Buster Keaton disappeared during production and married his "sobriety nurse" Mae Scriven during a drunken fling in Mexico.
Buster Keaton's final film for MGM and his last starring role in the U.S. He would go on to make numerous shorts, appear on television, as well as perform as a character in other films.
The unusual, large employee time clock in the brewery was made by the International Time Recording Company (which became IBM in 1929) circa 1910-12. It came in different models to accommodate up to 150 employees. It was a spring-driven clock with a huge cast iron wheel. The rim of the wheel was perforated with numbered holes. Each employee would rotate the pointer to their assigned number and press in. The machine would then record the time on a printed form and ring a bell. A two-colored ribbon printed "regular time" in green and all early, late and overtime in red. One of these units is on exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
Most contemporary promotional items, reviews, and news items punctuate the film's title as "What! No Beer?", but the on-screen title is punctuated as "What-No Beer?".
Because of the losses caused by Buster Keaton on his previous film, Der Theaterprofessor (1932), MGM production head Irving Thalberg insisted Keaton sign a new contract, docking his salary of $3,000 per week 20% until the $33,000 was paid back to the studio.