Mabel's Strange Predicament (1914)

20251217: (incomplete viewing)
While watching this film, I wondered that if they could record the piano, and play that, why not the audio. Unless the idea is that the piano playing is actually live. However, if that's the case, they could have equally had a person or two reading out dialogue.

Asking ChatGPT, I was informed the following (paraphrased):
- film projection was hand cranked so the speed varied
- live actors reading dialogue was experimented with but failed for various reasons
- pianists can improvise and adjust along with the film

Another thought I had is if anyone ever thought to remaster the video digitally. I noticed while watching is the irregularities in the old film would show up. Perhaps this is a desired quality of seeing a film from this time.

Here ChatGPT had the following points (paraphrased):
- typically irregularities are a feature not a bug
- there's a difference between restoration and revision
- sometimes restorations go further than basics, but even the best restorations often leave some texture
- as an analogy, when we restore a Renaissance painting, we clean it but we don't repaint it to look like it was made yesterday

Rating: 3.0/5

---

20251217: (full viewing)
It occurred to me that the clips I was watching were not the full versions. So I went back to double check. For this film, the version I watched was closer to 6 minutes. The next version I watched was about 12 minutes long, but both Wikipedia and IMDb.com list the running time at 17 minutes. Double checking YouTube, I was unable to find any version which was 17 minutes long. Even a version on Archive.org had a runtime of 11 minutes 34 seconds. Enough versions suggest the runtime should be 12 minutes and not 17 minutes as listed by Wikipedia and IMDb.com. With that being said, I don't feel comfortable changing Wikipedia and IMDb.com.

---

Instant Comments:
None

---

Watched an incomplete clip 20251217 (YouTube)
Watched 20251217 (YouTube)
Mabel's Strange Predicament (1914) Mabel Normand. 12 min

Relevant Links:
Mabel's Strange Predicament (IMDb.com)
Mabel's Strange Predicament (RottenTomatoes.com)
Mabel's Strange Predicament (Wikipedia.org)