Really Surprised!

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

"The Barber Shop" is a 1933 short film, so it already had its 80th birthday a couple years ago. And while it is still in black-and-white, this is from the early days of sound film already. It runs for 20 minutes and the director is Arthur Ripley. The writer here is W.C. Fields who also plays the main character. If you have seen some of Fields' other short films, you basically know what to expect here. He focused on different professions and included chaotic behavior and some known plot topics such as relationship struggles with the wife etc., all while dealing with his customers and sadly he is not always (well, never) the most skilled at his craft. So much for the general facts. The specifics here are in my opinion about a film that is not really too funny. It's probably just me as, while I see his talent, the writing and comedic approach by Fields are rarely really to my liking. In my opinion, the comedy in here has not aged as well as some of the other comedy from back then and with this statement I am for example referring to the (sound and silent) short films by Laurel and Hardy, that are still worth seeing today. This one here is not and I give it a thumbs-down.

This is one of the oddest films I've seen of W. C. Fields because he seems to genuinely like his son! The young boy loves to tell really lame riddles and W. C. encourages him and acts pretty tenderly towards the kid (at least compared to the usual fare from this comedian). Children are either just tolerated or hated in his films. A good example was his famous line "Of course I love kids,....boiled". For whatever reason, this film is unusual in this respect.Now as for the film itself, this one is very similar to THE PHARMACIST in that it is a very slow slice of life short, though it does have more gags and a more "Fields-like" ending. Don't expect the craziness of Fields shorts like THE DENTIST or THE FATAL GLASS OF BEER, but this isn't a positive or negative thing--I like both styles of his work. Funny, well-paced and cute--this is an excellent Fields short.

Personally, I like Fields' features much more than the few short films he made. The Bank Dick, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, You're Telling Me, The Old-Fashioned Way, It's a Gift, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, and The Man on the Flying Trapeze are some of the funniest films you're ever likely to see. But most of his shorts are somewhat lame. My favorite is The Golf Specialist, which is nothing more - nor should it be - than Fields' infamous vaudeville routine. The Dentist is famous for its sexual innuendo of the woman wrapping her legs around Fields while he pulls a tooth, but it's not very funny after that. The Barber Shop is the second funniest of these shorts. Fields is very funny in it, and so are the supporting cast members. Here Fields is in henpecked husband mode, taking it from his evil vegetarian wife. His little son likes to tell him the lamest riddles in history. The slight plot is a prelude to The Bank Dick, with a criminal on the run and Fields bragging that he'd throttle him good if he got a hold of him. A lot of good jokes here. See it on the Criterion disc of his short films. 8/10.

W.C. plays the title role of the Barber. He gets to flirt with the manicurist in his shop all day, and go upstairs to his unadoring wife at night. His shaving technique is truly frightening, and his steamroom is truly amazing. He even manages to babysit for a neighbor and to capture a criminal in his shop, through no fault of his own, during his very full day. And you haven't lived till you've heard Fields play the bass fiddle!Fields is good as usual in this film; it's not as hilarious as others of his but is fairly even.