Mack Sennett

Mack Sennett (b. 1880–d. 1960), is a Canadian-born actor, director, and producer who headed two of the most influential and prolific American slapstick studios: the Keystone Film Company (1912–1917) and Mack Sennett Comedies (1917–1933). At Keystone, Sennett acted in, directed, and produced over 540 shorts, in addition to producing the first feature-length comedy, Tillie’s Punctured Romance, in 1914. Between 1917 and 1933 he produced some 440 short comedies and seventeen feature-length films under the banner of “Mack Sennett Comedies.” These motion pictures set the pace and style that established silent slapstick as an immensely popular film genre appreciated by masses of moviegoers. A second aspect of Sennett’s key position is his association with the early movie careers of an impressive roster of performers: Charles Chaplin, Mabel Normand, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, Ben Turpin, Harry Langdon, Carole Lombard, W. C. Fields, and Bing Crosby all grew to film stardom under his tutelage. He hired apprentice crew members before they became award-winning directors, cinematographers, and editors such as Frank Capra, Mal St. Clair, Fred Jackman, Vernon Walker, and William Hornbeck. His name is associated with bizarre phenomena, such as the incompetent Keystone cops or the bevy of beautiful Sennett Bathing Girls. After a successful transition to sound and color, Sennett returned to a position behind the camera to direct talking comedies. Following a disastrous distribution deal with Paramount Publix in 1932, Mack Sennett Comedies was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1933. Until his death in 1960 Sennett attempted a comeback, reediting his comedies into compilation films. In 1938 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored Sennett with an Academy Award for his lasting contributions to screen comedy. Scholarly interest in Mack Sennett concentrates on the Keystone movies; their unpolished energy invites interpretations in many disciplines and theoretical frameworks. Sennett’s professional life coincides with the formative years of the Hollywood film industry, spurring critical literature on the relation between slapstick comedy and classical Hollywood cinema. Moreover, with his autobiography The King of Comedy, published in 1954, Sennett created a hilarious report that greatly colors our understanding of slapstick film production. Clearly, Mack Sennett not only embodied the history of slapstick comedy but also dictated the stories to remember it by. This article, then, studies Sennett’s role as legendary Hollywood figure and analyzes his comedies in theories of slapstick and comedy.