W.C. Fields - The Dentist

1932

w.c.fields, comedy, dentist

One of a number of shorts that W.C. Fields made before he went into feature films. The scene where he extracts the woman's tooth may be one of the funniest he made.

The Dentist is a 1932 United States Comedy film Short subject starring W. C. Fields. The film is one of four short films Fields made with the "king of comedy," Mack Sennett, at Paramount Pictures. Although Sennett was near the end of his career, he found good use of the new medium of talking pictures for comedy, as the film demonstrates. It was directed by Leslie Pearce from a script by Fields himself. The film has been released on VHS and DVD.

Plot

Fields plays a dentist whose daughter desires to marry an ice-delivery man. He disapproves of this match, especially after she attempts to elope with her lover. Fields locks her up in an upstairs room, above his dental office, where she proceeds to stamp her feet, causing plaster chunks to fall as he attempts to treat his patients. Various patients with unusual physical traits (a tall "horse"-faced woman, a tiny, heavily bearded man) arrive at the office, and he attempts to use his dental drill on them without any apparent pain killer. With one of his patients (Elise Cavanna), he engages in an intimate wrestling match as he attempts to extract a painful tooth.