Complete credited cast: | |||
W.C. Fields | ... | Cornelius O'Hare | |
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Elise Cavanna | ... | Mrs. O'Hare |
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Harry Watson | ... | Ronald O'Hare |
Dagmar Oakland | ... | Hortense | |
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John Sinclair | ... | Mr. Flugg (as John St. Clair) |
Cyril Ring | ... | Escaped Bank Robber |
Barber O'Hair has a vegetarian wife at home a pretty manicurist at work. A dog sits in the barbershop which O'Hair explains: "One day I was shaving a man and cut his ear off. And the dog got it. Been back here ever since." Oh, and he captures a bank robber. Written by Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>
With the great W.C. Fields in fine form, and a setup that provides him with a lot of good material, "The Barber Shop" is a very enjoyable short comedy. It is filled with the kinds of details and subtle gags that make Fields's comedies worth watching attentively.
"The Barber Shop" closely resembles the Fields feature "The Pharmacist", with very similar settings and stories. Both are very good, and in both of them Elise Cavanna is funny as the domineering wife of Fields's character. Both have some gags that are deliberately absurd, and others that are less obvious. Both feature amusing exchanges between Fields and numerous customers.
When Fields was at his best, he could really get across the wackiness of so much of what happens in daily life, and that's one of the things that works quite well here.