MICKEY
starring Mabel Normand
VARIETY
December 6, 1918
Mickey and Mabel Normand are one and the same. It would have been hard to find a more appropriate name for her, or to be correct, she could not have appeared in a title role in which she was better suited. If there ever was a hoyden in pictures, it is this young star. And yet, with all her tomboy pranks and cutting up, she is a wonderful little actress.
While it was not announced on the screen at the New York Theater, Mickey is a Max Sennett picture. This was as plain as day after the first reel, when the Sennett English bulldog made his appearance and later when half a dozen educated cats at various intervals made things lively for the characters.
One is slightly disappointed at first because the opening scenes are those of the usual cut and dry "western." But this illusion is dispelled as soon as Mabel Normand makes her appear-ance. Mickey's garments consist of an old pair of trousers, patched, heavy flannel undershirt and a discarded waistcoat, many sizes too large for her. She lives with her uncle and his squaw housekeeper. He is working a mine at the opening of the picture, getting very little pay dirt, and they are not over prosperous, but they are a happy trio.
Mickey's chief occupation is getting into trouble. She starts off by persuading the family mule to eat her uncle's razor strap. Throughout the picture she has many opportunities of displaying her wonderful horsemanship and most of it is bareback riding.
But Mickey's life in the "Wild and Woolly" west comes to an end when her uncle receives an invitation to send her east to some relations, who have a country home on Long Island. She goes there, but when these folks learn Mickey has no money they put her to work. As a domestic she is a rank failure and disrupts the whole household.
Throughout the picture she does a number of daring and intrepid "stunts." How it is that Miss Normand has escaped with-out any broken bones is a marvel.
There is a thrilling racetrack scene which was probably taken at the Empire City course and will be familiar to many New Yorkers. The other "locations" have been selected with care and the interior settings are up-to-date. Fine photography adds special interest to the picture. The cast supporting Miss Normand is splendid and the whole production breezes along, with action every minute.
"Mickey" is one of the best program features of its kind released in many months. It is one big laugh from start to finish.
review courtesy of William Thomas Sherman
MICKEY
starring Mabel Normand
MOTION PICTURE MAGAZINE
March, 1919
An entertaining comedy with Mabel Normand in the lead. Excellently played and photographed. Some of the western scenes were artistic in the extreme and the types and rural characters are excellent. There is something in this play to please everybody. While the story is not very strong, it is done so well and the acting is so fine that the story does not make much difference. It is remarked that this play was started two years ago and was widely advertised at that time. They took about 20,000 feet of film in the making and finally cut it down to 5,000 or 6,000 feet, and there are places where the story doesn't run quite as smoothly as it might. However, this is all lost sight of in the wonderful atmosphere and cleverness of the character types. Miss Normand is seen in a new role. At first she is a simple rollicking unsophisticated country girl; second, she is dressed up in society clothes; third, she returns to her former life and fourth she marries her rich sweetheart. There ware many fine human types in this play as well as several notable scenes. Miss Normand was once a famous diving girl away back in the old Biograph days, some six or seven year ago, and later in the Keystone comedies. In this play, she again shows her shapely form and graceful diving stunts, but alas, at such a distance, that we are not sure that it is Mabel herself. This may be due to modesty on the part of the director or Miss Normand -- or it may be due to the fact that Miss Normand was apparently without bathing clothes -- being a poor miner's daughter, living in a rough hut. That being the case, the public will probably excuse the director from keeping Miss Normand in the dim and distant background. In our judgment, this play is a winner.
For more information, see "Mickey" as our "Feature of the Month"