The Speed Kings (1913) User Reviews

Crazy Improversation By Geniuses

[jayraskin1 · 6/10 · 20 November 2012]

Max Sennett's Keystone Studio was contractually obligated to produce two two-reelers, about 40 minutes of film a week. When he did not have any ideas, he just dragged some of his comedians to a public event and made up a story on the spot. That is why there is no logic, but a great deal of silliness, hand waving, punching and kicking.

The racing scenes in this are a bit tiresome, but I'm sure it was interesting to an 1912 audience, many of whom had never seen such a thing before. The physical humor by Ford, Mabel and Roscoe is quite funny as they always are. One had to appreciate the acrobatics of Arbuckle, the enthusiastic expressions of Normand and the incredible monologue that Sterling has with himself and the audience. Together, they are a grand group capturing a unique and playfully surrealistic moment in time.

Be sure to watch a good and full print. There are many incomplete and poor prints circulating.

Mainly Of Historical Interest

[Snow Leopard · 4 March 2002]

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.

The Speed Kings is partly interesting for the race footage...

[tavm · 3/10 · 28 July 2007]

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.

It's not funny...but there is some historical interest.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 15 October 2009]

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 review

[JoeytheBrit · 3/10 · 29 June 2020]

The opportunistic use of famous racing drivers of the day highlights the fact that director Wilfred Lucas had no plot to work with and simply winged it on race day. Desperately unfunny despite the efforts of Normand, Sterling and Arbuckle.

An Awesome View of Some Early Racing Drivers

[silentmoviefan · 10/10 · 29 January 2014]

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".

Showing up Rudely

[tedg · 5 November 2006]

Ah, Mabel Normand, from the days when being a wild cokeheaded actress meant something. This is an early one from the Keystone days and the print I saw had some inexplicable stuff tacked onto the end, looked like Fatty and Laurel fighting for some reason.

The main film is a car race with a mean ol daddy who will give his daughter, the desirable Mabel, to the winner. She prefers one fellow, Teddy Tetzlaff, and her dad roots for Earl Cooper. It seems that is the names of the actors. The print carries no credits.

Oddly, the bad guy wins, and we have no reason to know why he is a bad guy, nor why Mabel seems unfazed. Its after the race that the unexplained tussle between two guys we haven't seen before occurs. There are crowd scenes, so this may have been one of those movies made on a day when a real race was run. The race footage might have been exciting for the times.

Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

Worth Watching

[Michael_Elliott · 23 March 2016]

The Speed Kings (1913)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Mabel Normand and her Papa (Ford Sterling) are heading to the local race but with different men on their minds. Papa wants his daughter to marry Earl Cooper but Mabel has her eyes on Teddy Tetzlaff. Once at the race it's full of excitement as the men battle to win while Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle shows up to create even more damage.

Here's a Mack Sennett short that is mildly entertaining but for the most part I'd argue that there really weren't too many actual laughs. The main reason to watch this is that there are some real racing figures who appear and I think getting to see the old time racing styles. Of course, being a Sennett film, a lot of stuff comes off as if they're just making it up on the spot, which results in a rather crazy style and atmosphere but it just doesn't get the laughs needed to make the film better.