Won in a Cupboard (1914)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
This Keystone short was lost for many decades until a print turned up in 2010 in New Zealand of all places. Whenever a lost film is found it's reason for celebration even if the film in question is pretty bad, which is the case here. Mabel Normand and Charles Avery fall in love and the two want to get married but her father and his mother refuse. The parents end up trapped in a cupboard (actually a closet) when all chaos breaks loose. WON IN A CUPBOARD is a pretty boring movie but there's reason to celebrate it being discovered. This was the second film that Normand made as a director and since the first one is lost, this here is so far the earliest film buffs can see her work behind the camera. I thought there were a couple interesting shots to be found here including one where the two people discover one another. The scene has them walking towards the camera and while this was quite simple I still found it to be good. What's not so good is pretty much everything else. As a "comedy" this thing is downright bad because there's not a single scene where I actually laughed. The entire thing just seems so forced that you can't help but find the characters annoying and not a bit charming. Another problem is that the entire second half of the picture just doesn't work at all (not to mention the poor shape some of it is in). Fans of Normand will want to see this for its historic importance but all others should start somewhere else.