The Pharmacist **** (1933, W C Fields, Marjorie Kane, Elise Cavanna, Grady Sutton, Lorena Carr) – Classic Movie Review 9794

The Pharmacist is a quirky, funny 1933 American pre-Code 20-minute comedy film directed by Arthur Ripley and starring W C Fields as horribly henpecked pharmacist Mr Dilweg, who tries to deal with his comedically over-demanding customers, his shrewish wife (Elise Cavanna) and his ghastly daughters – younger pogo-ing, canary-eating bratty daughter Priscilla (Babe Kane, aka Marjorie Kane) and constantly on the phone, lovesick Ooleota (Lorena Carr) – while evading the law selling bootleg liquor, all leading bizarrely to an in-store shootout and Dilweg’s encounter with his saviour Cuthbert Smith (Grady Sutton), who turns out to be Priscilla’s boyfriend whom Dilweg has called a sissy.

It is the third of the Mack Sennett Star Comedy shorts featuring Fields, following The Dentist (1932) and The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933). Fields also scripts this nicely set-up sit-com, with rough, improvisational edges but many good lines, characters and situations, and above all good performances. Highlights: the old-timers playing checkers, the old ladies insisting on speaking only to a woman and ending up just needing loo, the grouchy customer asking for a stamp from the middle of the set, and the bratty daughter coughing up feathers.

WC Fields wears a hat with the top cut out of it like producer Mack Sennett did. Mr Dilweg does it for hay fever while Sennett thought sunlight prevented hair loss. Fields wears the same hat in The Barber Shop, where Cavanna again plays his wife.

Fields wanted to call it W C Fields in a Drugstore and rowed with Sennett over the title.

Dilweg points to a model of Fields and says: ‘An amusing little figure’.

Signs show Baby Ruth and Butterfinger candy bars behind the counter, an early example of product placement.

The cast are WC Fields as Mr Dilweg, Marjorie Kane as Priscilla Dilweg, Elise Cavanna as Mrs Grace Dilweg, Grady Sutton as Cuthbert Smith, and Lorena Carr as Ooleota Dilweg.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9794

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