Mack Sennett
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Canadian-born of Irish stock, actor, producer, director, and studio head Mack Sennett came from serving as a minor clown in third-string vaudeville to dominating the American motion picture comedy industry of the silent period. Hearing that one could make five dollars a day appearing in early movies, Sennett joined on at Biograph Studios in New York in 1908 and became one of the first members of D.W. Griffith's repertory company there; Sennett was also Griffith's first protégé among film directors. Griffith recognized Sennett's flair for comedy and featured him in many Biograph subjects between 1908 and 1910; Griffith's The Curtain Pole (1909), based on a French farce, was written by Sennett and is regarded as one of the first American slapstick comedies. Sennett began to direct in 1910, and when Mabel Normand joined Biograph in 1911, Sennett began to feature her in his comedy films as the star; comic Ford Sterling also began to work with Sennett at this time. In late 1912, Sennett broke with Biograph and formed the Keystone studio with Adam Kessel and Charles Baumann as backers, taking both Normand and Sterling with him and building a studio in Edendale, CA. The first Keystone was The Water Nymph (1912), starring Normand. The Bangville Police (1913) was the first subject featuring the Keystone Kops, and introduced Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, who had previously been with Selig Polyscope, to Keystone. By the time Charlie Chaplin arrived in 1914, Keystone was already established as the top producer of film comedies in the United States, noted for knockabout chaos, pie throwing, explosions, collapsing sets, and free-for-all irreverence. Chaplin, however, became the biggest male movie star of any kind to date in a very short time, and Sennett wasn't able to hang onto him; Chaplin left for Essanay by the end of 1914. This started a trend; Ford Sterling left in 1915, and Arbuckle the following year. However, Sennett had a matchless sense of spotting talent, and over time he would launch or significantly assist the film careers of Gloria Swanson, Chester Conklin, Charley Chase, Edgar Kennedy, Ben Turpin, Harry Langdon, Al St. John, Marie Dressler, Phyllis Haver, Betty Bronson, Carole Lombard, Bing Crosby, and W.C. Fields. Many of the women, including Swanson, made their film debuts among the ranks of "Sennett's Bathing Beauties." In 1915, Sennett signed on -- along with D.W. Griffith and Thomas Ince -- to distribute Keystone through Triangle Film Corporation, which turned out to be a mistake, as in 1917 it was discovered that Harry Aitken, head of Triangle, was slowing embezzling the company to the brink of bankruptcy. Sennett caught wind of this early and began legally unbinding himself from Triangle with the intention of leaving Aitken with nothing more than the brand name of "Keystone," which he ultimately did. But in the process, Sennett lost control of Mickey (1918), an expensive project for which Sennett had built a separate studio to produce; that the film was hugely successful when released while others made the money from it, coupled with the loss of Normand to the Goldwyn Studio in 1917, were major setbacks. The popularity of cross-eyed comic Ben Turpin helped the newly named Mack Sennett Comedies -- distributed by Paramount, and later Pathé -- to win back its cachet. Sennett also regained Normand's services in 1920, but finally lost them amid the scandals swarming around her as the 1920s progressed. Sennett updated his product from mere slapstick and stunts to incorporate special effects and other advanced devices and arrived at a surprise hit with Lizzies of the Field (1924), which featured mass destruction of automobiles. Sennett began production of Technicolor shorts in 1927, and released his first talking picture in 1928. However, with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Sennett -- who around 1920 had amassed the largest personal fortune of anyone in Hollywood -- was suddenly broke. He left Pathé and entered into a new distrib
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
95% | The Real Charlie Chaplin |
|
— | 2021 |
No Score Yet | The Mack Sennett Collection: Volume One |
|
— | 2014 |
No Score Yet | The Bangville Police |
|
— | 2013 |
No Score Yet | Those Awful Hats |
|
— | 2011 |
No Score Yet | Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops |
|
— | 1955 |
No Score Yet | Down Memory Lane |
|
— | 1949 |
No Score Yet | Road to Hollywood |
|
— | 1947 |
No Score Yet | Hollywood Cavalcade |
|
— | 1939 |
No Score Yet | The Barber Shop |
|
— | 1933 |
100% | The Pharmacist |
|
— | 1933 |
No Score Yet | The Fatal Glass of Beer |
|
— | 1933 |
100% | The Dentist |
|
— | 1932 |
No Score Yet | One More Chance |
|
— | 1931 |
No Score Yet | I Surrender Dear |
|
— | 1931 |
No Score Yet | Midnight Daddies |
|
— | 1930 |
No Score Yet | Caution: Funny Men at Work! |
|
— | 1928 |
No Score Yet | His First Flame |
|
— | 1927 |
No Score Yet | Super-Hooper-Dyne Lizzies |
|
— | 1925 |
No Score Yet | His Marriage Wow |
|
— | 1925 |
No Score Yet | Boobs in the Wood |
|
— | 1925 |
No Score Yet | The Luck o' the Foolish |
|
— | 1924 |
No Score Yet | The First 100 Years |
|
— | 1924 |
No Score Yet | His New Mamma |
|
— | 1924 |
No Score Yet | Smile Please |
|
— | 1924 |
No Score Yet | The Extra Girl |
|
— | 1923 |
No Score Yet | These Girls Won't Talk |
|
— | 1920 |
No Score Yet | Yankee Doodle in Berlin |
|
— | 1919 |
No Score Yet | Hide and Seek Detectives |
|
— | 1918 |
100% | Mickey |
|
— | 1918 |
No Score Yet | Teddy at the Throttle |
|
— | 1917 |
No Score Yet | The Desperate Scoundrel |
|
— | 1916 |
No Score Yet | Madcap Ambrose |
|
— | 1916 |
No Score Yet | Mabel & Fatty |
|
— | 1916 |
No Score Yet | His Bitter Pill |
|
— | 1916 |
No Score Yet | Keystone Comedies, Vol. 1 |
|
— | 1915 |
No Score Yet | A Fair Exchange |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | His Trysting Place |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Musical Tramps |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Gentlemen of Nerve |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Dough and Dynamite |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | The Rival Mashers |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | The New Janitor |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | The Rounders |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | The Good for Nothing |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | The Masquerader |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Recreation |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | The Face on the Bar Room Floor |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | The Property Man (Charlie on the Boards ) (Getting His Goat ) (Hits of the Past) |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Mabel's Married Life |
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— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Mabel's Busy Day |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | The Knockout |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Laughing Gas |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Her Friend the Bandit |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | The Fatal Mallet |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | A Busy Day |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Caught in the Rain |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Caught in a Cabaret |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Twenty Minutes of Love |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Mabel at the Wheel |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Cruel, Cruel Love |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | His Favorite Pastime |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Tango Tangles |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | A Film Johnnie |
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— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Between Showers |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Mabel's Strange Predicament |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Kid Auto Races at Venice |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Making a Living |
|
— | 1914 |
90% | Tillie's Punctured Romance |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | Chaplin at Keystone Studios |
|
— | 1914 |
No Score Yet | A Muddy Romance (A Mud Bath)(Muddled in Mud) |
|
— | 1913 |
No Score Yet | Rivals |
|
— | 1912 |
No Score Yet | Caught with the Goods |
|
— | 1911 |
No Score Yet | The Lonedale Operator |
|
— | 1911 |
No Score Yet | What the Daisy Said |
|
— | 1910 |
No Score Yet | A Corner in Wheat |
|
— | 1909 |
No Score Yet | In Old Kentucky |
|
— | 1909 |
No Score Yet | The Lonely Villa |
|
— | 1909 |
No Score Yet | The Broken Locket |
|
— | 1909 |
No Score Yet | Where the Breakers Roar |
|
— | 1908 |
No Score Yet | Hearts And Flowers |
|
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Quotes from Mack Sennett's Characters
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