Just so...so bad

Am I Missing Something?

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

As a racing fan, I really, really loved this movie! The reason? Besides Mabel Normand looking especially beautiful in this film, is the presence of racing drivers "Terrible" Teddy Tetzlaff, Earl Cooper and Barney Oldfield.Mabel likes Tetzlaff (who I'll bet really enjoyed this role, I would have!) while her father, played by Ford Sterling, prefers she marry Cooper. Oldfield, probably a bigger name than both of them at the time, is in one shot, but it was neat to see him behind the wheel of a vehicle.Ford doesn't want Teddy to win the race, so that his daughter might not favor him, so he damages Teddy's engine.The race unfolds, Teddy's car breaks down (due to Ford's deviltry) and Cooper drives to victory.Before the race is over, Mabel interferes with the starter, played by Fatty Arbuckle. Fatty gets kind of rough with Mabel and Ford starts hitting Fatty until he lets go of Mabel.Cooper wins the race, Mabel still loves Teddy and Ford still kicks Fatty around.In real life, if Mabel had married Tetzlaff, she would have been a widow for a year or so, since Tetzlaff died of cancer in 1929. If she had married Cooper, Cooper would have been her widower for 35 years as he passed away in 1965.In any event, I love early racing, this movie has it, so it gets a "10".

This is another example of the Mack Sennett Studio going on location and taking advantage of nearby attractions to provide the backdrop for this film. They did this with the beach, an exposition and auto races. In fact, I can think of another Sennett film made just a year later that is also based at the auto races. It's one of Chaplin's earliest films "Kid Auto Races at Venice" and like "The Speed Kings", the plot and laughs are purely secondary...at best.The plot, such as it is, has Dad wanting Mabel to marry a famous auto racer. Instead, Mabel wants to marry another. As for a young Fatty Arbuckle, he wants sweet Mabel for himself. However, when Mabel's beau wins the race, Dad agrees to the match and the film ends with Fatty fighting.The film has many of the usual sure-fire laugh routines of the day--kicking, punching, etc. but they did forget to have the gun loaded with blanks for some shots in the butt. Otherwise, despite the setting, a somewhat familiar film that really lacks laughs. In fact, the only reasons I could see for watching the film are if you are a race buff, as you get to see real racers as stars (as well as throwing in a quick cameo with Barney Oldfield) or if you are an insane silent comedy buff like myself--who will watch almost anything from the era! It's sad to be me sometimes.

The Speed Kings is of historical interest because of footage of actual car races as Mack Sennett decides to shoot a comedy short around the event with stars Mabel Normand, Ford Sterling, and, in an early supporting role, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. Mabel and father Sterling are for different car racers with Ms. Normand infatuated with one Teddy Tetzlaff. Arbuckle is a racetrack official who physically tries to keep Mabel from running to the track whenever Tetzlaff comes nearby. Then Sterling bites Fatty in the ear (shades of Mike Tyson!) afterwards. There's also many amusing facial reactions from Sterling and Ms. Normand. Other than what I've just mentioned, this is mostly a blah short but the races makes this worth a look at least once.

The Keystone short comedy "The Speed Kings" served mostly as a pretext for showing extended footage of racing cars with their real-life drivers. Since automobiles and movies were both still rather new, this was probably fun and exciting to watch at the time. And it is still enjoyable to see extensive footage of Teddy Tetzlaff and Earl Cooper, plus a glimpse of Barney Oldfield.It also features Mabel Normand as a fan watching a big race, and 'Fatty' Arbuckle in a small part, but in the actual story, that's about it. The plot is thin, and there is not much actual comedy, just a couple of worthwhile gags.Because of the footage of some of the top racers of the day, it's certainly of historical interest, and that's really the main reason to watch it. But you could certainly do far worse with your free time than spending it watching Mabel Normand plus some rather interesting historical footage.