The Dentist (1932 film)

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The Dentist (1932) was one of four short films W.C. Fields made with the "king of comedy," Mack Sennett, at Paramount. 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 running time of 20 minutes and has been released on VHS and DVD.

[edit] Story

Fields is a dentist whose daughter is threatening to run away with her boyfriend. He eventually has to lock her up in an upstairs room, above his dental office, where she proceeds to stamp her feet, causing chunks of the plaster ceiling to fall as Fields attempts to treat one of his patients. There are a number of very funny moments as various patients come to the office, particularly when Fields proceeds to drill without any pain killer. With one of his women patients, he engages in a virtual wrestling match as he attempts to extract a painful tooth. Some of his comments are quite salty and it's clear that the studio deleted some of it.

There is also a very funny sequence on the golf course, where Fields has opportunities to utilize elements of the famous golf routine he developed for the Ziegfeld Follies.