A Quick Shave and Brush-up

A Victorian gentleman's quaint morning routine - complete with cut-throat razor, scent and powder

Comic actor Tom Green pulls his best faces for director George Albert Smith in this quick 'facial' film. The point of this movie was simply to show Green's twisting, stretching and grimacing features as he gives himself a shave - allowing the audience to find fun in a private ritual, comically exaggerated. However, viewed more than a century on, this film offers an intriguingly intimate view of a Victorian gentleman's shaving routine - including the cut-throat razor that Green wields so deftly.