Bangville Police (1913)

Director: Henry Lehrman

Cast: Mabel Normand, Fred Mace, Nick Cogley

Synopsis: At a farm near Bangville, the young daughter see strangers in the barn. She quickly rushes to the house and calls the police. The police engage in a haphazard rush across the countryside to get there in time.

Although Bangville Police is apparently the second Mack Sennett movie to feature his celebrated Keystone Cops, it doesn’t really look like one of their movies because they don’t appear in their trademark comical cop outfits,. In fact, the movie is worth watching more for an appearance by the luminous Mabel Normand than for the Cops, and apart from her presence it doesn’t really have a lot going for it. It isn’t particularly funny, and it’s not really clear what’s going on. At just seven minutes long there isn’t much time for a plot but what there is centres around a frightened farmer’s daughter calling the eponymous cops for help when she mistakenly believes there are intruders on the farm. A curiosity, but nothing more.

(Reviewed 17th April 2015)