Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life

I'm sure most silent comedy buffs are familiar with this beloved chestnut, now available in Kino's "Slapstick Encyclopedia" collection, but even viewers unfamiliar with Keystone comedies are likely to get a kick out of it. 'Oldfield' pokes fun at conventions of stage melodrama that were considered hokey even in 1913, and the actors overplay with great vigor. Legendary producer Mack Sennett portrays the lovesick rube, and Mabel Normand flashes her big brown eyes at the camera, but it's Ford Sterling who makes the strongest impression. This may well have been Sterling's most memorably hammy performance, and he looks like he's having the time of his life: he struts, grimaces, and twirls his mustache, then summons his henchmen with a snap of his fingers, and they instantly appear. Sterling was the biggest male star on the Keystone lot before Chaplin arrived, usually in villainous or unsympathetic roles, and he gives this one everything's he's got. Our hero Barney Oldfield is the only one who underplays; he was a celebrity when this movie was made, a real-life race track star, back when those guys still wore goggles and scarves. Mr. Oldfield comes off as a rather bland, good-natured fellow surrounded by lunatics.

This is the kind of movie (much parodied in later days) where the villain, jilted by the girl, seeks vengeance by having her tied to the railroad tracks. The suspenseful finale features the frenetic Keystone Cops, a last minute rescue, and a surprise closing gag that is genuinely funny. As noted above, the melodramatic plotting would have been familiar to audiences of the time from stage plays, but the cinema itself was still such a novelty it all must have seemed new again, what with the added bonus of verisimilitude, i.e. real train tracks and a real train, enhanced with a bit of rudimentary cinematic trickery in the shot where Mabel is rescued, right in the nick of time. No wonder the actors threw themselves into the project with such gusto: it must have been thrilling to participate in something so new and exciting. That sense of exhilaration still comes across when we view this film today.

Barney Oldfield was like the Mario Andretti, Ricky Bobby or Dale Earnhardt of his day--a racing legend. However, today he's mostly forgotten despite his being the first man to achieve the amazingly fast speed of 60 miles per hour (fine...but at that time it WAS quite the achievement). As a result of his fame, he later went on to appear in a few films--and "Barney Oldfield's Race for Life" is one of them. It's a short comedy from Keystone starring Barney as well as the prolific Mabel Normand and Ford Sterling. Mabel is, as usual, the lady in distress and Sterling, as usual, is the Snidely Whiplash sort who kidnaps her and chains her to the railroad tracks. So, it's up to Oldfield and his partner to race to the rescue and get her before the train can cut her into pieces. Unfortunately, at the end the director had no idea what to do so Sterling just starts killing cops!! None of this (particularly the cop massacre) is funny but at least it had a couple nice stunts and driving sequences. Mostly of historical interest.

Archetypal slapstick chase comedy that is sometimes wrongly considered to be the epitome of the cheesy 'girl tied to railroad track' stereotype when it is, in fact, a comical lampoon of the stage melodramas of the day. Easily the best movie Keystone had made up to the date of its release despite Mack Sennett's clunky performance and real-life racing driver Oldfield's complete lack of charisma. Ford Sterling dominates as the 'tache-twirling villain, and the chase sequences are hair-raisingly effective.

This silly, manic Mack Sennett classic is good fun for anyone who enjoys silent comedies. It displays Sennett's frantic, deliberately goofy style at its best. It is a parody and a deliberate exaggeration of some of the conventions of melodrama that were apparently routine even in 1913, complete with the villain tying the heroine to a railroad track. Mabel Normand is delightful as the heroine, Ford Sterling overplays the villain for all that it's worth (twiddling his mustache as often as possible), Sennett himself appears as Mabel's rather silly beau, and then-famous racing car driver Barney Oldfield also joins in the fun. There are a couple of very funny gags, along with some real excitement as the good guys try to foil the villain's dastardly plots. While of course thoroughly goofy, this one is well worth tracking down if you like these old silent films.

It was fun seeing the stars at work but the plot is a little ho-hum. The story is about a bad guy (Ford Sterling) who literally ties poor Mabel Normand to the railroad track and whether Mack Sennett and Barney Oldfield will reach her and rescue her before the speeding train hits her.

One scene with the train was pretty impressive and the audience reacted loudly. I just thought that the bad guy didn't have enough motivation for doing such a rotten thing to Mabel.