The Pharmacist

A key difference between W.C. Fields and Charlie Chaplin in their respective approaches to comedy is demonstrated in this short film The Pharmacist, which Fields made for Chaplin's former boss Mack Sennett. For most of his career Chaplin was careful to orchestrate audience sympathy for his character, so that even when the Little Tramp does something underhanded or naughty, we still like him. But Fields frequently aimed for something very different, and chose to embody mean, petty, blustery characters whose behavior can be inexcusable. (Perhaps this explains why Fields could be so deeply moving when he did periodically play a likable guy, or when he made an especially noble gesture, as in the finale of Poppy and a few similar instances.) The Pharmacist marks one of those occasions when Fields practically defies us to like the character he portrays. I tend to enjoy the Great Man's movies no matter what, but for newcomers to the world of W.C. Fields viewer discretion is advised: this time around, our star comic is not a nice man.

Fields plays a man named Dilweg who runs a drug store in a small town. He makes his entrance sourly ordering some children who are playing in front of his store to get lost. Dilweg lives over the store with his wife and two daughters, and while his older daughter seems pleasant enough, the younger daughter is a brat, and Mrs. Dilweg is pompous and stuffy. When he's upstairs with his family Dilweg is loud and crude, constantly fuming at the little girl and grousing about his job, but when he's downstairs with the customers he turns ridiculously deferential and accommodating, practically groveling for business -- which, on this particular day, is lousy.

That, in essence, is The Pharmacist. The humor derives from Fields' hellish depictions of family life and his workday, and although there are plenty of laughs the tone is bitter. For me, the funniest bits come in the downstairs sequences in the store, as Dilweg deals with a procession of difficult, uncommunicative, and demanding customers, such as the man who wants a postage stamp but insists on getting a clean one from the middle of the sheet, or the two ladies who insist on speaking to a female attendant . . . and, ultimately, want only directions to the washroom. One of the best gags is a throwback to silent comedy days: when an unfamiliar gent comes in asking about the availability of some under-the-counter booze, Dilweg holds up an oscillating fan that blows back the man's lapel and reveals his badge, then righteously delivers a pious speech disavowing such illicit activity. Fields first used this gag in his silent feature It's the Old Army Game, back in 1926.

Somewhat surprisingly, the climax of this low-key short is a violent gun battle between bandits and police that spills into Dilweg's store: the End of a Perfect Day for the proprietor, whose stock gets riddled with bullets. Whether or not you find Mr. Dilweg a sympathetic figure will probably depend on whether you already liked W.C. Fields in the first place. For those of us who appreciate him, there is much here to enjoy. Mr. Dilweg the beleaguered pharmacist may not be an admirable guy, but The Pharmacist is a treat for Fields connoisseurs.

This is the kind of short comedy that shows W.C. Fields's brand of humor at its most distinctive. Mixing the subtle and the outrageous, it offers plenty of good gags, and it is the kind of feature that improves the more carefully you watch it. It has some fine surreal moments that, at least if you enjoy Fields's style, can be quite hilarious.

As "The Pharmacist", Fields plays a character who is at the same time good-natured yet misanthropic. He lives and works in a ridiculous situation, giving Fields the chance to use his voice, facial expressions, and mannerisms in some very funny ways. A couple of the vignettes with the customers are so nicely done that it's easy to miss the many subtleties. (The fussy man asking for a stamp might be the best-remembered of them.)

As the wife and daughter, Elise Cavanna and Marjorie Kane are also very good, fitting their characters right into the world that Fields creates.

Fields excels in (among other things) throwing his viewers an occasional curve, and it's not always easy to catch everything, "The Pharmacist", like its companions "The Dentist" and "The Barber Shop", has a resourceful supply of material performed by one of the movies' most talented comedians.

W.C Fields should have made more short comedies before settling into feature length films. His style translated to comedy shorts better in some ways than with his feature films. "The Pharmacist" has Fields once again playing a henpecked husband who is struggling to keep his pharmacy business successful. He has customers who don't buy anything, a run in with a wanted outlaw and two daughters who are about as much use as a pair of ice skates in the sand! There are some good moments and Fields has some witty dialogue to work with.

THE PHARMACIST (Paramount, 1933), directed by Arthur Ripley, the third of the Mack Sennett Star Comedy shorts to feature W.C. Fields (who also scripted), ranks another one of the better and more noteworthy comedy skits originated by Fields from stage to screen. As with his upcoming short, THE BARBER SHOP (1933), with formula repeated and recycled, Fields must contend with dysfunctional family upstairs while attending to business matters downstairs. This time he has two daughters, one constantly on the phone with her beau, Cuthbert, while the other being an overgrown brat of a child hopping about on her pogo stick who stoops to eating the family canary bird when sent away from the dinner table as punishment for her actions. He also has a slightly shrewish wife, effectively played by Elsie Cavanna, best known as Fields' patient victim in his initial Sennett comedy short, THE DENTIST (1932). Overall, a near perfect set-up for a situation comedy.

The slight plot, which takes place in a single day, revolves around the antics set in a small town neighborhood drug store run by pharmacist, Mr. Dilweg (W.C. Fields). After chasing away a couple of kids, one jumping up and down on his scale outside, and passing a couple of old-timers pondering around for three-and-a-half hours on the next move in a checker game inside, Dilweg is called to lunch by his wife (Elsie Cavanna), leading to disciplinary actions with his younger daughter (Babe Kane) and listening to his elder daughter (Lorena Carr) constantly on the telephone. Returning downstairs to attend to business, Dilweg encounters two elderly ladies insisting on speaking only to a woman about their needs; a tough patron wanting to purchase a stamp; a detective investigating if there's liquor on the premises; a shootout between an escaped gunman and the police, and finally Dilweg's surprise encounter with Cuthbert Smith (played by Grady Sutton in his first Fields comedy).

THE PHARMACIST, which looks like a segment taken from a feature length comedy, acquires its share of familiar Fields exchanges, one in particular where daughter (Kane) brawls out, "What's the matter, Pop, don't you love me?" Father, raising his hand towards her, replies in angry tone, "Certainly I love you," and growls to his wife, "She can't tell me I don't love her." Because material such as this worked so well, Fields would reprise his "fatherly love" routine in this latter feature-length comedies: IT'S A GIFT (1934) and THE BANK DICK (1940). Using a straw hat with an open top as his prop and he repeatedly reciting to himself, "Grubbing, Grubbing," is repeated in his fourth and final Sennett short, THE BARBER SHOP (1933). When Fields' performed his routines on radio during the 1940s, one of those used was that from THE PHARMACIST. This skit was later reproduced on to an LP record album from the 1970s titled "W.C. Fields on Radio." And who could forget the gruff guy asking for a stamp taken from the middle of the plaid. Best scene: Bratty daughter coughing up feathers taken and eaten one by one from the caged canary bird.

THE PHARMACIST, along with other Fields' shorts, has turned up occasionally on television over the years, notably cable stations as Turner Classic Movies in June 2001 as part of its "Star of the Month" tribute to W.C. Fields, and through its distribution on video and DVD formats, with best possible prints of all Fields' short subjects of the 1930s from the Criterion Collection. Fields' devotees would certainly find this aa good prescription for comedy. Canary birds, well, that's another matter. (***)

A MACK SENNETT Short Subject.

Caught between his frightful female relations on the second floor & the rather odd customers down in the shop, THE PHARMACIST in a small town reacts with predictably irascible behavior.

Initially conceived as a skit in 1925 for the Ziegfeld Follies by the inimitable W. C. Fields, THE PHARMACIST become one of a quartet of short subjects produced by Mack Sennett in the early 1930's. Fortunately, Fields was given full rein to control the film as he saw fit. The success of the shorts gave a new glow to Sennett's reputation, as many in Hollywood thought the old comedy master was washed-up with the end of the Silents. For Fields, this was the opportunity to paint large on a small canvas, going straight for the laughs (based on his unique personality) without any time wasted on character development or plot complexities.

Elise Cavanna plays Fields' ghastly wife & Babe Kane is his canary-munching daughter. (Looking enough alike to be sisters, these two actresses were actually only seven years apart in age.) Grady Sutton has a small role as the much-maligned Cuthbert.