The banal subject matter (oral hygiene), the bizarre scenarios (long scenes of a man deciding whether or not to go to the dentist), and the terrifying earnestness (driven home Lowell Thomas' deeply professional narration) make this one a keeper. The clip goes from strength to strength, as we first watch a bunch of people run their tongues over their teeth, a task that seemingly takes all the mental powers they posses. We then follow the pathetic life of a man with lousy teeth as he's rejected by the army, various employers, and women. Then we are introduced to our somewhat peculiar but handsome mama's boy of a hero, who has great teeth and a bright future ahead of him. Clips of apparently intoxicated lower class yokels with mouths like broken picket fences are interspersed throughout to urge the audience to go to the dentist -- or else Hitler wins! Brilliant!

This film, made by the Public Heath Service, laments the sad state of the nation's teeth and exhorts all audience members to see their dentists immediately. It was made on the eve of World War II, probably as a response to the large amounts of 4-Fs that were being given due to bad teeth. This film is a lot of fun and very mstable. Priceless moments include the narrator ordering everybody in the audience to run his or her tongue over his or her teeth (and we get to see a movie audience actually doing this), and a poor toothless sap getting spurned by a pretty woman ("He doesn't even make it to first base," laments the narrator). Lots more fun than going to the dentist.
Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ***. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.

For some reason, About Faces starts off strongly, with a great shot of an audience doing rather weird tongue exercises, but then gets sidetracked into a blah patriotic story about one Danny Smith, who is somewhat of a dental masochist I guess. Watch for the scene during the army physical where this guy's suspenders are hiking his pants to the middle of his torso.

Saw this one motivated by recent dental work....certainly don't share the same reasons as presented herein for taking care of my teeth! Only sound advice: see your dentist!