Madcap Mabel is a 2010 dramatic 35-minute short film about a guilty reporter (played by Rudy Cecera) who had helped sensationalize the scandals that damaged the career of dying silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 comedienne/writer/director Mabel Normand

Mabel Normand

Mabel Normand was an American silent film comedienne and actress. She was a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and is noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors...

 (Penelope Lagos

Penelope Lagos

Penelope Lagos is an American actress and model. She is best known for playing the role of Mabel Normand in the short film Madcap Mabel...

). The film depicts another of Charles Chaplin's leading ladies

Leading lady

Leading lady is an informal term for the actress who plays a secondary lead or supporting role, usually a love interest, to the leading actor in a film or play. It is not usually applied to the leading actress in the performance if her character is the protagonist.A leading lady can also be an...

, Edna Purviance

Edna Purviance

Edna Purviance was an American actress during the silent movie era. She was the leading lady in many Charlie Chaplin movies. In a span of eight years, she appeared in over thirty films with Chaplin.-Early life:...

 (Katie Maguire), as well as Normand's lover Mack Sennett

Mack Sennett

Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...

 (Ron Nummi

Ron Nummi

Ron Nummi is an actor most noted for his appearance in cult 1994 film The First Action Hero as the lovable "sidekick", Hoagy, to maverick cop Tony Fierro, as played by Fabio Testi. He has also been involved in various Broadway productions including One Way Ticket to Hell, The Robber Bridegroom and...

) and young reporter Adela Rogers St. Johns

Adela Rogers St. Johns

Adela Rogers St. Johns was an American journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. She wrote a number of screenplays for silent movies and, late in life, appeared with other early twentieth-century figures as one of the 'witnesses' in Warren Beatty's Reds, but she is best remembered for her...

 (Elise Rovinsky), and was written by Cecera and directed by Dena Schumacher.

Cast

Penelope Lagos

Penelope Lagos

Penelope Lagos is an American actress and model. She is best known for playing the role of Mabel Normand in the short film Madcap Mabel...

...
Mabel Normand

Mabel Normand

Mabel Normand was an American silent film comedienne and actress. She was a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and is noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors...

Rudy Cecera ...
Charlie Craig

Katie Maguire ...
Edna Purviance

Edna Purviance

Edna Purviance was an American actress during the silent movie era. She was the leading lady in many Charlie Chaplin movies. In a span of eight years, she appeared in over thirty films with Chaplin.-Early life:...

Ron Nummi

Ron Nummi

Ron Nummi is an actor most noted for his appearance in cult 1994 film The First Action Hero as the lovable "sidekick", Hoagy, to maverick cop Tony Fierro, as played by Fabio Testi. He has also been involved in various Broadway productions including One Way Ticket to Hell, The Robber Bridegroom and...

...
Mack Sennett

Mack Sennett

Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...

Ian Blackman ...
Hamilton Perry

Brian Linden ...
William Desmond Taylor

William Desmond Taylor

William Desmond Taylor was an Irish-born American actor, successful film director of silent movies and a popular figure in the growing Hollywood film colony of the 1910s and early 1920s...

Elise Rovinsky ...
Adela Rogers St. Johns

Adela Rogers St. Johns

Adela Rogers St. Johns was an American journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. She wrote a number of screenplays for silent movies and, late in life, appeared with other early twentieth-century figures as one of the 'witnesses' in Warren Beatty's Reds, but she is best remembered for her...

Elizabeth C. Taylor ...
Julia Benson

Molly Maguire ...
Mae Busch

Mae Busch

Mae Busch was an Australian film actress who worked in both silent and sound films in early Hollywood. In the latter part of her career, she appeared in many Laurel and Hardy comedies, where she frequently played Hardy's shrewish wife.-Early life and career:Born in Melbourne, Australia, Busch was...

External links

Madcap Mabel in the Internet Movie Database

Internet Movie Database

Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...