When Mabel Normand meets daring test pilot Philip Parmelee, she immediately dumps her boyfriend, Fred Mace. He attempts a rebound romance, leading to disaster and the need for an aerial rescue.
Home Media Availability: Released on Bluray.
Up She Goes
Flight was not yet a decade old when A Dash Through the Clouds was released in 1912 but in that brief time, pilots had become celebrities and sex symbols. Anyone willing to brave the clouds in an open cockpit contraption held together with wires and prayers would be bound to win their share of admirers and the attraction was dramatized in both dramatic and humorous ways.
Last week, we covered a melodramatic, adulterous love triangle in the 1911 Danish film The Aviator’s Generosity. This week, we will be heading into considerably sillier territory as Mack Sennett’s band of lunatics deal with the same basic plot.
Mabel Normand plays Martha (Josephine in some versions, likely to capitalize on the hit song Come Josephine in My Flying Machine), who is dating Arthur (Fred Mace), a chewing gum salesman. However, tutti-frutti and spearmint are nothing in comparison to a real, live pilot. Philip Parmelee (called “Slim” in some versions) is testing out his Wright Model B airplane near Martha’s house and she is delighted when he asks to take her up in the air.
The flying scenes are the highlight of the picture. As a capsule review in Moving Picture World succinctly and accurately stated, “The half-reel is of unusual interest. There is also scenery as well as comedy.” The camera kept close to the airplane as it took off and landed, and Parmelee managed to buzz the camera mid-flight twice. It’s all very exciting and offers unambiguous proof that Mabel Normand, devotee of fast cars and motorcycles, also did her own aerial stunts. (The in-flight scenes were almost certainly shot on the ground, however.)
Arthur’s end of the story is considerably less interesting. He is brokenhearted by Martha’s preference for Parmelee and takes his gum business to a local Mexican community. He begins to flirt with one of the women, which enrages the men and, you guessed it, a chase ensues. Arthur writes Mabel a note (“Help!”) and takes refuge in a shack. It’s up to Martha, Parmelee and her pistol collection to save the day.
I am assuming that this specificity of ethnicity was brought on by certain costumes being made available for discounted or free use. Sennett was still working under the Biograph banner at this point but his off-the-cuff, use-what’s-there production style would become his trademark.
Parmelee himself was likely engaged due to convenience. The Biograph company was wintering in California, as was usual for New York-based film concerns pre-WWI. Distribution to Europe was handled from the East Coast (the Panama Canal was still a few years away from opening) but those northeastern winters weren’t very comfortable for what was still primarily an outdoor industry. As a result, over the winter, companies fanned out to Florida, Arizona, California—even Egypt.
Meanwhile, Philip Parmelee had been busy with all things flight: pioneering the transportation of goods, dropping explosives and racing in expositions. He took part in the third Los Angeles International Air Meet in January of 1912 and this, presumably, was how he became available to appear in A Dash Through the Clouds.
Parmelee wasn’t just in demand for the movies, as it turns out. California newspapers reported that he and flying partner Clifford Turpin, along with two other exhibition pilots, were deputized to help San Fernando Valley law enforcement track down two men wanted in relation to a shootout at a railroad station that wounded a deputy sheriff. “For the first time in history the flying machine will be injected into a man hunt,” one newspaper breathlessly reported.
The plan was for a posse on foot to surround the general vicinity of the foothills and canyons where the suspects were believed to be hiding out and the pilots would search from above. Unfortunately, the adventure was a failure and a newspaper headline crowed, “Aviator Sleuths Lack Eagle Eyes: Human Prey Escapes Birdmen Who Circle Calabasas in Man Hunt.” Aerial manhunts were, it seemed, not quite ready for prime time.
The reports also stated that one woman passenger accompanied the pilots on the adventure. Unfortunately, for those of us hoping that it was Mabel Normand, the woman was identified as stage actress Florence Stone, wife of the aviation meet’s manager. A real shame because can you imagine what Mack Sennett’s crew could have done with that footage? And, of course, unlike real life, the cinematic aviators would have surely gotten their men. (Probably after a mud fight.)
(I couldn’t find further information on these fugitives but there was coverage later that same year of a gang operating between San Fernando and the Bakersfield/Taft area, which absolutely tracks in this California girl’s opinion.)
A Dash Through the Clouds pretty much relies on the charm of Mabel Normand and, fortunately for Sennett and us, she has charisma to spare. I don’t think all of her character’s gleeful reactions to the airplane were acting, though. She seemed genuinely thrilled and delighted to be going up in the air and her enthusiasm is infectious even a century later.
The film has a bittersweet footnote because, just weeks after the film was shot and days before its premiere, Parmelee was killed when his plane was flipped by a gust of wind. A Dash in the Clouds was likely intended as a lark but it became history’s best footage of him before his untimely death.
The Sennett company would continue their same pattern of using major local events and/or celebrities to add interest and production value to their comedies and Mabel Normand blossomed into a genuine superstar who could do anything the boys did backwards, in high heels and a corset.
A Dash Through the Clouds is one of the more successful early Sennett films. While the plot doesn’t really work, it’s worth it just to see Mabel Normand flying joyously and the astonishingly rickety early airplanes are always thrilling to see in flight, even if we know that they led to many tragedies.
Where can I see it?
Released on Bluray as part of Flicker Alley’s Mack Sennett collection.
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Movies Silently 
Thank you for another great piece on my fave silent film star, Mabel Normand.
Glad you enjoyed!