The Barber Shop **** (1933, W C Fields, Elise Cavanna, Harry Watson, Dagmar Oakland) – Classic Movie Review 9793

Funny, busy and inventive W C Fields short, with the star on hilarious form as the barber Cornelius O’Hare, with a typically grouchy wife (Elise Cavanna) and an unattainable object of lust (Dagmar Oakland).

‘Are you hurt? No… not physically.’

Would you let W C Fields shave you with cut-throat razor? No, but it turns out to be a good way to get rid of unwanted facial moles.

The sweet, funny, busy and inventive 21-minute 1933 comedy short The Barber Shop stars and is written by W C Fields, is directed by Arthur Ripley, and produced by Mack Sennett.

W C Fields stars as an inept small town barber, Cornelius O’Hare, who starts out using a brick to sharpen his cut-throat razor, and then has to cope with a harridan of a wife, Mrs O’Hare (Elise Cavanna), a lust for a young lady, his pretty manicurist (Dagmar Oakland), an over-bright kid Ronald O’Hare (Harry Watson), sharp with the riddles (‘Do you know why a load of hay is like a mouse? Cause cat’ll eat it!’), a criminal Escaped Bank Robber (Cyril Ring) on the run, a recalcitrant dog (‘One day I was shaving a man and cut his ear off and the dog got it… been back here ever since’), his own lack of musical skills on the bass fiddle and, most of all, a total lack of barber skills. It’s kind of a busy day for the barber, and he seems like the kind of man who prefers quiet days alone.

Fields may be credited as writer, but The Barber Shop seems like it is being made up as it goes along, with Fields just providing the framework and throwing in his usual stuff to make it work. And, shambolic, though it is, it does work. It is constantly amusing, likeable and warm, with the star on hilarious form.

Its right peculiar strangeness helps it, along with its fragrant whiff of antique small-town America. And, despite all the misanthropy and misogyny, a cosy warmth underpins it all, with a predictable conclusion to all the gags and film, and a sense that everything is going to be alright. We’ll forgive them the Italian stereotype and fat man stereotype characters.

The cast are W C Fields as Cornelius O’Hare, Elise Cavanna as Mrs O’Hare, Harry Watson as Ronald O’Hare, Dagmar Oakland as Hortense – Manicurist, Frank Alexander as Steam Room Victim – Before, Billy Bletcher as Steam Room Victim – After, Joe Bordeaux as Passerby, Harry Bowen as Cop, Fay Holderness as Little Girl’s Mother, William McCall as Man with Horse, Cyril Ring as Escaped Bank Robber, Dick Rush as Cop and John Sinclair as Mr Flugg – Shave Customer, Gloria Velarde as Gloria – Little Girl in Barber’s Chair, and Frank Yaconelli as Italian Man Selling Bass Fiddle.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9793

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