Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Extra Girl (1923)

The Extra Girl (1923) is a story of a small-town girl who comes to Hollywood to be in the pictures. This Mabel Normand vehicle, produced by Mack Sennett, followed earlier films about the film industry and also paved the way for later films about Hollywood, such as King Vidor’s Show People (1928). It was still unusual in 1923 for filmmakers to make a film about the southern California film industry, then little more than ten years old. Still, many of the Hollywood clichés of small town girls travelling to Hollywood to become film stars are here to reinforce the myths of Tinseltown.

When small town girl Sue goes to Hollywood to escape marriage, she arrives expecting open arms. Since the circumstances of her being called to California were the result of another’s deception, the studio manager gives Sue a job in the studio’s costume department instead. Childhood friend Dave follows. Eventually, Sue gets the opportunity to screen test but it turns out disasterously. Meanwhile, a crooked investor swindles Sue’s parents out of their life savings. Dave and Sue retrieve the money and all turns out well, despite the unsuccessful film career.

Sennett director F. Richard Jones does a good job of helming this average Normand film. George Nichols does a fine job injecting an unusual degree of humanity to his supporting role as Mabel’s father in this comedy. Actors Billy Bevan and William Desmond appear as themselves. Mack Sennett can be glimpsed briefly as a straw-hatted onlooker at Mabel’s screen test. However, it is not Ben Turpin who is frightened by the lion, but is instead a look-alike comedian. And other sharp-eyed viewers will see a publicity photo of Harold Lloyd on one of Mabel’s dressing tables in her Hollywood apartment.

The film also features several interesting shots of semirural southern California (presumably the Glendale area) showing houses and streets of the early 1920s, and of a Hollywood studio in action. One shot in particular, a high-angle view, shows a film set, with actors, two cameras and operators, several productrion people, and a mood orchestra composed of a pianist and violinist, to set the proper mood for the actors. Another shows an open stage with crew scrambling up scaffolding to the sunlight difusing panels above.

— Carl Bennett

This Blu-ray Disc edition of Mack Sennett comedies has been mastered from 35mm prints and 16mm reduction prints.

The supplemental material includes selected audio commentary, outtakes and rushes, 1920 footage of the Sennett studio, a trailer for The Crossroads of New York (1922), newsreel footage, a complete 1939 radio appearance by Mack Sennett, television appearances including the Mack Sennett episode of This is Your Life, and a 28-page booklet featuring notes on the films.

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This once-best DVD edition of The Extra Girl has been prepared from very-good to excellent 35mm source materials that look great but are not without their issues, including dust, speckling, fine scratches, and other print flaws.

The film is accompanied by a sometimes frantic music score composed and performed on theatre pipe organ by Jack Ward.

The edition is supplemented with an early Normand Keystone comedy, The Gusher (1913), with piano accompaniment by Ben Model.

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The video transfer for this first DVD edition of The Extra Girl appears to be the same as has previously appeared on the Voyager/Criterion laserdisc of 1992. The color-toning has been changed, but the framing and quality is virtually the same. Both transfers have utilized an excellent 35mm preservation print from the Paul Killiam collection. Some shots have pronounced emulsion chipping, but the print is for the most part in excellent condition, with light to moderate speckling and other rarely-distracting print damage. The current transfer has new video main titles in black & white. Minor video master glitches appear at 47:20 and 1:04:36 into the film. Another major glitch roll occurs at 58:28.

The film is accompanied by a compilation of prerecorded Mozart orchestral recordings. No effort has been made to synchronize the recordings which randomly play through the film.

The excellent print utilized for The Extra Girl makes this disc a bargain, but we still recommend the Kino edition above.

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This Region 0 NTSC DVD edition has been discontinued and is . . .

Musical accompaniment is performed by Ben Model.

If you own a copy of this disc please consider loaning it to us to review for documentation purposes. We pay postage both ways.

UNKNOWN VIDEO has discontinued business and this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition is . . .

The film is likely accompanied by a soundtrack compiled from preexisting recordings.

USA: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.com. Your purchase supports Silent Era.
Canada: Click the logomark to purchase this Region 0 NTSC DVD-R edition from Amazon.ca. Your purchase supports Silent Era.