diff --git a/Lib/filecmp.py b/Lib/filecmp.py
index 7a4da6beb50500..7da787f4bec05b 100644
--- a/Lib/filecmp.py
+++ b/Lib/filecmp.py
@@ -53,10 +53,10 @@ def cmp(f1, f2, shallow=True):
     s2 = _sig(os.stat(f2))
     if s1[0] != stat.S_IFREG or s2[0] != stat.S_IFREG:
         return False
-    if shallow and s1 == s2:
-        return True
-    if s1[1] != s2[1]:
+    if s1 != s2:
         return False
+    if shallow:
+        return True
 
     outcome = _cache.get((f1, f2, s1, s2))
     if outcome is None: