The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933 film)
The Fatal Glass of Beer | |
---|---|
Directed by | Clyde Bruckman |
Produced by | Mack Sennett |
Written by | W.C. Fields |
Starring | W.C. Fields |
Production
company |
Mack Sennett Productions
|
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates
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Running time
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21 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933) is an American Pre-Code short film starring W. C. Fields, produced by Mack Sennett, and released theatrically by Paramount Pictures.
Contents
Story
Written by Fields and directed by Clyde Bruckman, the film is a parody of rugged stage melodramas set in the Yukon. Fields serenades a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer with "The Fatal Glass of Beer", a mournful song detailing the evils of foul drink and bad companions in the big city. A zither accompaniment recorded for the film seldom matches the vocal, because Fields subtly changes keys when the zither does not, resulting in a humorously off-key effect.
Fields emphasizes the stagey satire by striking various poses and being overly theatrical with the dialogue. The most famous gag has Fields opening the cabin door periodically and exclaiming, "And it ain't a fit night out for man or beast!", with some obviously fake snow thrown into his face a moment later. He would reprise that gag during the "play-within-the-play" in The Old Fashioned Way (1934).
Cast
- W. C. Fields as Mr. Snavely
- Rosemary Theby as Mrs. Snavely
- George Chandler as Chester Snavely
- Richard Cramer as Constable Posthlewhistle
Notes
- The Fatal Glass of Beer is one of three W.C. Fields short films that fell into the public domain after the copyright lapsed in the 1960s (the other two being The Dentist and The Golf Specialist). As such, these three films frequently appear on inexpensive video or DVD compilations.[1]
- This sketch was originally a stage play and wasn't filmed until 1933. This is evidenced with a Wanted poster of Fields in a Yukon prospector's outfit, as seen in The Golf Specialist.
- Clive James referenced the film in his television criticism column for The Observer, collected in The Crystal Bucket, criticising a 1978 British television production of Wuthering Heights (which he called "Wuthering Depths" and "The blithering pits") for its cheap production values.[2]
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Purporting to be in Alaska, Fields continually goes to the door, declaring 'it ain't a fit night out for man or beast', only to be hit with a bucket of snow.
Heathcliff: "It ain't a fit night out for man nor beast, Kathy." Phwoosh!
References
- ↑ DVD writeup
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External links
- Lua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). The Fatal Glass of Beer at IMDb
- The short film The Fatal Glass of Beer is available for free download at the Internet Archive.[dead link]
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Running time 18 minutes 27 seconds.
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- Use mdy dates from June 2015
- 1933 films
- English-language films
- Articles with dead external links from February 2014
- Mack Sennett Comedies short films
- 1930s comedy films
- American films
- American black-and-white films
- Films directed by Mack Sennett
- Films directed by Clyde Bruckman
- Screenplays by W. C. Fields
- American comedy films
- W. C. Fields
- Short comedy film stubs