''Cohen Saves the Flag'' is a

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos (1913), Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not ven ...

American comedy silent film directed and produced by Mack Sennett, and starring Ford Sterling and

Mabel Normand Amabel Ethelreid Normand (November 9, 1893 – February 23, 1930), better known as Mabel Normand, was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, director, and producer. She was a popular star and collaborator of Mack Sennett in their K ...

Plot

Cohen (Ford Sterling) and his rival Goldberg (

Henry Lehrman Henry Lehrman (March 30, 1881 – November 7, 1946) was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. Lehrman was a very prominent figure of Hollywood's silent film era, working with such cinematic pioneers as D. W. Griffith and Mack S ...

) enlist in the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Goldberg receives a lieutenant's commission while Cohen becomes a sergeant. During the Battle of Gettysburg, Cohen inadvertently becomes a hero when he tosses back an enemy hand grenade and raises a fallen flag in the midst of the conflict. Goldberg conspires to have Cohen shot by a firing squad, but Cohen's girlfriend Rebecca (Mabel Normand) rides to the rescue and details Cohen's battlefield bravery. Cohen is hailed for his valor and later exacts revenge on Goldberg.

Cast

* Ford Sterling - Sgt. Cohen *

- Mabel *

- Lt. Goldberg * Nick Cogley - The General * Charles Avery - Field Officer

Production

''Cohen Saves the Flag'' was a part of Mack Sennett's "Cohen" series that used a burlesque of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

stereotypes for its humor. Typical of the film's comedy is having Cohen chased into a pigsty, where he views the porcine residents with nervous apprehension – this is an obvious riff on the Jewish prohibition on eating pork. Sennett set up his production company for ''Cohen Saves the Flag'' alongside

Thomas H. Ince Thomas Harper Ince (November 16, 1880 – November 19, 1924) was an American silent film - era filmmaker and media proprietor. Ince was known as the "Father of the Western" and was responsible for making over 800 films. He revolutionized the mot ...

’s epic '' The Battle of Gettysburg''. Sennett staged his battlefield scenes on the edge of Ince's production, capturing Ince's grand wartime sequences for his film while keeping the ''Cohen Saves the Flag'' cast discreetly out of Ince's camera range. Today, ''The Battle of Gettysburg'' is considered a lost film, and all that remains of that endeavor are the battlefield scenes appropriated by Sennett for his slapstick film.

References

External links

*
Full film on archive.org
1913 films American black-and-white films American silent short films 1913 comedy films Silent American comedy films American Civil War films 1913 short films Films directed by Mack Sennett Keystone Studios films Slapstick comedy American comedy short films 1910s American films {{AmericanCivilWar-film-stub