… Been there.

Something about the park scenes takes me back to that time in Borås when I tried to show off in front of Anna-Lena by jumping a fence and ripped my jeans open from arse to ankle. Didn’t get a Mabel moment, just cold wind up the trousers.

The sound of laughter is missing, of course, because it’s silent, but I swear I heard my upstairs neighbor snorting too. That’s universal, right?

So, is it a perfect film? Nä, far from it, but Chaplin on a Sunday is like köttbullar on a Tuesday. Comfort stuff. I say grab a cinnamon bun and watch, if just to see how people flirted back when Europe was still in black and white.

watch the full movie on Mavshack Movies on YouTube

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