Review of Mabel, Mabel, Tiger Trainer

Mabel Stark faced childhood abuse, a bad marriage, and literally escaped a Kentucky asylum after commitment by a cruel husband. In desperate flight, she hid out on a carny as a cootch dancer, before her Epiphany moment, in 1911, finding tigers at the Al. G. Barnes Circus quarters, in Venice, California. Leslie Zemeckis expertly folds my interview into these stories, along with Mabel's history of making her way into male-commanded wild animal training, and becoming the star woman tiger trainer of her industry before women were allowed the vote. This is the Leslie Zemeckis signature - she honors great women who did not get indelible fame, and this film honors Mabel Stark for a must-see inspiration. Roger Smith