The Dentist

In ill-humour after a bad golf game, W.C. Fields takes his ire out on a series of dental patients and his daughter who has taken up with the iceman. If you can, try to obtain an uncut version of this comedy classic as there are some unusually off-colour lines and scenes for a short of this time period. Fields is best here, just allowed to chatter to himself. His shorts bear repeat watchings just to catch more of what he says. I have always considered him much more of a verbal comedian than a slapstick physical comedian and it truly did take the advent of sound to display his talent to their fullest. If the scene where Fields is pulling the woman's teeth looks a little suggestive to you, it is loosely based on a well-known (at the time) stag smoker film that was made in the 1920s called "The Slow Fire Dentist" which featured that dentist pulling a woman's tooth standing between her legs , her getting tangled in his coat, and being under heavy sedation. Not an exact match, of course (the stag film dentist gets a lot luckier than W. C. ever did in any movie!) but enough to see an influence. One of Fields' most famous shorts, and rightfully so! Recommended!