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.
