Mack Sennett - Director

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Nationality: Canadian. Born: Mikall (Michael) Sinnott in Danville, Quebec, 17 January 1880. Career: Burlesque performer and chorus boy on Broadway, 1902–08; actor in Biograph films, 1908–10; director of Biograph shorts, from 1910, moved to Hollywood; formed Keystone Production Company with Charles Bauman and Adam Kessel, 1912; Keystone absorbed into Triangle Film Corporation with Thomas Ince and D.W. Griffith's production companies, 1915; formed production company Mack Sennett Comedies following collapse of Triangle, 1917, though films released by Paramount; associated with Pathé, 1923–28, and with Educational Films, 1929–32, also returned to directing; producer and director of shorts for Paramount, from 1932, and experimented with early color process called "Natural Color"; returned to Educational Films, 1935, then retired to Canada; held nominal position at 20th Century-Fox from 1939. Awards: Special Oscar for contributions to screen comedy, 1937. Died: 1960.

Films as Director:

1910

The Lucky Toothache (+ sc, role); The Masher (+ sc, role)

1911

Comrades (+ role); Priscilla's April Fool Joke ; Cured ; Priscilla and the Umbrella ; Cupid's Joke ; Misplaced Jealousy ; The Country Lovers ; The Manicure Lady (+ role); Curiosity ; A Dutch Gold Mine (+ role); Dave's Love Affair ; Their Fates Sealed ; Bearded Youth ; The Delayed Proposal ; Stubbs' New Servants ; The Wonderful Eye ; The Jealous Husband ; The Ghost ; Jinks Joins the Temperance Club ; Mr. Peck Goes Calling ; The Beautiful Voice ; That Dare Devil (+ role); An Interrupted Game ; The Diving Girl ; $500,000 Reward (+ role); The Baron ; The Villain Foiled ; The Village Hero (+ role); The Lucky Horseshoe ; A Convenient Burglar ; When Wifey Holds the Purse Strings ; Too Many Burglars ; Mr. Bragg, A Fugitive ; Trailing the Counterfeit (+ role); Josh's Suicide ; Through His Wife's Picture ; The Inventor's Secret ; A Victim of Circumstances ; Their First Divorce Case (+ role); Dooley Scheme ; Won through a Medium ; Resourceful Lovers ; Her Mother Interferes ; Why He Gave Up ; Abe Gets Even with Father ; Taking His Medicine ; Her Pet ; Caught with the Goods (+ role); A Mix-up in Raincoats ; The Joke on the Joker ; Who Got the Reward ; Brave and Bold ; Did Mother Get Her Wash ; With a Kodak ; Pants and Pansies ; A Near-Tragedy ; Lily's Lovers ; The Fatal Chocolate (+ role); Got a Match ; A Message from the Moon ; Priscilla's Capture ; A Spanish Dilemma (+ role); The Engagement Ring ; A Voice from the Deep ; Hot Stuff ; Oh, Those Eyes ; Those Hicksville Boys ; Their First Kidnapping Case (+ role); Help, Help ; The Brave Hunter ; Won by a Fish ; The Leading Man ; The Fickle Spaniard ; When the Fire Bells Rang ; The Furs ; A Close Call ; Helen's Marriage ; Tomboy Bessie ; Algy, the Watchman ; Katchem Kate ; Neighbors ; A Dash through the Clouds ; The New Baby ; Trying to Fool ; One Round O'Brien ; The Speed Demon ; His Own Fault ; The Would Be Shriner (+ role); Willie Becomes an Artist ; The Tourists ; What the Doctor Ordered ; An Interrupted Elopement ; The Tragedy of a Dress Suit ; Mr. Grouch at the Seashore ; Through Dumb Luck

Mack Sennett

1912

Cohen Collects a Debt ( Cohen at Coney Island ) (+ pr); The Water Nymph (+ pr); Riley and Schultz (+ pr); The New Neighbor (+ pr); The Beating He Needed (+ pr); Pedro's Dilemma (+ pr, role); Stolen Glory (+ pr, role); The Ambitious Butler (+ pr, role); The Flirting Husband (+ pr); The Grocery Clerk's Romance (+ pr); At Coney Island (+ pr, role); Mabel's Lovers (+ pr); At It Again (+ pr, role); The Deacon's Troubles (+ pr); A Temperamental Husband (+ pr); The Rivals (+ pr, role); Mr. (+ pr, role); A Desperate Lover (+ pr); A Bear Escape (+ pr, role); Pat's Day Off (+ pr, role); Brown's Seance (+ pr); A Family Mixup (+ pr, role); A Midnight Elopement (+ pr); Mabel's Adventures (+ pr); Useful Sheep (+ pr); Hoffmeyer's Legacy (+ pr); The Drummer's Vacation (+ pr); The Duel (+ pr, role); Mabel's Strategem (+ pr)

1913

Saving Mabel's Dad (+ pr); A Double Wedding (+ pr); The Cure That Failed (+ pr); How Hiram Won Out (+ pr); For Lizzie's Sake (+ pr); Sir Thomas Lipton out West (+ pr); The Mistaken Masher (+ pr, role); The Deacon Outwitted (+ pr); The Elite Ball (+ pr); Just Brown's Luck (+ pr); The Battle of Who Run (+ pr, role); The Jealous Waiter (+ pr); The Stolen Purse (+ pr, role); Mabel's Heroes (+ pr, role); Her Birthday Present (+ pr); Heinze's Resurrection (+ pr); A Landlord's Troubled (+ pr); Forced Bravery (+ pr); The Professor's Daughter (+ pr); A Tangled Affair (+ pr); A Red Hot Romance (+ pr); A Doctored Affair (+ pr); The Sleuth's Last Stand (+ pr, role); A Deaf Burglar (+ pr); The Sleuths at the Floral Parade (+ pr, role); A Rural Third Degree (+ pr); A Strong Revenge (+ pr, role); The Two Widows (+ pr); Foiling Fickle Father (+ pr); Love and Pain (+ pr); The Man Next Door (+ pr); A Wife Wanted (+ pr); The Rube and the Baron (+ pr, role); Jenny's Pearls (+ pr); The Chief's Predicament (+ pr); At Twelve O'Clock (+ pr); Her New Beau (+ pr, role); On His Wedding Day (+ pr); The Land Salesman (+ pr); Hide and Seek (+ pr); Those Good Old Days (+ pr); A Game of Poker (+ pr); Father's Choice (+ pr); A Life in the Balance (+ pr); Murphy's I.O.U. (+ pr); A Dollar Did It (+ pr); Cupid in the Dental Parlor (+ pr); A Fishy Affair (+ pr); The Bangville Police (+ pr); The New Conductor (+ pr); His Chum, the Baron (+ pr); That Ragtime Band (+ pr); Algie on the Force (+ pr); His Ups and Downs (+ pr); The Darktown Belle (+ pr); A Little Hero (+ pr); Mabel's Awful Mistake (+ pr, role); The Foreman and the Jury (+ pr); The Gangster (+ pr); Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life (+ pr, role); Passions—He Had Three (+ pr); Help! Help! Hydrophobia! (+ pr); The Hansom Driver (+ pr, role); The Speed Queen (+ pr); The Waiter's Picnic (+ pr); The Tale of the Black Eye (+ pr); Out and In (+ pr); A Bandit (+ pr); Peeping Pete (+ pr); His Crooked Career (+ pr, role); For Love of Mabel (+ pr); Safe in Jail (+ pr); The Telltale Light (+ pr); Love and Rubbish (+ pr); A Noise from the Deep (+ pr); The Peddler (+ pr); Love and Courage (+ pr); Professor Bean's Removal (+ pr); Cohen's Outing (+ pr); The Firebugs (+ pr); Baby Day (+ pr); Mabel's New Hero (+ pr); Mabel's Dramatic Career (+ pr, role); The Gypsy Queen (+ pr); Willie Minds the Dog (+ pr); When Dreams Come True (+ pr); Mother's Boy (+ pr); The Bowling Match (+ pr); The Speed Kings (+ pr); Love Sickness at Sea (+ pr, role); A Muddy Romance (+ pr); Cohen Saves the Flag (+ pr); Zuzu the Band Leader (+ pr)

1914

In the Clutches of the Gang (+ pr); Mabel's Strange Predicament (co-d, pr); Love and Gasoline (+ pr); Mack at It Again (+ pr, role); Mabel at the Wheel (+ pr, role); The Knockout (+ pr); A New York Girl (+ pr, role); His Talented Wife (+ pr, role); Tillie's Punctured Romance (+ pr, feature); The Fatal Mallet (co-d with Chaplin, pr, role)

1915

Hearts and Planets (+ pr, role); The Little Teacher (+ pr, role); My Valet (+ pr, role); A Favorite Fool (+ pr); Stolen Magic (+ pr, role)

1921

Oh, Mabel Behave (co-d, pr, role)

1927

A Finished Actor (co-d, pr)

1928

The Lion's Roar (+ sc, pr)

1929

The Bride's Relation (+ pr); The Old Barn (+ pr); Whirls and Girls (+ pr); Broadway Blues (+ pr); The Bee's Buzz (+ pr); Girl Crazy (+ pr); The Barber's Daughter (+ pr); Jazz Mamas (+ pr); The New Bankroll (+ pr); The Constable (+ pr); Midnight Daddies (+ pr); The Lunkhead (+ pr); The Golfers (+ pr); A Hollywood Star (+ pr); Scotch (+ pr); Sugar Plum Papa (+ pr); Bulls and Bears (+ pr); Match Play (+ pr); Honeymoon Zeppelin (+ pr); Fat Wives for Thin (+ pr); Campus Crushes (+ pr); The Chumps (+ pr); Goodbye Legs (+ pr); Average Husband (+ pr); Vacation Loves (+ pr); The Bluffer (+ pr); Grandma's Girl (+ pr); Divorced Sweethearts (+ pr); Racket Cheers (+ pr); Rough Idea of Love (+ pr)

1931

A Poor Fish (+ pr); Dance Hall Marge (+ pr); The Chiseler (+ pr); Ghost Parade (+ pr); Hollywood Happenings (+ pr); Hold 'er Sheriff (+ pr); Monkey Business in America (+ pr); Movie-Town (+ pr, role); The Albany Bunch (+ pr); I Surrender Dear (+ pr); Speed (+ pr); One More Chance (+ pr)

1932

Hypnotized (+ pr, sc)

1935

Ye Olde Saw Mill (+ pr, sc); Flicker Fever (+ pr); Just Another Murder (+ sc, pr); The Timid Young Man (+ pr); Way up Thar (+ pr)

Other Films:

(incomplete list)

1908

Balked at the Altar (Griffith) (role); Father Gets in the Game (Griffith) (role); The Song of the Shirt (Griffith) (role); Mr. Jones at the Ball (Griffith) (role)

1909

Mr. Jones Has a Card Party (Griffith) (role); The Curtain Pole (Griffith) (role); The Politician's Love Story (Griffith) (role); The Lonely Villa (Griffith) (role); The Way of a Man (Griffith) (role); The Slave (Griffith) (role); Pippa Passes (Griffith) (role); The Gibson Goddess (Griffith) (role); Nursing a Viper (Griffith) (role)

1910

The Dancing Girl of Butte (Griffith) (role); All on Account of the Milk (Griffith) (role); The Englishman and the Girl (Griffith) (role); The Newlyweds (Griffith) (role); An Affair of Hearts (Griffith) (role); Never Again! (Griffith) (role); The Call to Arms (Griffith) (role); An Arcadian Maid (Griffith) (role)

1911

The Italian Barber (Griffith) (role); Paradise Lost (Griffith) (role); The White Rose of the Wilds (Griffith) (role); The Last Drop of Water (Griffith) (role)

1912

The Brave Hunter (role)

1913

Their First Execution (pr); Hubby's Job (pr); Betwixt Love and Fire (pr); Toplitsky and Company (pr); Feeding Time (pr); Largest Boat Ever Launched Sidewalks (pr); Rastus and the Game-Cock (pr); Get Rich Quick (pr); Just Kids (pr); A Game of Pool (pr); The Latest in Life Saving (pr); A Chip off the Old Block (pr); The Kelp Industry (pr); Fatty's Day Off (pr); Los Angeles Harbour (pr); The New Baby (pr); What Father Saw (pr); The Faithful Taxicab (pr); Billy Dodges Bills (pr); Across the Alley (pr); The Abalone Industry (pr); Schnitz the Tailor (pr); Their Husbands (pr); A Healthy Neighborhood (pr); Two Old Tars (pr); A Quiet Little Wedding (pr); The Janitor (pr); The Making of an Automobile Tire (pr); Fatty at San Diego (pr); A Small Town Act (pr); The Milk We Drink (pr); Wine (pr); Our Children (pr); Fatty Joins the Force (pr); The Woman Haters (pr); The Rogues' Gallery (pr); The San Francisco Celebration (pr); A Ride for a Bride (pr); The Horse Thief (pr); The Gusher (pr); Fatty's Flirtation (pr); Protecting San Francisco from Fire (pr); His Sister's Kids (pr); A Bad Game (pr); Some Nerve (pr); The Champion (pr); He Would A Hunting Go (pr)

1914

A Misplaced Foot (pr); A Glimpse of Los Angeles (pr); Love and Dynamite (pr); Mabel's Stormy Love Affair (pr); The Under Sheriff (pr); A Flirt's Mistake (pr); How Motion Pictures Are Made (pr); Too Many Brides (pr); Won in a Closet (pr); Rebecca's Wedding Day (pr); Little Billy Triumphs (pr); Mabel's Bare Escape (pr); Making A Living (pr); Little Billy's Strategy (pr); Kid Auto Races at Venice (pr); Olives and Their Oil (pr); A Robust Romeo (pr); Raffles (pr); Gentleman Burglar (pr); A Thief Catcher (pr); Twixt Love and Fire (pr); Little Billy's City Cousin (pr); Between Showers (pr); A Film Johnnie (pr); Tango Tangles (pr); His Favorite Pastime (pr); A Rural Demon (pr); The Race ( How Villains Are Made ) (pr); Across the Hall (pr); Cruel, Cruel Love (pr); Barnyard Flirtations (pr); A Back Yard Theater (pr); Chicken Chaser (pr); The Star Boarder (pr); Fatal High (pr); The Passing of Izzy (pr); A Bathing Beauty ( A Bathhouse Beauty ) (pr); Twenty Minutes of Love (pr); Where Hazel Met the Villain (pr); Bowery Boys (pr); Caught in a Cabaret (pr); When Villains Wait (pr); Caught in the Rain (pr); A Busy Day (pr); The Morning Papers (pr); A Suspended Ordeal (pr); Finnegan's Bomb (pr); Mabel's Nerve (pr); The Water Dog (pr); When Reuben Fooled the Bandits (pr); Acres of Alfalfa (pr); Our Large Birds (pr); The Fatal Flirtation (pr); The Alarm (pr); The Fatal Mallet (pr); Her Friend the Bandit (pr); Our Country Cousin (pr); Mabel's Busy Day (pr); A Gambling Rube (pr); A Missing Bride (pr); Mabel's Married Life (pr); The Eavesdropper (pr); Fatty and the Heiress (pr); Caught in Tights (pr); Fatty's Finish (pr); Love and Bullets (pr); Row-Boat Romance (pr); Laughing Gas (pr); Love and Salt Water (pr); World's Oldest Living Thing (pr); Mabel's New Job (pr); The Sky Pirate (pr); The Fatal Sweet Tooth (pr); Those Happy Days (pr); The Great Toe Mystery (pr); Soldiers of Misfortune (pr); The Property Man (pr, role); A Coat's Tale (pr); The Face on the Barroom Floor (pr); Recreation (pr); The Yosemite (pr); Such a Cook (pr); That Minstrel Man (pr); Those Country Kids (pr); Caught in a Flue (pr); Fatty's Gift (pr); The Masquerader (pr); Her Last Chance (pr); His New Profession (pr); The Baggage Smasher (pr); A Brand New Hero (pr); The Rounders (pr); Mabel's Latest Prank (pr); Mabel's Blunder (pr); All at Sea (pr); Bombs and Bangs (pr); Lover's Luck (pr); He Loved the Ladies (pr); The New Janitor (pr); Fatty's Debut (pr); Hard Cider (pr); Killing Hearts (pr); Fatty Again (pr); Their Ups and Downs (pr); Hello Mabel (pr); Those Love Pangs (pr); The Anglers (pr); The High Spots on Broadway (pr); Zipp, the Dodger (pr); Dash, Love and Splash (pr); Santa Catalina Islands (pr); The Love Thief (pr); Stout Heart but Weak Knees (pr); Shot in the Excitement (pr); Doug and Dynamite (pr); Gentlemen of Nerve (pr); Lovers' Post Office (pr); Curses! They Remarked (pr); His Musical Career (pr); His Trysting Place (pr); An Incompetent Hero (pr); How Heroes Are Made (pr); Fatty's Jonah Day (pr); The Noise of Bombs (pr); Fatty's Wine Party (pr); His Taking Ways (pr); The Sea Nymphs (pr); His Halted Career (pr); Among the Mourners (pr); Leading Lizzie Astray (pr); Shotguns That Kick (pr); Getting Acquainted (pr); Other People's Business (pr); His Prehistoric Past (pr); The Plumber (pr); Ambrose's First Falsehood (pr); Fatty's Magic Pants (pr); Hogan's Annual Spree (pr); A Colored Girl's Love (pr); Wild West Love (pr); Fatty and Minnie-He-Haw (pr); His Second Childhood (pr); Gussle the Golfer (pr); Hogan's Wild Oats (pr); A Steel Rolling Mill (pr); The Knockout (Chaplin) (role)

1915

A Dark Lover's Play (pr); Hushing the Scandal (pr); His Winning Punch (pr); U.S. Army in San Francisco (pr); Giddy, Gay and Ticklish (pr); Only A Farmer's Daughter (pr); Rum and Wall Paper (pr); Mabel's and Fatty's Wash Day (pr); Hash House Mashers (pr); Love, Speed, and Thrills (pr); Mabel and Fatty's Simple Life (pr); Hogan's Messy Job (pr); Fatty and Mabel at the San Diego Exposition (pr); Colored Villainy (pr); Mabel, Fatty and the Law (pr); Peanuts and Bullets (pr); The Home Breakers (pr); Fatty's New Role (pr); Hogan the Porter (pr); Caught in the Park (pr); A Bird's a Bird (pr); Hogan's Romance Upset (pr); Hogan's Aristocratic Dream (pr); Ye Olden Grafter (pr); A Glimpse of the San Diego Exposition (pr); A Lucky Leap (pr); That Springtime Fellow (pr); Hogan out West (pr); Ambrose's Sour Grapes (pr); Wilful Ambrose (pr); Fatty's Reckless Fling (pr); From Patches to Plenty (pr); Fatty's Chance Acquaintance (pr); Love in Armor (pr); Beating Hearts and Carpets (pr); That Little Band of Gold (pr); Ambrose's Little Hatchet (pr); Fatty's Faithful Fido (pr); A One Night Stand (pr); Ambrose's Fury (pr); Gussie's Day of Rest (pr); When Love Took Wings (pr); Ambrose's Lofty Perch (pr); Droppington's Devilish Dream (pr); The Rent Jumpers (pr); Droppington's Family Tree (pr); The Beauty Bunglers (pr); Do-Re-Mi-Fa (pr); Ambrose's Nasty Temper (pr); Fatty and Mabel Viewing the World's Fair at San Francisco (pr); Love, Loot, and Crash (pr); Gussie Rivals Jonah (pr); Their Social Splash (pr); A Bear Affair (pr); Mabel's Wilful Way (pr); Gussie's Backward Way (pr); A Human Hound's Triumph (pr); Our Dare Devil Chief (pr); Crossed Love and Swords (pr); Mis Fatty's Seaside Lover (pr); He Wouldn't Stay Down (pr); For Better—But Worse (pr); A Versatile Villain (pr); Those College Girls (pr); Mabel Lost and Won (pr); Those Bitter Sweets (pr); The Cannon Ball (pr); A Home-Breaking Hound (pr); Foiled by Fido (pr); Court House Crooks (pr); When Ambrose Dared Walrus (pr); Dirty Work in a Laundry (pr); Fido's Tin-Type Tangle (pr); A Lover's Lost Control (pr); A Rascal of Wolfish Ways (pr); The Battle of Ambrose and Walrus (pr); Only a Messenger Boy (pr); Caught in the Act (pr); His Luckless Love (pr); Viewing Sherman Institute for Indians at Riverside (pr); Wished on Mabel (pr); Gussie's Wayward Path (pr); Settled at the Seaside (pr); Gussie Tied to Trouble (pr); A Hash House Fraud (pr); Merely a Married Man (pr); A Game Old Knight (pr); Her Painted Hero (pr); Saved by Wireless (pr); Fickle Fatty's Fall (pr); His Father's Footsteps (pr); The Best of Enemies (pr); A Janitor's Wife's Temptation (pr); A Village Scandal (pr); The Great Vacuum Robbery (pr); Crooked to the End (pr); Fatty and the Broadway Stars (pr, role); A Submarine Pirate (pr); The Hunt (pr)

1916

The Worst of Friends (pr); Dizzy Heights and Daring Hearts (pr); The Great Pearl Tangle (pr); Fatty and Mabel Adrift (pr); Because He Loved Her (pr); A Modern Enoch Arden (pr); Perils of the Park (pr); A Movie Star (pr); His Hereafter (pr); He Did and He Didn't ( Love and Lobsters ) (pr); Love Will Conquer (pr); His Pride and Shame (pr); Fido's Fate (pr); Better Late than Never (pr); Bright Lights (pr); Cinders of Love (pr); Wife and Auto Troubles (pr); The Judge (pr); A Village Vampire (pr); The Village Blacksmith (pr); A Love Riot (pr); Gipsy Joe (pr); By Stork Delivery (pr); An Oily Scoundrel (pr); A Bathhouse Blunder (pr); His Wife's Mistake (pr); His Bread and Butter (pr); His Last Laugh (pr); Bucking Society (pr); The Other Man (pr); The Snow Cure (pr); A Dash of ourage (pr); The Lion and the Girl (pr); His Bitter Pill (pr); Her Marble Heart (pr); Bathtub Perils (pr); The Moonshiners (pr); Hearts and Sparks (pr); His Wild Oats (pr); Ambrose's Cup of Woe (pr); The Waiter's Ball (pr); The Surf Girl (pr); A Social Club (pr); Vampire Ambrose (pr); The Winning Punch (pr); His Lying Heart (pr); She Loved a Sailor (pr); His Auto Ruination (pr); Ambrose's Rapid Rise (pr); His Busted Trust (pr); Tugboat Romeos (pr); Sunshine (pr); Her Feathered Nest (pr); No One to Guide Him (pr); Her First Beau (pr); His First False Step (pr); The Houseboat (pr); The Fire Chief (pr); Love on Skates (pr); His Alibi (pr); Love Comet (pr); A la Cabaret (pr); Haystacks and Steeples (pr); A Scoundrel's Toll (pr); The Three Slims (p); The Girl Guardian (pr); Wings and Wheels (pr); Safety First Ambrose (pr); Maid Mad (pr); The Twins (pr); Piles of Perils (pr); A Cream Puff Romance (pr); The Danger Girl (pr); Bombs (pr); His Last Scent (pr); The Manicurist (pr)

1917

The Nick of Time Baby (pr); Stars and Bars (pr); Maggie's First False Step (pr); Villa of the Movies (pr); Dodging His Doom (pr); Her Circus Knight (pr); Her Fame and Shames (pr); Pinched in the Finish (pr); Her Nature Dance (pr); Teddy at the Throttle (pr); Secrets of a Beauty Parlor (pr); A Maiden's Trust (pr); His Naughty Thought (pr); Her Torpedoed Love (pr); A Royal Rogue (pr); Oriental Love (pr); Cactus Nell (pr); The Betrayal of Maggie (pr); Skidding Hearts (pr); The Dog Catcher's Love (pr); Whose Baby (pr); Dangers of a Bride (pr); A Clever Dummy (pr); She Needed a Doctor (pr); Thirst (pr); His Uncle Dudley (pr); Lost a Cook (pr); The Pawnbroker's Heart (pr); Two Crooks (pr); A Shanghaied Jonah (pr); His Precious Life (pr); Hula Hula Land (pr); The Late amented (pr); The Sultan's Wife (pr); A Bedroom Blunder (pr); Roping Her Romeo (pr); The Pullman Bride (pr); Are Waitresses Safe (pr); An International Sneak (pr); That Night (pr); Taming Target Center (pr)

1918

The Kitchen Lady (pr); His Hidden Purpose (pr); Watch Your Neighbors (pr); It Pays to Exercise (pr); Sheriff Nell's Tussle (pr); Those Athletic Girls (pr); Friend Husband (pr); Saucy Madeline (pr); His Smothered Love (pr); The Battle Royal (pr); Love Loops the Loop (pr); Two Tough Tender-feet (pr); Her Screen Idol (pr); Ladies First (pr); Her Blighted Love (pr); She Loved Him Plenty (pr); The Summer Girls (pr); Mickey (pr); His Wife's Friend (pr); Sleuths (pr); Beware the Boarders (pr); Whose Little Wife Are You (pr); Her First Mistake (pr); Hide and Seek Detectives (pr); The Village Chestnut (pr)

1919

Cupid's Day Off (pr); Never Too Old (pr); Rip & Stitch, Tailors (pr); East Lynne with Variations (pr); The Village Smithy (pr); Reilly's Wash Day (pr); The Foolish Age (pr); The Little Widow (pr); When Love Is Blind (pr); Love's False Faces (pr); Hearts and Flowers (pr); No Mother to Guide Him (pr); Trying to Get Along (pr); Among Those Present (pr); Yankee Doodle in Berlin (pr); Why Beaches Are Popular (pr); Treating 'em Rough (pr); A Lady's Tailor (pr); Uncle Tom without the Cabin (pr); The Dentist (pr); Back to the Kitchen (pr); Up in Alf's Place (pr); Salome vs. Shenandoah (pr); His Last False Step (pr); The Speak Easy (pr)

1920

The Star Boarder (pr); Ten Dollars or Ten Days (pr); Gee Whiz (pr); The Gingham Girl (pr); Down on the Farm (pr); Fresh from the City (pr); Let 'er Go (pr); By Golly (pr); You Wouldn't Believe It (pr); Married Life (pr); The Quack Doctor (pr); Great Scott (pr); Don't Weaken (pr); It's a Boy (pr); Young Man's Fancy (pr); His Youthful Fancy (pr); My Goodness (pr); Movie Fans (pr); Fickle Fancy (pr); Love, Honor, and Behave (pr); A Fireside Brewer ( Home Brew ) (pr); Bungalow Troubles (pr)

1921

Dabbling in Art (pr); An Unhappy Finish (pr); On a Summer's Day (pr); A Small Town Idol (pr, sc); Wedding Bells out of Tune (pr); Officer Cupid (pr); Away from the Steerage ( Astray from the Steerage ) (pr); Sweetheart Days (pr); Home Talent (pr, sc); She Sighed by the Seaside (pr); Hard Knocks and Love Taps (pr); Made in the Kitchen (pr); Call a Cop (pr); Love's Outcast (pr); Molly O (pr, sc)

1922

By Heck (pr); Be Reasonable (pr); Bright Eyes (pr); The Duck Hunter (pr); On Patrol (pr); Step Forward (pr); Gymnasium Jim (pr); The Crossroads of New York (pr, sc); Oh Daddy! (pr); Home-made Movies (pr); Ma and Pa (pr); Bow Wow (pr); Love and Doughnuts (pr); When Summer Comes (pr)

1923

Suzanna (pr); The Shriek of Araby (pr, sc); Where Is My Wandering Boy This Evening (pr); Nip and Tuck (pr); Pitfalls of a Big City (pr); Skylarking (pr); Down to the Sea in Shoes (pr); The Extra Girl (pr, co-sc); Asleep at the Switch (pr); One Cylinder Love (pr); The Dare-Devil (pr); Flip Flops (pr); Inbad the Sailor (pr)

1924

Ten Dollars or Ten Days (remake, pr); One Spooky Night (pr); Picking Peaches (pr); The Half-Back of Notre Dame (pr); Smile Please (pr); Scarem Much (pr); Shanghaied Ladies (pr); The Hollywood Kid (pr); Flickering Youth (pr); Black Oxfords (pr); The Cat's Meow (pr); Yukon Jake (pr); The Lion and the Souse (pr); His New Mama (pr); Romeo and Juliet (pr); Wall Street Blues (pr); The First Hundred Years (pr); East of the Water Plug (pr, sc); Lizzies of the Field (pr); The Luck of the Foolish (pr); Three Foolish Wives (pr); Little Robinson Corkscrew (pr); The Hansom Cabman ( Be Careful ) (pr); Riders of the Purple Cows (pr); The Reel Virginian ( The West Virginian ) (pr); Galloping Bungalows (pr); All Night Long (pr); Love's Sweet Piffle (pr); The Cannon Ball Express (pr); Feet of Mud (pr); Off His Trolley (pr); Bull and Sand (pr); Watch Out (pr); Over Here (pr); The Lady Barber (pr); North of 57 (pr); Love's Intrigue (pr); The Stunt Man (pr)

1925

The Sea Squaw (pr); The Plumber (pr); The Wild Goose Chaser (pr); Honeymoon Hardships (pr); Boobs in the Woods (pr); The Beloved Bozo (pr); Water Wagons (pr); His Marriage Wow (pr); The Raspberry Romance (pr); Bashful Jim (pr); Giddap (pr); Plain Clothes (pr); Breaking the Ice (pr); The Marriage Circus (pr); The Lion's Whiskers (pr); Remember When (pr); He Who Gets Smacked (pr); Skinners in Silk (pr); Good Morning, Nurse! (pr); Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies (pr); Don't Tell Dad (pr); Isn't Love Cuckoo (pr); Sneezing Breezes (pr); Cupid's Boots (pr); Tee for Two (pr); The Iron Nag (pr); Lucky Stars (pr); Cold Turkey (pr); Butter Fingers (pr); There He Goes (pr); Hurry, Doctor (pr); A Rainy Knight (pr); Love and Kisses (pr); ver There-Abouts (pr); Good Morning, Madam (pr); A Sweet Pickle (pr); Dangerous Curves Behind (pr); The Soapsuds Lady (pr); Take Your Time (pr); The Window Dummy (pr); From Rags to Britches (pr); Hotsy Toty (pr)

1926

The Gosh-Darn Mortgage (pr); Wide Open Faces (pr); Hot Cakes for Two (pr); Whispering Whiskers (pr); Saturday Afternoon (pr); Funnymooners (pr); Trimmed in Gold (pr); Gooseland (pr); Circus Today (pr); Meet My Girl (pr); Spanking Breezes (pr); Wandering Willies (pr); Hooked at the Altar (pr); A Love Sundae (pr); Soldier Man (pr); The Ghost of Folly (pr); Fight Night (pr); Hayfoot, Strawfoot (pr); A Yankee Doodle Dude (pr); Muscle-bound Music (pr); Oh, Uncle! (pr); Puppy Lovetime (pr); Ice Cold Cocos (pr); A Dinner Jest (pr); A Sea Dog's Tale (pr); Baby's Pets (pr); A Bachelor Butt-in (pr); Smith's Baby (pr); Alice Be Good (pr); When a Man's a Prince (pr); Smith's Vacation (pr); Hubby's Quiet Little Game (pr); Her Actor Friend (p); Hoboken to Hollywood (pr); The Prodigal Bridegroom (pr); The Perils of Petersboro (pr); Smith's Landlord (pr); Love's Last Laugh (pr); Smith's Visitor (pr); Should Husbands Marry (pr); Masked Mamas (pr); A Harem Knight (pr); Smith's Uncle (pr); Hesitating Houses (pr); The Divorce Dodger (pr); A Blonde's Revenge (pr); Flirty Four-Flushers (pr); Smith's Picnic (pr)

1927

Kitty from Killarney (pr); Smith's Pets (pr); Should Sleepwalkers Marry (pr); Pass the Dumpling (pr); A Hollywood Hero (pr); Smith's Customer (pr); Peaches and Plumbers (pr); Plumber's Daughter (pr); A Small-Town Princess (pr); A Dozen Socks (pr); The Jolly Jilter (pr); Smith's Surprise (pr); Smith's New Home (pr); Broke in China (pr); Smith's Kindergarten (pr); Crazy to Act (pr); Smith Fishing Trip (pr); His First Flame (pr); Pride of Pickeville (pr); Cured in the Excitement (pr); Catalina, Here I Come (pr); The Pest of Friends (pr); Love's Languid Lure (pr); College Kiddo (pr); Smith's Candy Shop (pr); The Golf Nut (pr); Smith's Pony (pr); A Gold Digger of Weepah (pr); Smith's Cook (pr); Daddy Boy (pr); For Sale a Bungalow (pr); Smith's Cousin (pr); The Bull Fighter (pr); Fiddlesticks (pr); Smith's Modiste Shop (pr); The Girl from Everywhere (pr); Love in a Police Station (pr); Hold that Pose (pr)

1928

Smith's Holiday (pr); Run, Girl, Run (pr); The Beach Club (pr); Love at First Sight (pr); Smith's Army Life (pr); The Best Man (pr); The Swan Princess (pr); Smith's Farm Days (pr); The Bicycle Flirt (pr); The Girl from Nowhere (pr); His Unlucky Night (pr); Smith's Restaurant (pr); The Good-bye Kiss (pr); The Chicken (pr); Taxi for Two (pr); Caught in the Kitchen (pr); A Dumb Waiter (pr); The Campus Carmen (pr); Motor Boat Mamas (pr); The Bargain Hunt (pr); Smith's Catalina Rowboat Race ( Catalina Rowboat Race ) (pr); A Taxi Scandal (pr); Hubby's Latest Alibi (pr); A Jim Jam Janitor (pr); The Campus Vamp (pr); Hubby's Week-End Trip (pr); The Burglar (pr); Taxi Beauties (pr); His New Stenographer (pr)

1929

Clunked on the Corner (pr); Baby's Birthday (pr); Uncle Tom (pr); Calling Hubby's Bluff (pr); Taxi Spooks (pr); Button My Back (pr); Ladies Must Eat (pr); Foolish Husbands (pr); Matchmaking Mamas (pr); The Rodeo (pr); Pink Pajamas (pr); The Night Watchman's Mistake (pr); The New Aunt (pr); Taxi Dolls (pr); Don't Get Jealous (pr); Caught in a Taxi (pr); A Close Shave (pr); The Big Palooka (pr); Motoring Mamas (pr); Clancy at the Bat (pr); The New Half-Back (pr); Uppercut O'Brien (pr)

1930

He Trumped Her Ace (pr); Radio Kisses (pr); Hello Television (pr); Take Your Medicine (pr); Don't Bite Your Dentist (pr); Strange Birds (pr); A Hollywood Theme Song (pr)

1931

No, No, Lady (pr); One Yard to Go (pr); The College Vamp (remake, pr); The Bride's Mistake (pr); The Dog Doctor (pr); Just a Bear ( It's a Bear ) (pr); Ex-Sweeties (pr); In Conference (pr); The Cowcatcher's Daughter (pr); Slide, Speedy, Slide (pr); Fainting Lover (pr); Too Many Husbands (pr); The Cannonball (pr); The Trail of the Swordfish (pr); Poker Windows (pr); The World Flier (pr); Who's Who in the Zoo (pr); Taxi Troubles (pr); The Great Pie Mystery (pr); Wrestling Swordfish (pr); All American Kickback (pr); Half Holiday (pr); The Pottsville Palooka (pr)

1932

Playgrounds of the Mammals (pr); Dream House (pr); The Girl in the Tonneau (pr); Shopping with Wife (pr); Lady! Please! (pr); Heavens! My Husband! (pr); The Billboard Girl (pr); The Flirty Sleepwalker (pr); Speed in the Gay Nineties (pr); Man-Eating Sharks (pr); Listening In (pr); The Spot in the Rug (pr); Divorce a la Mode (pr); The Boudoir Brothers (pr); Freaks of the Deep (pr); The Candid Camera (pr); Sea Going Birds (pr); Hatta Marri (pr); Alaska Love (pr); For the Love of Ludwig (pr); Neighbor Trouble (pr); His Royal Shyness (pr); Young Onions (pr); The Giddy Age (pr); Lighthouse Love (pr); Hawkins and Watkins (pr); The Singing Plumber (pr); Courting Trouble (pr); False Impressions (pr); Bring Back 'em Sober (pr); A Hollywood Double (pr); The Dentist (pr); Doubling in the Quickies (pr); The Lion and the House (pr); Human Fish (pr)

1933

Blue of the Night (pr); The Wrestlers ( A Wrestler's Bride ) (pr); Don't Play Bridge with Your Wife (pr); The Singing Boxer (pr); Too Many Highballs (pr); Easy on the Eyes (pr); A Fatal Glass of Beer (pr); Caliente Love (pr); Sing, Bing, Sing (pr); The Plumber and the Lady (pr); Sweet Cookie (pr); The Pharmacist (pr); Uncle Jake (pr); Dream Stuff (pr); Roadhouse Queen (pr); See You Tonight (pr); Daddy Knows Best (pr); Knockout Kisses (pr); Husband's Reunion (pr); The Big Fibber (pr); The Barber Shop (pr)

1939

Hollywood Cavalcade (role)

1949

Down Memory Lane (role)

Publications

By SENNETT: book—

Mack Sennett: King of Comedy, as Told to Cameron Shipp , New York, 1954.

By SENNETT: article—

Interview with T. Dreiser, in Photoplay (New York), August 1928.

On SENNETT: books—

Lejeune, C.A., Mack Sennett , London, 1931.

Fowler, Gene, Father Goose: The Story of Mack Sennett , New York, 1934.

Chevallier, Jacques, Le Cinéma burlesque américain, 1912–30 , Paris, 1964.

Turconi, David, Mack Sennett , Paris, 1966.

Geduld, Harry M., editor, Film Makers on Filmmaking , Bloomington, Indiana, 1967.

Lahue, Kalton C., Dreams for Sale: The Rise and Fall of the Triangle Film Corporation , New York, 1971.

Lahue, Kalton C., Mack Sennett's Keystone: The Man, the Myth, and the Comedies , South Brunswick, New Jersey, 1971.

Pratt, George C., Spellbound in Darkness , Greenwich, Connecticut, 1973.

Mast, Gerald, The Comic Mind: Comedy and the Movies , Chicago, 1974; revised edition, 1979.

Sherk, Warren M., The Films of Mack Sennett: Credit Documentation from the Mack Sennett Collection at the Margaret Herrick Library , Lanham, Maryland, 1997.

On SENNETT: articles—

Carr, H.C., "Mack Sennett—Laugh Tester," in Photoplay (New York), May 1915.

Carr, H., "The Secret of Making Film Comedies," in Motion Picture Classic (Brooklyn), October 1925.

Manners, D., "Defense of Low-Brow Comedy," in Motion Picture Classic (Brooklyn), October 1930.

Agee, James, "Comedy's Greatest Era," in Life (New York), 5 September 1949.

Knight, Arthur, "Era of Great Comedians," in the Saturday Review (New York), 18 December 1954.

Dyer, Peter John, "Cops, Custard, and Keaton," in Films and Filming (London), August 1958.

"Sennett Issue" of Cinéma (Paris), August/September 1960.

"Sennett Issue" of Image et Son (Paris), April 1964.

Durgnat, Raymond, "The World of Comedy: Breaking the Laugh Barrier," in Films and Filming (London), October 1965.

Giroux, Robert, "Mack Sennett," in Films in Review (New York), December 1968.

Hoffner, J.R., "King of Keystone," in Classic Film Collector (Indiana, Pennsylvania), Summer 1971.

Bodeen, Dewitt, "All the Sad Young Bathing Beauties," in Focus on Film (London), Autumn 1974.

Griffithiana (Stockholm), vol. 6, no. 12–15, October 1983.

Cherchi Usai, P., "Sennett, Arbuckle e l'etica della volgarità," in Segnocinema (Vicenza), vol. 4, no. 11, January 1984.

"Mack Sennett Section" of Cinema Nuovo (Bari), April 1984.

Stempel, T., "The Sennett Screenplays," in Sight and Sound (London), Winter 1985/86.

Landrot, M., "La crème du burlesque," in Télérama (Paris), no. 2311, 27 April 1994.

Adamson, Joe, "Smith's Restaurant: A Case Study in the Sennett Method," in Griffithiana (Stockholm), vol. 18, no. 53, May 1995.

* * *

Mack Sennett was the outstanding pioneer and primitive of American silent comedy. Although Sennett's name is most commonly associated with the Keystone Company, which he founded in 1912, Sennett's film career began four years earlier with the Biograph Company, the pioneering film company where D.W. Griffith established the principles of film narrative and rhetoric. Sennett and Griffith were colleagues and contemporaries, and Sennett served as actor, writer, and assistant under Griffith in 1908 and 1909. In 1910 he began his career as director of his own films under Griffith's supervision.

Sennett became associated with comic roles and comic films from the beginning under Griffith. In his first major role for Griffith, The Curtain Pole in 1908, Sennett played a comically drunk Frenchman who visits chaos upon all he meets in a desperate race through town to replace a broken curtain rod. The film contains several traits that would become associated with the mature Sennett style: the breathless chase, the reduction of human beings to venal stereotypes, the reduction of human society and its physical surroundings to chaotic rubble, and a fondness for games concerning the cinema mechanism itself, manifested in the use of accelerated (by undercranking) and reverse motion. In other roles for Griffith, Sennett consistently played the comic rube or dumb servant—roles that took advantage of Sennett's shambling bulk and oafish facial expressions.

According to legend, Sennett founded the Keystone Company when he conned his bookies, Adam Kessel and Charles Bauman, to go double or nothing on his gambling debts and stake him to a film company. Kessel and Bauman, however, had been out of the bookmaking business and in the moviemaking business for at least five years as owners of Thomas Ince's flourishing New York Motion Picture Company. Between late 1912 and early 1914, Sennett assembled a troupe of the finest raucous physical comedians and burlesque clowns in the film business. From Biograph he brought the pretty Mabel Normand, who was also an extremely agile and athletic physical comedienne, and the loony Ford Sterling, with his biggesturing burlesque of villainy and lechery. Among the other physical comedians he found in those years were the burly Mack Swain, the tiny Chester Conklin, the round Fatty Arbuckle, and the cross-eyed Ben Turpin. He also discovered such future comic stars as Charles Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, and Harry Langdon, as well as the future director of sound comedies, Frank Capra. Perhaps more important than any artistic contribution was Sennett's managerial ability to spot comic talent and give it the opportunity to display itself.

At the root of Sennett's comic style was the brash, the vulgar, and the burlesque. His films parodied the serious film and stage hits of the day, always turning the serious romance or melodrama into outrageous nonsense. There were no serious moral, psychological, or social issues in Sennett films, simply raucous burlesque of social or emotional material. His short comedies were exuberantly impolite and often made public jokes out of ethnic, sexual, or racial stereotypes. Among the characters around whom he built film series were the Germans Meyer and Heinie, the Jewish Cohen, and the black Rastus. Many of these films were so brashly vulgar in their stereotypical humor that they cannot be shown in public today. As indicators of social attitudes of the 1910s, these films seem to suggest that the still largely immigrant American society of that time was more willing to make and respond to jokes openly based on ethnic and sexist stereotypes than they are today in an era of greater sensitivity to the potential harm of these stereotypes. In defense of Sennett's making sport of ethnic types, it must be said that the method and spirit was consistent with his films' refusal to take any social or psychological matters seriously.

Sennett's Keystone films were extremely improvisational; a typical formula was to take a camera, a bucket of whitewash, and four clowns (two male, two female) out to a park and make a movie. Sennett's aesthetic was not so much an art that conceals art but an art that derides art. His many Keystone films reveal the same contempt for orderly, careful, well-crafted art that one can see in the Marx Brothers' Paramount films or W.C. Fields's Universal films two decades later. The one conscious artistic tool which Sennett exploited was speed—keeping the actors, the action, the gags, the machines, and the camera in perpetual speeding motion. The typical Keystone title might be something like Love, Speed, and Thrills or Love, Loot, and Crash.

Among other Sennett inventions were the Keystone Kops, a burlesque of attempts at social order, and the Bathing Beauties, a burlesque of attempts at pornographic sexuality. Sennett served his apprenticeship in the American burlesque theater, and he brought to the Keystone films that same kind of entertainment which took place at the intersection of vulgar lunacy and comic pornography.

Sennett's most memorable films include a series of domestic films starring Mabel Normand, married either to Fatty Arbuckle or Charlie Chaplin; a series of films pairing the beefy Mack Swain and the diminutive Chester Conklin; a series featuring Ben Turpin as a cross-eyed burlesque of romantic movie stars; a series built around remarkably athletic automobiles and rampaging jungle beasts starring Billy Bevan; and a series of short films featuring the pixieish child-clown Harry Langdon. Sennett also produced and personally directed the first comic feature film produced in America (or anywhere else), Tillie's Punctured Romance , starring Chaplin, Normand, and stage comedienne Marie Dressler in her first film role.

Sennett ceased to direct films after 1914, becoming the producer and overseer of every comic film made by his company for the next two decades. Although the Keystone Company folded by the late 1910s, Sennett's immensely long filmography is a testament to the sheer number of comic films he produced, well into the sound era. Sennett's real importance to film history, however, derives from that crucial historical moment between 1912 and 1915, a period when a comic assumption, the evolution of film technique, and a collection of talented physical clowns all came together under Sennett's stewardship to create a unique and memorable type of comedy that has assumed its place not only in the history of cinema, but in the much longer history of comedy itself.

—Gerald Mast