The Fatal Glass of Beer

That Fatal Glass Of Beer refers to a glass that George Chandler took on a trip to the big city which led to a life of crime. This particular short subject for Mack Sennett that W.C. Fields did was one of his masterpieces.

It's not a series of gags although there are some good ones here including that recurring one where he goes to the cabin door and says it's not a fit night out for man nor beast and then gets hit with a blast of studio snow. But the film itself is a really good satire on all the Victorian morality plays that Fields grew up with in his youth.

Rosemary Theby as his wife and George Chandler as their son get a few laughs as well. Chandler left the Yukon wilds and went to the big city where demon rum got a hold of him and he robbed a bank of some bonds which he was carrying as a messenger.

Such stories were the staple of the theater while Fields grew up in the 1880s and 1890s. That Fatal Glass Of Beer is a great spoof on all of them. As one of the great tipplers of Hollywood, Fields had little patience with pompous moralizers. And remember Prohibition was coming to a close when That Fatal Glass Of Beer was made. People were very tired of the great experiment as it was called and this film no doubt found an eager audience.

Definitely the best of the short subjects of W.C. Fields.

This is quite possibly the crown jewel in the long and illustrious career of an extremely troubled and very funny man. Fields has a field day sending up a style of melodrama popular at the time. At one and the same time, this is atypical of Fields' work generally, but still has his fingerprints all over it as well. Highlights are far too numerous to list, but Fields's rendition of the song, "The Fatal Glass of Beer" (you can't really accurately call it singing), the running gag, "It ain't a fit night out for man or beast" and the ending are hilariously perfect, with a sense of timing of which Chaplin would have been proud. Most joyously recommended

This early short subject, beloved to some of us; really shows one of the great qualities that would set his (best) comedy apart: he was strange. Not exactly verbal comedy, nor really slapstick, W.C. seemed to create his own oddball universe much like, but never quite, ours.

I loved this short from the first time I saw it as a kid, and I think it's one of a kindness really makes it his best (though others are quite funny.) Mack Sennett wanted something more in the way of conventional slapstick; Feilds had to fight for this; which is in part a spoof of sentimental wilderness poetry about Alaska.

Nobody liked it at the time. Fields himself said, "maybe it's not good. But I like it." Thank Godness he stuck by his guns and went on to create his own one of a kind comedy world.

I grew up during the '60s, when Fields was in vogue as a rebel along the lines of Bogart or Brando. Nevertheless, I didn't find myself laughing nearly as much at his feature films "The Bank Dick", "My Little Chickadee", or "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man" as at those of Keaton or the Marx Brothers. It wasn't until the '90s that I happened across this short, which finally convinced me that Fields was a comic genius.

With its absurd juxtaposition of dulcimer, Mountie, Salvation Army girl, wayward son, snow, tambourine, dachshund, bonds, the Yukon, student quarrymen, and unfit nights, this short has more laughs in it than any of Fields's features.

I'd say more, but I have to go milk the elk.

With an effective blend of the subtle and the outlandish, this comedy is one of the most memorable and distinctive of W. C. Fields's short movies. It works well both as a spoof of movie-making techniques (especially from, but hardly limited to, the old melodramas), and also as a showcase for Fields's array of comic skills. There is the silly song about "The Fatal Glass of Beer", plenty of sight gags, the recurring "ain't a fit night out" gag, and more.

It all works even better when you watch it over again - Fields can be so unpredictable that you don't notice all the subtleties when you're still trying to figure out where it's all going. This one has plenty of good moments and also, despite its deceptively simple appearance, some careful craftsmanship.