The greatest films to come out of Japan
Charles Farrell and Janet Gaynor enjoyed onscreen romances in more than a dozen films during the late 1920s and early 1930s. In this tender scene, Chris (Farrell) requires round-the-clock nursing after falling ill, a task Catherine (Gaynor) is happy to undertake, including shaving her patient every morning.
English stage and film actor Charles Laughton finds that a frying pan makes a useful mirror in a scene from the comedy-drama 'Sidewalks of London.'
James Bond (Roger Moore) is seen here shaving in the bath before he's interrupted by a snake, placed in his bathroom by a would-be assassin. Do you remember the next scene? The ingenious 007 uses his lit cigar to ignite deodorant spray and points the flame at the hapless serpent.
In a memorable scene from this biographical thriller, Agent Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman) takes a straight razor to the throat of corrupt Deputy Sheriff Clinton Pell (Brad Dourif), warning him that the FBI will not be deterred from investigating the disappearance of three civil rights workers.
Crime gang member Chas (James Fox) is about to shave the head of a chauffeur (John Sterland) who's fallen out of favor with his boss. 'Performance' also stars Mick Jagger as a reclusive rock star.
Sarah (Anne Brochet) uses a knife to wet shave a stranger (James Spader) whom she has invited into her home after finding him unconscious on a remote beach. As she shaves her guest, Sarah realizes the man is suffering from amnesia.
In a poignant flashback scene from this biographical drama, known in French as 'Le Scaphandre et le Papillon,' Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) shaves his father (Max von Sydow), who's too frail to leave his apartment. Bauby is recalling the moment in his mind while suffering from locked-in syndrome.
Nerdy student Junior Jackson (Jerry Lewis) takes a straight razor to his lip before his date with Terry Howard (Marion Marshall) in a scene from 'That's My Boy.' The movie costars Dean Martin and marked the first time the comedy duo actually had "roles" as opposed to previous efforts in which they played an extension of their nightclub act.
In this shaving scene from the film 'Titanic,' an early take on the infamous maritime disaster, Richard Sturges (Clifton Webb) learns from his estranged wife Julia (Barbara Stanwyck) that their son Norman is in fact the result of a one-night stand she had after one of their many bitter arguments.
Bachelor Charlie Y. Reader (Frank Sinatra), his face smothered in shaving foam, expresses admiration for the blissful married life enjoyed by buddy Joe McCall (David Wayne) in this scene from 'The Tender Trap.'
In order to secure work on a daytime soap opera, Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) becomes Dorothy Michaels. His transformation as a woman includes shaving regularly, often dressed in women's clothing, in hilarious scenes like this one.
As Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) shaves in front of a mirror, Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) sneaks up behind him busily priming a straight razor with his tongue. Harker escapes being slashed by the vampire in one of the film's many 'close shaves.'
Charlie Chaplin (as a Jewish barber) absentmindedly tries to shave Hannah (Paulette Goddard) in one of several set-piece scenes in which Chaplin's choreographed use of a straight razor on customers is simply dazzling.
See also: Can you identify these celebrities by their beards?
In this scene from Alfred Hitchcock's 'North by Northwest,' Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) is forced to shave using a tiny travel razor given to him by Eva Marie Saint's character, Eve Kendall. His use of what's perceived as a feminine blade does not go unnoticed.
In the silent classic 'Steamboat Bill, Jr.,' William Canfield, Jr. (Buster Keaton) requires a shave and makeover, including the removal of a small mustache. The screen card reads: "Take that barnacle off his lip."
Dude (Dean Martin) looks decidedly worried as Feathers (Angie Dickinson) takes a razor to his face in this amusing scene from the Howard Hawks-directed Western 'Rio Bravo.' John T. Chance (John Wayne) can't hide his amusement at Feathers' clumsy attempts at shaving the cowboy.
J. J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson) gets into an argument with customer Doc Erickson (C.O. Erickson) in the barbershop scene from 'Chinatown,' in which a scandal involving an official working in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is exposed in the press.
This comedy-drama revolves around the social life in a barbershop on the South Side of Chicago.
Loosely based on the life of Martin Luther and starring Joseph Fiennes as the German priest and professor of theology, 'Luther' includes a scene where Fiennes' character is shaved by Johann von Staupitz (Bruno Ganz). Beards distinguished most of the leading 16th-century Protestant Reformers, yet Martin Luther continued his habit of shaving.
Andrea Moreau (Stewart Granger) threatens lawyer Fabian (Curtis Cooksey) with a razor in order to give up the name of Moreau's father, in this scene from the swashbuckling tale set just prior to the French Revolution.
Johnny Depp is in murderous form as Sweeney Todd, the English barber and serial killer who murders his customers with a straight razor. Scenes such as this one are commonplace throughout the Tim Burton-directed musical slasher film.
There is a scene in this epic Second World War film where German general Schiller (Maximilian Schell) is shaving while contemplating the fate of members of a symphony orchestra captured by the Nazis. He orders them to prepare a special concert for their captors, but hesitates about the standing order to execute all prisoners.
Doug Kinney (Michael Keaton) is a man able to duplicate himself by machine, each duplicate developing a different personality, and causing all sorts of problems. In this scene, Doug is shaving twice, but it's the same face in the mirror.
In this scene from Brian De Palma's Vietnam War drama, Sergeant Tony Meserve (Sean Penn) casually takes a shave as Private First Class Max Eriksson (Michael J. Fox) tries to understand Meserve's reasons for ordering the squad kidnap a Vietnamese girl.
Jennifer Lyons (Michelle Johnson) only has eyes for Matthew Hollis (Michael Caine) as Matthew takes a shave the night after sleeping with Jennifer, the daughter of his best friend. The older man stresses to the young woman that it can never happen again. But when in Rio...
George A. Romero's horror film features this wonderful scene where a zombie learns to shave.
Jack Jefferson (James Earl Jones) shaves his head before entering the ring during a scene from 'The Great White Hope,' which is based on the true story of boxer Jack Johnson and his first wife, Etta Terry Duryea.
Bernie Goldsmith (Ernest Borgnine) is a civilian employee of the US Navy and is deemed a security risk. While many begin to distance themselves from him, others, including wife Helen (Virginia Christine), rally to his side. In this scene, the couple share a lighthearted moment playing with shaving foam before Bernie's appearance in court on charges of being a Communist sympathizer.
Fielding Mellish (Woody Allen) and Esposito (Jacobo Morales) face-to-face while shaving their faces in a scene from 'Bananas.' Esposito, the Castro-style leader of a fictional "banana republic," starts to lose the plot after a successful revolution and decides to appear clean shaven, like Mellish. The irony is that Mellish eventually has to don a false beard as he becomes president of the revolutionary government.
Taking a shave is straightforward enough, isn't it? But this simple act of removing facial hair is often woven into a movie plot line to become a key scene during a cutting-edge moment of drama, perhaps, or worked in as a visual gag to sharpen up a comedy sequence. Either way, wet or dry, shaving on screen has provided cinema with some of its most iconic, razor-sharp takes.
Click through the following gallery for some close shaves on the big screen.
Cinema's best close shave scenes
Take a look at actors shaving on screen
MOVIES Shaving
Taking a shave is straightforward enough, isn't it? But this simple act of removing facial hair is often woven into a movie plot line to become a key scene during a cutting-edge moment of drama, perhaps, or worked in as a visual gag to sharpen up a comedy sequence. Either way, wet or dry, shaving on screen has provided cinema with some of its most iconic, razor-sharp takes.
Click through the following gallery for some close shaves on the big screen.