Anaesthesia (1938) User Reviews

Fun Smith Short

[Michael_Elliott · 1 January 2010]

Anaesthesia (1938)

*** (out of 4)

Fun Pete Smith short takes a look at the history of anaesthesia from the early days of simply hitting someone over the head to the current times of mixing oxygen with various chemicals. This is a pretty entertaining short if you're mildly interested in hearing about the various ways people were put under in order to have an operation done. Some of the forms are used as comedy including the use of alcohol to make people not feel pain but some are told with drama including one way, which was discovered after some college boys played a prank on a black janitor. As usual, the film runs a brief 9-minutes and there's really not any downtime as the film moves very quickly. Smith adds his typical nice narration and perfectly delivers the jokes.

Dulling the Pain

[wes-connors · 3/10 · 3 April 2015]

"A Pete Smith Specialty" series of shorts humorously looks at the history of anaesthesia (sic). Way back in 3000 B.C., Egyptian doctors simply hit patients over the head with a mallet before operating. Continuing to look at anesthesia humorously, Mr. Smith narrates a scene showing a dentist and his patient. Before pulling a tooth, alcohol was a common form of anesthesia. Sometimes the doctor got drunk along with the patient; herein, both look very happy. At what looks like a college party, nitrous oxide (or "laughing gas") is also discovered to be a good pain-killer. One breakthrough occurs when a group of Caucasian young men prank a "Negro" houseboy with ether. He appears to have died, but recovers. All of this leads to better use of... anesthesia.

*** Anaesthesia (7/9/38) Will Jason ~ Pete Smith, George Du Count, Phillip Terry, Walter Soderling