The Fatal Glass of Beer
About The Fatal Glass of Beer
Mountie Officer Posthlewhistle stops at a Yukon cabin and asks prospector Pa Snavely to sing "The Fatal Glass of Beer," a moral ditty about a country boy ruined by one drink and well-dressed college men. Ma feeds Pa watery soup while they wait for son Chester to leave prison, each swearing he never stole the bonds. Chester comes home, admits he took them and threw them away, and plans to live on his parents' savings. They throw him out.
Cast & crew
More about The Fatal Glass of Beer
W. C. Fields wrote the short and plays Pa. Clyde Bruckman directed. Mack Sennett produced. Paramount released it on 3 March 1933. It was shot from 22 November through 28 November 1932. Rosemary Theby plays Ma and George Chandler plays Chester. It runs 18 minutes.
Themes
Making
Fields plays the Yukon melodrama as if it were a creaky stage piece, planting himself in stiff poses and punching the lines.
Notes
- An alternate title is It Ain't a Fit Night Out for Man or Beast.
- The picture uses stock footage from the 1924 Sennett short Yukon Jake and from the 1930 documentary The Silent Enemy.
- Richard Cramer plays Officer Posthlewhistle.
- Fields reused the door-and-snow gag in The Old Fashioned Way (1934).
Scenes
- Pa opens the cabin door on that line and takes a faceful of fake snow.
Also available
- Internet Archive (fatal_glass_of_beer)
- W.C. Fields: 6 Short Films (2000)
Quotes
And it ain't a fit night out for man or beast!
Tastes more like corn flakes.
Our Chester never stole nothin', from nobody — hardly ever.
