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The Italian Barber
(1911) United States of America
B&W : One reel / 993 feet
Directed by D.W. Griffith
Cast: Joseph Graybill [Tony, the barber], Mary Pickford [Alice], Marion Sunshine [Florence], Mack Sennett [Bobby Mack], Kate Bruce [the mother], Jack Dillon (John T. Dillon) [a man in the shop], W.C. Robinson [a man in the shop], Robert Harron [a man buying a newspaper], Henry Lehrman [a man buying a newspaper], Adolph Lestina [a man buying a newspaper; and an attendee at the ball], Donald Crisp [an attendee at the ball], Edward Dillon [an attendee at the ball], Jeanie Macpherson [an attendee at the ball], Claire McDowell [an attendee at the ball], Lottie Pickford [an attendee at the ball], Vivian Prescott [an attendee at the ball], [?] Charles West, [?] Dorothy West?
Biograph Company production; distributed by [?] Biograph Company or The General Film Company, Incorporated? / Cinematography by G.W. Bitzer. / © 11 January 1911 by Biograph Company. Released 9 January 1911. / Standard 35mm spherical 1.33:1 format.
Comedy.
Synopsis: [?] [From The Moving Picture World]? Tony, the barber, on his way to the shop meets little Alice, the newsgirl, who runs a stand on a neighboring corner. He at once becomes smitten and can think of nothing else. Later they are betrothed and little Alice fancies she has made a good catch. However, clouds gather when Alice’s sister Florence, who is a vaudeville artist, returns from her road tour with her sketch partner Bobby Mack, for the moment Tony sees Florence he transfers his affections to her. Poor Alice becomes aware of the waning of Tony’s love for her and the heavy blow falls when on the night of the Barbers’ Ball Tony escorts Florence thither. Alice being excessively romantic reasons that life without Tony is impossible so she is about to emulate the heroine of a novel she has been reading by terminating her unendurable existence with a pistol when Mack enters. The bullet she intended for her own lovelorn head passes through Mack’s hat, scaring him stiff. Recovering himself, he wants to know the cause of this rash attempt at self-slaughter, and Alice tells him in detail of the inconstancy of Florence and Tony. At first Mack is wild with rage, but on second thought, he realizes that Florence is not worth worrying over as far as he is concerned, and convinces Alice of the same of Tony, so then and there a new vaudeville team is formed, with prospects of something even more serious. Mack invites Alice to go to the ball with him, which invitation she most willingly accepts. At the ball the two couples meet and for a moment it looks as if there is going to be something doing. However, the ruffled condition of the situation is smoothed out and each swain is well satisfied with the change of hearts and the quartette find significance in the dancing master’s call “Hands all around.” “Change your partner.” Hence it is now certain that Alice and Mack the celebrated protean artists will now delight the hearts of the vaudeville fans, while Tony will lather and shave to maintain a home for the ex-vaudeville artist Florence.
Survival status: Prints exist in the Library of Congress film archive (Mary Pickford collection [35mm nitrate negative (missing intertitles)], (Kemp Niver collection) [35mm nitrate positive (incomplete)], and (paper print collection) [35mm paper positive, [?] 16mm reduction positive?]; in the Museum of Modern Art film archive [35mm acetate fine-grain master]; in the George Eastman Museum film archive [28mm diacetate positive (incomplete)]; and in the holdings of the Mary Pickford Institute for Film Education [35mm duplicate negative].
Current rights holder: Public domain [USA].
Keywords: Barbers - Italians
Listing updated: 28 April 2023.
References: Barry-Griffith p. 42; Eyman-Pickford p. 325; Spehr-American p. 2; Usai-Griffith-4 pp. 243-245 : Website-IMDb; Website-Pickford.
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