The Extra Girl is a 1923 American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 silent

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

 comedy film

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 starring Mabel Normand

Mabel Normand

Mabel Normand was an American silent film comedienne and actress. She was a popular star of Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios and is noted as one of the film industry's first female screenwriters, producers and directors...

. Produced by Mack Sennett

Mack Sennett

Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...

, The Extra Girl followed earlier films about the film industry and also paved the way for later films about Hollywood, such as King Vidor

King Vidor

King Wallis Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose career spanned nearly seven decades...

’s Show People

Show People

Show People is a 1928 comedy silent film directed by King Vidor. The movie was a starring vehicle for actress Marion Davies and actor William Haines and included notable cameo appearances by many of the film personalities of the day, including stars Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, William S....

(1928). It was still unusual in 1923 for filmmakers to make a film about the southern California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 film industry, then little more than ten years old. Still, many of the Hollywood cliché

Cliché

A cliché or cliche is an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect, especially when at some earlier time it was considered meaningful or novel. In phraseology, the term has taken on a more technical meaning,...

s of small town girls travelling to Hollywood to become film stars are here to reinforce the myths of Tinseltown.

Plot

Sue Graham (Normand) is a small town girl who wants to be a motion picture star. She wins a contract when a picture of a very pretty girl is sent to a studio instead of her picture. When she arrives in Hollywood, the mistake is discovered and she starts working in the props department of the studio instead. Her parents then come out to California and invest some money with a very shifty individual.

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

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 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 disastrously--although in a nod to the actress behind the character the director calls her "a natural comedian." 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.

Cast

• Mabel Normand.....Sue Graham
• George Nichols
  George Nichols (actor)
  George Nichols was an American actor and director. He appeared in 221 films between 1908 and 1928. He also directed 103 films between 1911 and 1916.He was born in Rockford, Illinois and died in Hollywood, California....
  
  .....Zachariah "Pa" Graham
• Anna Hernandez
  Anna Dodge
  Anna Dodge was an American silent film actress.Anna Dodge married another silent film actor George Hernandez and was frequently credited as Anna Hernandez.-1930s:...
  
  .....Ma Graham
• Ralph Graves
  Ralph Graves
  Ralph Graves was an American screenwriter, film director, and actor who appeared in 93 films between 1918 and 1949....
  
  .....Dave Giddings
• Louise Carver
  Louise Carver
  Louise Carver was an American actress who performed in grand opera, stage, nickelodeon, and motion pictures.-Biography:...
  
  .....Madame McCarthy
• Vernon Dent
  Vernon Dent
  Vernon Bruce Dent was a comic actor who appeared in over 400 films in his career. He co-starred in many short films for Columbia Pictures, frequently as the foil to the Three Stooges.-Early career:...
  
  .....Aaron Applejohn
• Charlotte Mineau
  Charlotte Mineau
  Charlotte Mineau was an American film actress of the silent era. She appeared in 65 films between 1913 and 1931...
  
  .....Belle Brown
• Ramsey Wallace.....T. Phillip Hackett

Actors Billy Bevan

Billy Bevan

Billy Bevan was an Australian film actor. He appeared in 254 American films between 1916 and 1950....

 and William Desmond

William Desmond (actor)

William Desmond was an Irish-born American actor. He appeared in 205 films between 1915 and 1948. He was nicknamed "The King of the Silent Serials."...

 appear as themselves. Producer Mack Sennett can be glimpsed briefly as a straw-hatted onlooker at Sue's screen test.

Production

Directed by F. Richard Jones

F. Richard Jones

Frank Richard Jones was an American director and producer.-Early life and career:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Dick Jones was sixteen years old when he became involved in the fledgling film industry in his hometown with the Atlas film company...

, the film features several shots of semi-rural Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

 (the Edendale area along present-day Glendale Boulevard

Glendale Boulevard

Glendale Boulevard is a north–south street in Los Angeles that starts off as Lucas Avenue at 7th Street west of Downtown LA. The name changes at Beverly Boulevard. Echo Park is located north of the 101 at Bellevue Avenue. State Route 2 runs from Alvarado Street until the freeway entrance...

, where Sennett's studio was located) 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 production 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 diffusing panels above.