As with most early comedies, this Edison movie delivers its punchline in the fifth second and keeps repeating it for the next 25.
3 Reviews
What Demoralized the Barber Shop review
JoeytheBrit22 April 2020
Subtle is ain't!
planktonrules1 April 2014
Like the rest of the films of the day, "What Demoralized the Barber Shop" is incredibly short—only about a minute in length. During the earliest days of movies, films ranged from about 30 seconds to about 2 minutes—and were rarely any longer. Because of this, giving this film a numerical score is problematic—so I won't.
This film is set in a barber shop that is located just below street level. As the barbers and patrons are in the shop, two sets of sexy female legs can be seen at the top of the stairs—and the men are completely transfixed on the shapely legs. This was in a day when seeing anything other than a lady's ankle was very rare indeed.
As the guys see and react, the viewer can't help but marvel at the complete lack of subtlety and silly way this is all handled. One barber continues shaving a client—and in a manner that SHOULD have resulted in massive blood loss at the very least! None of it is the least bit restrained and this sort of overacting would soon become passé. An odd little window into the times, this one hasn't aged well.
By the way, in this one I think the term 'demoralized' has a different meaning than today. I think it literally means that the men lost their morals in this film.
This film is set in a barber shop that is located just below street level. As the barbers and patrons are in the shop, two sets of sexy female legs can be seen at the top of the stairs—and the men are completely transfixed on the shapely legs. This was in a day when seeing anything other than a lady's ankle was very rare indeed.
As the guys see and react, the viewer can't help but marvel at the complete lack of subtlety and silly way this is all handled. One barber continues shaving a client—and in a manner that SHOULD have resulted in massive blood loss at the very least! None of it is the least bit restrained and this sort of overacting would soon become passé. An odd little window into the times, this one hasn't aged well.
By the way, in this one I think the term 'demoralized' has a different meaning than today. I think it literally means that the men lost their morals in this film.
What Demoralized the Barber Shop (1898)
Michael_Elliott17 June 2016
What Demoralized the Barber Shop (1898)
A group of men are in a barber shop when they notice up a flight of stairs a couple women are standing. The women are in dresses, which means the men can see their legs and this sends the barber shop into chaos. This "comedy" is actually pretty funny just because of how wild and silly the actors are. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but it is an early example of actually trying to film a plot and not just "action" in the streets. I thought the entire set up was pretty good and as I said it made me laugh a couple times. At under a minute there's not much plot but the point was to make you laugh and I think it was a success.
A group of men are in a barber shop when they notice up a flight of stairs a couple women are standing. The women are in dresses, which means the men can see their legs and this sends the barber shop into chaos. This "comedy" is actually pretty funny just because of how wild and silly the actors are. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but it is an early example of actually trying to film a plot and not just "action" in the streets. I thought the entire set up was pretty good and as I said it made me laugh a couple times. At under a minute there's not much plot but the point was to make you laugh and I think it was a success.
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