This early Edison short was probably very entertaining at the time of its release, as instead of a simple performance of a dancer or an athlete performing we get a rather comic scene showing a guy getting shaved. While not at all impressive today (many people now will just think "a guy getting a shave--so what?") it is interesting as it is a form of early advertising.While many people think the later Edison film "Dewars-It's Scotch" is the first true advertising film (so did I for a while), I believe this is truly the first. This is because at the time a shave and a haircut was very popular and was the most recent fad. People could get both for a nickel. So Edison, who wants to cash in on money, decides to advertise this new great wonder by making a short film about it. And not only does this film advertise, it also amuses--and isn't that what we do to grab people's attention today? It is indeed. "Dewars-It's Scotch" doesn't do that. It is an advertising film, but it doesn't really amuse, it just outright says "Buy it, buy it, BUY IT! Thanks for watching." The advertising in it is pretty clear--there's a sign and everything. And the scene does amuse somewhat. I'll bet you after seeing this the men in the audiences were like "Whoa, that's too great a deal to pass up! To the barbershop!" While it's easy to see it was made in a studio, the idea is still there. And today I suppose you could call it more interesting than seeing a baby being fed. Entertaining but more interesting for the fact that it is an unrecognized advertising film--and maybe the first.(Note: On Kino's "Movies Begin" set the film is played twice in a row for some reason. I had no idea until I read the review by someguy. It's only twenty secs though so it's still no waste of time).

. . . the dangers of second-hand smoke, as the American tobacco industry is one of the first groups to engage in product placement (note the guy with a pipe clenched between his teeth seated stage left of the barber), beaten out only by the liquor guild, which got a bottle of booze horned in to an otherwise innocent BLACKSMITH SCENE filmed slightly earlier in 1893 by the Edison Manufacturing Company. An advertising sign prominently displayed in THE BARBER SHOP 22.4-second short reads "The Latest Wonder: Shave & Hair Cut for a nickel," which, oddly enough, was about the exact same cost of watching SOMEONE ELSE get a shave and hair cut at the kinetograph parlor, which would soon morph into the more aptly named (and easier to pronounce) "nickelodeon." Though this short is set and filmed in the North, it is interesting to note that the barbershop shown is just as segregated (i.e., all-white, in this case) as any in the Jim Crow South would have been in the 1890s.

This is a 40-second long Edison Company kinetoscope short. Four men play out the scene. One is sitting in a barber's chair getting a shave and a haircut. Another is the barber working on him. The third and fourth flank the barber on either side of the frame, positioned in front of the barber chair and cabinet. The scene actually lasts only 20 seconds, but is repeated in full.Some sources date The Barber Shop to mid-1893 or earlier, and some sources consider it to be "pre-commercial" (that is, prior to an intention for the film to be exhibited commercially on the kinetoscope). While this may indeed be the case, it's unusual in that The Barber Shop is clearly a staged scene; one that is more complex than some of the commercial Edison Company shorts, such as Sandow (1894) and The Cock Fight (1894).This is one of the more successful shorts of the era. While it presents a scene that ostensibly might be an actuality (actualities were something like cinematographic records of everyday scenes), closer examination reveals that the scenario is extremely artificial and directed. For example, there are props that are arranged in exact spots to create maximum effect in the frame of the camera. More notably, each "actor's" motions appear to be precisely planned and directed; they're almost choreographed. The actions provide a fascinating contrapuntal mise-en-scene--each performer is constantly moving, and even inanimate motion is incorporated by way of the smoke from the pipe.The two men flanking the customer stand up at one point and move to the middle of the frame, blocking the view of the barber and customer. All of this complicated motion allows for a repetition that most people do not notice on a first viewing (it took me a couple viewings to notice--I didn't catch it until I switched to a more analytical mode), despite the fact that the man on the left is obviously taking off his coat and hat and sitting down once again. You don't notice because your eye is busy darting around the frame, trying to take all of it in at once.The staging is similar to Glenroy Brothers (Comic Boxing) (1894), but more complex. In the Glenroy Brothers short, the "rear guard" sit motionless, more props than persons. The Barber Shop's approach to creating a "realistic scene" involving a number of people has been much emulated in later films, down to the present, and was subsequently honed artistically to a point that many people no longer noticed the artificiality of the "background action".

This simple footage of "The Barbershop" is pleasant to watch, and like many other features of its time, it preserves forever a view of a once-familiar scene. In itself, the action is nothing exciting, but the camera is positioned well, and for such a short running time it does capture many details. Like a carefully composed still picture, it presents every aspect of the scene, while in this case showing you the complete action of the doings that it depicts.Originally, the film-makers set out to capture a scene that their audiences would have observed every day. But, like a number of movies of its era, it now allows us to get a more intimate view of ways of life that are no longer common to our experience – in this case, to feel what it was like to visit an old-fashioned barber shop of the era. The footage does well in conveying this feel, capturing not only the man getting a shave, but also the leisurely interactions in the foreground – an efficient and well-conceived piece of cinematography.The double footage may seem like something of an odd idea, but it would be interesting to know how many of its original viewers noticed it. And, beyond that, we are quite fortunate that the earliest film-makers had such a spirit of experimentation, and that they were so willing to try even offbeat ideas. Early efforts such as this, as plain as it may now look to some viewers, did more than their part in getting cinema history moving.