He Did and He Didn't

He Did and He Didn't is a 1916 American short comedy film starring Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle and Mabel Normand.[1]

He Did and He Didn't
Film still
Directed byRoscoe Arbuckle
Written byRoscoe Arbuckle
(uncredited)
Produced byMack Sennett
(uncredited)
StarringRoscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
Mabel Normand
CinematographyElgin Lessley
(uncredited)
Production
company
Distributed byTriangle Keystone
Mack Sennett Production
Release date
  • January 30, 1916 (1916-01-30)
Running time
20 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)

Production
Elgin Lessley filming Roscoe Arbuckle and Mabel Normand on the set of He Did and He Didn't (1915)

The dark plot, extremely sophisticated for its time, involves a corpulent husband who finds himself consumed by jealousy when his wife's dashingly handsome old schoolmate unexpectedly turns up for dinner. The film was also written and directed by Arbuckle.

Because it was billed as a comedy, the ending attributes the assumptions of the husband, including the murder, to eating bad lobster. After several lighthearted comedies featuring Mabel Normand and Roscoe Arbuckle, this seemed to be an added dimension to film genre in general, in that it attributed serious jealousy fantasies to human nature, but still managed to maintain a cheerful demeanor overall in its approximate 20 minutes. It may be the first "dramedy" in existence.

The film was shot when many early film studios in America's first motion picture industry were based in Fort Lee, New Jersey, at the beginning of the 20th century.[2]

Cast

See also

References
  1. Progressive Silent Film List: He Did and He Didn't at silentera.com
  2. Koszarski, Richard (2004), Fort Lee: The Film Town, Rome, Italy: John Libbey Publishing -CIC srl, ISBN 0-86196-653-8


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