Movie Dentists

Doctors of dentistry are not nearly as commonly portrayed in movies I’ve seen as say doctors in general. You too may also have noticed that dentist characters when their profession does appear in a film are typically in comedies. In addition to the obvious slapstick short features from the silent era and/or popular comedy duos and trios (can you say “The Three Stooges”) of their day dentists can be found in these feature films:

Greed (1924) – though certainly not a comedy this artistically celebrated silent drama from director Erich von Stroheim that was based on Frank Norris’s novel features Gibson Gowland as John McTeague a miner who becomes a dentist without a license that takes his friend (Jean Hersholt) Marcus’s girlfriend Trina (Zasu Pitts) for her lottery winnings.

The Iron Horse (1924) – John Ford’s epic historical drama about the building of the continental railroad contains a scene about midway through of an early western dentist in the mobile town of Cheyenne removing a tooth from a rough character that’s not sure he wants to part with it.

One Sunday Afternoon (1933) – I actually saw this one after The Strawberry Blonde (1941) detailed below and this was the original starring Gary Cooper as Biff Grimes and Neil Hamilton as Hugo Barnstead with Fay Wray as Virginia Brush and Frances Fuller as Amy Lind. Roscoe Karns plays Biff’s friend in this one the role George Tobias plays in the remake.

Dark Command (1940) – directed by Raoul Walsh this Western features John Wayne as Bob Seton the brawny assistant of traveling tooth-puller Doc Grunch (Gabby Hayes). Seton’s job is to provoke people into a fight so that he can knock an opponent’s tooth loose which Doc will then pull for a fee; the two’s arrangement is to split the proceeds.

The Strawberry Blonde (1941) – also directed by Walsh this comedy romance featuring Rita Hayworth in the title role stars James Cagney as Biff Grimes a dentist that not only pulls a tooth from his reluctant drunken father (Alan Hale) but gets a chance to see what his life would have been like if he’d married Hayworth’s (instead of Olivia de Havilland’s) character through her husband his former double-crossing friend Hugo F. Barnstead (Jack Carson).

The Paleface (1948) – a Bob Hope-Jane Russell comedy Western; he plays his typical coward persona this time as dentist ‘Painless’ Peter Potter opposite her Calamity Jane.

His Majesty O’Keefe (1954) – Burt Lancaster (in the title role) is brought by Benson Fong’s character to his uncle a dentist (Philip Ahn) in Hong Kong to have his tooth repaired. The meeting prompts a business alliance between the two gentlemen.

Bells Are Ringing (1960) – Bernard West plays an hilarious dentist-songwriter wannabe opposite top-billed Judy Holliday (her last film) and Dean Martin in this Vincente Minnelli directed-Arthur Freed produced film version of the Betty Comden-Adolph Green Broadway hit Musical romantic comedy which also starred Holliday. West as Dr. Joe Kitchell DDS ‘sings’ “I Love Your Sunny Teeth” “Oh How It Hurts” and “Hot and Cold”.

The Secret Partner (1961) – this nifty little (MGM-British) crime drama thriller starring Stewart Granger and the lovely Haya Harareet features a scotch drinking dentist (Norman Bird) who’s not only blackmailing one of his patients (Granger) that has a criminal background but also agrees to put Granger’s character under gas (ostensibly to pull a tooth) in order to extract his keys and some information to facilitate the robbery of a shipping company for a tidy sum.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) – O.K. so it’s not a movie but it IS a classic and (watching it is) an annual tradition in our house! Who can forget little Hermey the elf who wants to become a dentist befriending his fellow misfit reindeer before they embark on an adventure that leads to Hermey and prospector Yukon Cornelius working together to save Rudolph & Clarice etc. from the Abominable Snowman (spoiler;-) by removing his imposing teeth!

Cactus Flower (1969) – another comedy – Walter Matthau plays a dentist that tells his girlfriend (Goldie Hawn) that he’s “married with children” so that he can remain unattached. But when their relationship develops to the point that Matthau’s character is finally ready to make a commitment to Hawn’s he uses his longtime employee (Ingrid Bergman) to pretend to be the wife he’s leaving.

MASH (1970) – perpetuating the stereotype the filmmakers of this Academy Award nominated (screenplay) comedy which led to one of the most successful television series ever cast John Schunk as Captain Walter ‘Painless Pole’ Waldowski a dentist that wants to commit suicide.

Rio Lobo (1970) – David Huddleston plays the titled town’s dentist that provides assistance to John Wayne who cleans it up; Huddleston’s character pretends to pull a tooth from the Duke whose character is encouraged to scream in pain.

Marathon Man (1976) – exploiting everyone’s very real fear of dental pain Laurence Olivier earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination playing a Nazi war criminal ‘dentist’ that exacts extraordinary excruciating pain on Dustin Hoffman’s character via torture.

The In-Laws (1979) – Successful New York dentist Sheldon Kornpett (Alan Arkin) finds himself an unwitting victim-reluctant participant in an outlandish plot of his daughter’s would-be father-in-law ex-CIA-like government agent Vince Ricardo (Peter Falk) in this crime comedy that was recently named (by Premiere Magazine) one of the 50 greatest comedies of all time.

10 (1979) – this Blake Edwards romantic comedy includes several funny scenes which begin after George Webber (Dudley Moore) has six cavities filled by a dentist (James Noble) that’s the father of (the titled ’10’ and object of George’s obsession during his mid-life crisis) Jenny (Bo Derek) who’s about to married (to Sam Jones’s character). His mouth stuffed with cotton George drinks too much to alleviate the pain which not only leads to an incoherent phone call with his “on again off again” girlfriend (Julie Andrews) but also a trip to a resort in Mexico where lo and behold Jenny and her husband are on their honeymoon.

It’s possible that these last two comedies (or others on this list) don’t meet your definition of classic movies certainly two more I can think of (Little Shop of Horrors (1986) and Finding Nemo (2003)) fail to meet most’s (age of the film) criteria. However it seems almost given that if a movie features a character portraying a dentist it’s a comedy!

© 2006 Turner Classic Movies – this article originally appeared on TCM’s official blog