THE BARBER SHOP (1933) - ♦♦♦

Directed by - Arthur Ripley

Written by - W.C. Fields

Starring - W.C. Fields

"An early sound slapstick comedy. The Barber Shop was also the fourth and final collaboration between the great American actor W.C. Fields and comedy mogul Mack Sennett. 

Much like in the previous three films of the collaboration, The Barber Shop is not particularly driven by any consistent narrative for, but rather by the perfected comedic persona of Fields himself, who portrays the mercilessly henpecked individual, the clumsy every day zero. 

As implied in the title, he plays a barber - in the previous films he had played other professions such as a dentist and a pharmacist. The structure is the same. His wife nags and nags, kids annoy him and his clumsy nature and overall incompetence has him almost destroying his shop and causing his customers great distress. 

It's not particularly memorable, despite it being very entertaining, not least of all because of Fields himself who, as mentioned earlier, looks particularly at ease perhaps unburdened now by the restrictions that early sound cinema might have had on actors with a theatrical background such as himself."

Comedy, USA