*** (out of ****)
The very first image we see is of a banner hanging informing us of the town's name - Felton City - and its population - 873. A man's voice is heard saying it's a nice town. Another man responds in the affirmative stating they have a public library and the largest insane asylum in the state.
A library and an insane asylum. It's a contradiction but that's what defines a city - good and bad. Safety and violence. Wealth and poverty. Culture and decadence. It's something the comedy of W.C. Fields had always hinted at. Just beneath the laughs there was a commentary on American values and its way of life. The comedy shorts "The Barber Shop" (1933) and "The Pharmacist" (1933), accomplish much of this at a level near that of the feature-length comedies starring Fields. It's one of the reasons I wanted to review them during the year of Life is Short, my year long theme looking at short films.
While "The Barber Shop" takes place in a small town, a year isn't specified. We see dirt roads, kids playing baseball in the streets and people traveling by horse and carriage. They aren't dressed in turn-of-the-century clothing but little resembles American city life of the 1930s. In its opening scene however, Fields and director Arthur Ripley immediately set up the tone of the comedy, its themes and establish Fields' character. Fields is Cornelius O' Hare, a local barber who sits outside of his shop, sharpening his razor blade. He seems rather congenial, smiling at people passing by and engages in small chit chat. It's the kind of thing you'd expect in a small town. Everyone knows each other and appears friendly. But that's not exactly who Cornelius is. He almost begrudgingly puts up this charade of pleasantries. After people pass him, Cornelius bad mouths everyone under his breath. For example a woman passes Cornelius saying her husband hasn't been feeling well this morning. Cornelius offers his sympathies saying he is sorry to hear that and then mutters the man must have been out on another bender last night. Cornelius does this repeatedly with each passerby. Supposedly Fields based this on his mother who he would hear do this when he was a child, as his mother would sit outside the stoop of their apartment building. It's funny but suggest something deeper - the small town isn't as quaint as it appears, hitting on the duality I referenced previously and the phoniness of people (itself a duality). American life is as much about appearances than anything else.
The false appearances continue when Cornelius enters the barber shop and his apartment above it. Cornelius is a married man (Elise Cavanna plays is wife) with a young son (played by Harry Watson) but domestic life isn't bliss - is it ever in a Fields comedy? - as Cornelius attempts to give his wife a kiss on the cheek, she pulls away, indicating a loveless marriage. Unlike other Fields comedies, Cornelius has a good relationship with his son, who enjoys telling him riddles, much to the wife's annoyance. In the shop itself, Cornelius has a sole co-worker, a manicurist (Dagmar Oakland) who he flirts with and for whatever reason, seems infatuated with him. Perhaps this is explained by all of the wild tales he tells her of great and heroic feats he performed in his youth - he was a boxer, a detective and once killed an animal with his bare hands. This is prevalent since a bandit is on the loose. There is a $2,000 reward for his capture. Naturally Cornelius would be out there on the hunt for him but sadly his presence is required at the shop, despite limited customers.
Fields gets to have a little more fun with his screen persona when his next customer enters, a little girl (Gloria Velarde) with her mother (Fay Holderness). The mother has brought the girl in for a haircut and here Fields is able to display his distain for children. Fields famously once said he never wanted to share a scene with animals, children and women since they will steal your attention in a scene. The girl does not want a haircut and Cornelius does his best to bite his tongue.
By now some readers may get the feeling where does this comedy go? It doesn't seem to be about much. That is partially true. There isn't a strong narrative plot line being followed through. Comedies like "The Barber Shop" and "The Pharmacist" would take up a few scenes in a feature-length comedy. "The Barber Shop" is kind of a blue print of what was to come in films such as "It's A Gift" (1934), which I feel is Fields best comedy. Much of what was in that film can be seen here though not examined as fully as in the feature-length format.
One aspect of "The Barber Shop" that doesn't get the full treatment and commentary I felt it deserved was the theme of masculinity. Masculinity had regularly been a theme in comedies of the 1920s and 30s usually insinuating masculinity is tied to physicality meaning brute strength. This can be seen in one of Fields' own silent comedies, "Running Wild" (1927). In "The Barber Shop" Fields possesses some of the same timid qualities as in that silent movie, as seen in his relationship with his wife, but there is no resolution to that problem this time around. Somehow Fields actually finds a way to emasculate his character further by the end of the movie.
The purpose of "The Barber Shop" and the Mack Sennett shorts he appeared in was to showcase Fields comedic talents and add a new dimension to his persona as he came out of the silent era. Fields is in a select group of actors and actresses that benefitted from sound. Fields was a verbal comedian and that explains why his sound comedies are better remembered than his silent comedies. "The Barber Shop" was also the last comedy short he would appear in to focus on feature-length movies.
"The Pharmacist" (1933) was the second to last comedy short W.C. Fields appeared in and like "The Barber Shop" is credited as being directed by Arthur Ripley from a story by Fields.
There is a lot in "The Pharmacist" that doesn't feel like your typical Fields comedy. It seems Fields was still working through the character and figuring out where the funny would come from. There are elements here that wouldn't be found in the feature-length comedies Fields appeared in. The average viewer may not notice them on first glance but take a closer second look. The Fields here is a rough draft of the characters he would play in "The Bank Dick" (1940) or "You Can't Cheat An Honest Man" (1939).
The most glaring thing I first noticed is his character's relationship with his children. Fields plays Mr. Dilweg, the owner of a general store - despite the title of this comedy, Fields is not a pharmacist. The closest he gets to medicine is taking a order over the phone for cough drops - he has two daughters the youngest of which is played by "Babe" Kane, a grown woman playing a precocious child perhaps a la Baby Snooks (look it up). Fields is practically cruel to the child. He engages in a joke I've seen him do before where he implies he is going to hit a child after they ask if he loves them. Even the wife / mother character (Elise Cavanna) gets in on the act and roughs up the child. This leads to my second observation, she even defends Fields when the child talks back. What world is this?! Fields' character was usually the black sheep of the family due to his drinking and general laziness. Like Rodney Dangerfield he got no respect at home. Then there is a truly bizarre moment where the child is caught eating a canary and coughs up feathers! This is very dark humor for a W.C. Fields comedy and quite frankly feels out of place. Situations such as these would never be repeated again in a Fields comedy.
Another short coming of "The Pharmacist" is it doesn't do enough (or anything) to make Mr. Dilweg a lovable scoundrel. Despite the bad habits of any Fields character we, the audience, always rooted for him. A lot of this was due to the treatment he received from other characters like his family. Here though Mr. Dilweg seems to be a bully. I understand this is a pre-code comedy but you can't have a grown man threaten to hit children in a movie when we haven't had time to like the character first. Don't believe me? The proof is in the pudding. Fields would never do this again with one of his characters before making sure we like and in some way identify with his character.
If you can get past these moments, there is something to enjoy when watching "The Pharmacist", which is an episodic comedy like "The Barber Shop". Aside from these domestic moments the rest of the comedy short centers on Mr. Dilweg's interactions with various customers. In one interaction, which feels a little forced and more of an attempt to make a political commentary then create a laugh, a man is browsing in the store when Mr. Dilweg watches him like an hawk, desperate to make a sale. Finally the man says he'll buy a stamp but wants a purple one. Mr. Dilweg doesn't have a purple one which causes the man to make a remark no one has rights anymore but that's what you get with the Democratic Party.
It is through these customer interactions however that this comedy begins to shine. Fields, perhaps taking a cue from Jack Benny, uses a similar approach where Mr. Dilweg is a kind of everyman that encounters nothing but eccentrics. The humor is in Dilweg's attempts to meet the demands of these various individuals. Of course, nothing prior in "The Pharmacist" firmly situates Mr. Dilwig as an everyman but when compared to his daughter, who is eating canaries, I guess he'll do.
With no strong narrative plot there is no place for "The Pharmacist" to go that would feel satisfactory for the audience. It ends on a forced cops and robbers shoot out in the store. Maybe due to poor editing, how this shoot out begins is never explained. The sequence however proceeds to demonstrate Dilwig is a coward and continues to further embarrass him by being "saved" by a character he had earlier called a sissy played by Grady Sutton, who usually proved to be a good foil for Fields in later movies. It is rare though to see a comedian from this era fail the way Fields does in these two comedy shorts. Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Bob Hope all had moments where they succeeded on some level - they get the girl, they beat up the brute, they deliver the piano...etc. But Fields just flat out fails. Again, in the feature-length comedies this would change. "The Bank Dick" is an excellent example of this.
These Mack Sennett shorts signaled a new direction for Fields and his persona. Films and various directors weren't taking full advantage of his talents. See him in D.W. Griffith's "Sally of the Sawdust" (1925). It is a role practically any comedic actor of the era could have played. It didn't require W.C. Fields. On that basis the comedy shorts have value. We are able to see the development of his character, working out the rough edges.
I'd like to also take a brief moment and say something about the director of these shorts, Arthur Ripley. He was a gag writer for Sennett and wrote a few of Harry Langdon's comedies along with Frank Capra. I'm personally more familiar with his work as a writer than a director. Outside of these W.C. Fields shorts, his only other directorial efforts I have seen are a pair of Robert Benchley shorts. His strength appears to have been in his writing.
"The Barber Shop" and "The Pharmacist" fall short of what feature-length W.C. Fields comedies would achieve but there are funny moments in each of these comedies. It is fun to see Fields figure out what worked for the character and what didn't.
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