Starring: John Bunny, Mabel Normand, and Ralph Ince
Director: Ralph Ince
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
An overprotective father (Bunny) fires his personal secretary (Ince) after he becomes romantically involved with his teenaged daughter (Normand). The girl then launches several schemes to get around her father and be reunited with her heart's desire.
"Troublesome Secretaries" is one of the few surviving films (and film fragments) featuring cinema's first international superstar, John Bunny. He was among a handful of established, well-regarded stage actors who understood and fully embraced the potential of film, and he was as important to building the emerging industry as it was to elevating his star beyond all others.
By the time of Bunny's death in 1915, it was predicted by film fans and professional critics alike that his name and image would continue on forever in human memory thanks to film. As it turned out, Bunny and his early contribution to the art and business of filmmaking would be all but forgotten by the public at large by the dawn of the 1920s. Barely a decade after is death, most of the films in which he appeared were no longer available, because studios habitually destroyed used film prints and original negatives rather than go through the trouble and expense of storing them.
This film is typical of Bunny's emphasis on films that relied more on character interaction than slapstick, and, despite the films lightning-fast pace, viewers still get a good sense of the father's overbearing and persnickety nature, as well as his daughter's capricious and independent ways. Her boyfriend is the sort of bland male romantic lead that will dominate romantic comedies and mystery films for the next thirty years... or maybe the character got a little more personality in the missing third act of the film.
Contrary to my usual habit, I am reviewing a film that has survived to the present day without it's story intact. I have reviewed other films of which no complete copy exists (this Bessie Love vehicle comes to mind immediately), but I don't typically try to evaluate a film that's missing major chunks of important plot material... and no version of "Troublesome Secretaries" that I've seen appears to have an actual ending. But what we have of this film is still so much fun and so well-made (and even a little modern feeling) is that I still felt it's worth calling attention to. I think even viewers who typically don't like silent movies (but who enjoy sit-coms or absurd comedies) will like this one.
For regular viewers of silent movies, this film is interesting, because we get to see Mabel Normand in an early leading role and we get to see that she had radiant screen presence from the beginning. (There's also the bitter-sweet historical fact that Normand--at the beginning of her career--would follow pretty much the same trajectory as John Bunny did: She became a superstar and a household name... and was all-but-forgotten just a few years after her career ended.)
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