The Dentist is a 1932 American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 comedy

Comedy film

Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 short

Short subject

A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...

 starring W.C. Fields. The film is one of four short films Fields made with the "king of comedy," Mack Sennett

Mack Sennett

Mack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...

, at Paramount

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

. Although Sennett was near the end of his career, he found good use of the new medium of talking pictures for comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

, 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

VHS

The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....

 and DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

.

Story

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

Elise Cavanna

Elise Cavanna was an American film actress, stage comedienne, dancer, and artist.-Stage and film career:Born Elise Seeds in Pennsylvania, she went to the Pennsylvania Academy and studied dancing with Isadora Duncan in Berlin, Germany. She gave dance recitals in New York City until she began to...

), he engages in an intimate wrestling match as he attempts to extract a painful tooth.

Cast

• W.C. Fields as Dentist
• Marjorie Kane
  Marjorie Kane
  Marjorie Kane was an American film actress. She appeared in 68 films between 1929 and 1951. She was born in Chicago, Illinois.-Selected filmography:* The Great Gabbo * Be Yourself...
  
   as Daughter (as 'Babe' Kane)
• Arnold Gray as Arthur the iceman
• Dorothy Granger
  Dorothy Granger
  Dorothy Granger was an American actress best known for her roles in short subject comedies in Hollywood.-Career:...
  
   as Patient (Miss Peppitone)
• Elise Cavanna
  Elise Cavanna
  Elise Cavanna was an American film actress, stage comedienne, dancer, and artist.-Stage and film career:Born Elise Seeds in Pennsylvania, she went to the Pennsylvania Academy and studied dancing with Isadora Duncan in Berlin, Germany. She gave dance recitals in New York City until she began to...
  
   as Patient (Miss Mason)
• Zedna Farley as Dental Assistant
• Billy Bletcher
  Billy Bletcher
  William "Billy" Bletcher was an American actor, comedian, and voice artist, a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.-Career:...
  
   as Bearded patient (uncredited)
• Joe Bordeaux
  Joe Bordeaux
  Joe Bordeaux was an American film actor. He appeared in 73 films between 1914 and 1940.He was born in Colorado, and died in Los Angeles, California.-Selected filmography:* The Great Dictator...
  
   as Caddy (uncredited)
• Harry Bowen as Joe, the pal (uncredited)
• Emma Tansey as Old Lady (uncredited)
• Chester Clute
  Chester Clute
  Chester Clute , was an American actor familiar in scores of Hollywood films from his debut in 1930. Diminutive, bald-pated with a bristling moustache, he appeared in mostly unbilled roles, consisting usually of one or two lines, in nearly 250 films. He died of a heart attack aged 65...
  
   as Nervous patient (uncredited)
• Bud Jamison
  Bud Jamison
  Bud Jamison was an American film actor. He appeared in 450 films between 1915 and 1944.-Career:...
  
   as Charley Frobisher (uncredited)
• Bobby Dunn
  Bobby Dunn
  Bobby Dunn was a comic actor who appeared in several Laurel & Hardy comedies, beginning with Duck Soup, and notably as the shoplifter in Tit for Tat.-Biography:...
  
   as Dentist's Caddy (uncredited)
• Thelma Hill
  Thelma Hill
  Thelma Hill was an American silent screen comedian.Born Thelma Floy Hillerman in Emporia, Kansas, she was one of the few Sennett Bathing Beauties to make it into featured roles...
  
   (uncredited)
• Ethel La Blanche (uncredited)
• Pete Rasch (uncredited)
• William Searby (uncredited)