What-No Beer?

Having heard for years how bad this film is, I must concur with the previous reviewer, who said "not that bad." This was the last of the three films where Keaton was teamed with Jimmy Durante, and while this is not as good a film overall as SPEAK EASILY, it IS better than THE PASSIONATE PLUMBER (although PP includes some great individual scenes), and also it is the only film of the three where Keaton and Durante work together as an actual comedy team. Much has been written about Keaton's alcohol abuse during the shooting of this film (in fact, Keaton was fired from MGM for that, even though WHAT NO BEER was a smash hit at the box office!), but since the Elmer character he is playing is basically a stoic, introverted guy, it's not too evident...and anyway, a pro like Keaton could deliver this uninspired dialogue in his sleep. The plot--involving Durante and Keaton starting a brewery near the end of prohibition and facing the wrath of both the police and the bootlegging underworld--allows for a number of good comic set-ups, the scene with Keaton explaining his business practices to the gangsters is particularly funny. Keaton's US career would revive a few years later when he began making his much-underrated comedy shorts at Educational Pictures, but WHAT NO BEER is the last film of his initial sound period at MGM, and as such it is a historic film. Also, it's an entertaining comedy with Keaton still in OK form.

... but I have to admit that Jimmy Durante is doing much of the heavy lifting, particularly in the first half. The plot revolves around a misunderstanding that Jimmy (Jimmy Durante) and Elmer (Buster Keaton) have about the nationwide vote on repealing prohibition. They think that because repeal passes at the polls that Prohibition is automatically repealed, when in fact the law is still completely in force. Thus, the next day, Jimmy has Elmer take out his life savings of ten thousand dollars as a down payment on an old repossessed brewery. The two enlist a trio of unemployed men sleeping in the brewery to help them make beer and they hang a sign outside of the brewery advertising that they are selling beer. Instead of being stampeded by the public though, it is the police that are at the door. The only thing that saves the pair from ten years in Leavenworth is that they are incompetent brewers - their beer has a head but no kick - there's not a drop of alcohol in any of it.

So now when the original trio of unemployed guys sleeping in the brewery dig up a long out-of-work master brewer Jimmy has a brainstorm. The cops already think that he and Elmer are just making "near beer" - an old Prohibition era concoction with the taste of beer minus the alcohol, so there will be no second raid. Jimmy decides to use the brewer to make real beer and real money so Elmer doesn't lose his life savings on the brewery which they have heavily mortgaged. Jimmy lies to Elmer about all of this because he knows Elmer is too honest a fellow to have anything to do with bootlegging. But it isn't long before local gangsters - real bootleggers with real guns - notice there's a down-turn in their business caused by Jimmy and Elmer's beer. A further complication - Elmer is in love from afar with the head gangster's girl.

How will all of this work out? Watch and find out.

This film moved along briskly with several very clever comic twists and turns, and although in this film Durante is Keaton's equal in the comic participation, I really couldn't say that Keaton seemed inebriated, although he did seem to have extra heavy make-up on perhaps to cover up his condition. Durante just seems to be handling the verbal end of the comedy and Keaton stays where he is most comfortable - in the physical and pantomime end of comedy. There's even a repeat of the Seven Chances avalanche at one point, with Keaton and everybody else for that matter, running for their lives not from boulders but from beer barrels.

This is far better than the tiresome "Sidewalks of New York" from two years before, and from what I've read this film did very good business at the box office. With Keaton and Durante having finally gotten comfortable in their comic partnership I'm surprised Louis B. Mayer would have fired Keaton. But then Louis B. always was a sentimental fellow - he never let profit get in the way of his animosity.

I love Keaton, but there is nothing here that resembles Buster Keaton. That any could find this a good film is totally beyond me. It is sad and painful to watch.

It is hard to imagine a worst partner for Buster then Jimmy Durante. Durante spends most of the movie yelling and waving his arms frantically. All poor Buster can do is stand around displaying his deadpan face. The attempts to inject physical humor into this are about as artless and unfunny as it gets.

If you like watching train wrecks, go for it. For me I will watch The General again. I would much prefer to remember him in that.

This film has a reputation of being an unfunny horror. It is just not so. Buster does seem to be a little intoxicated throughout the film, but it is really very funny. This is the only film where Buster and Durante are really teamed. They appeared together in two previous films, but they worked independently. Sure, it's a period piece about the repeal of Prohibition, but there are some pretty funny set pieces throughout the film. For those people who have an aversion to musical numbers thrown into slapstick comedies, have no fear. There are no musical numbers. (This is a shame, since both Buster and Durante handle musical material very well!) This was Buster's last American studio starring feature film. Following this, he stars in a French film, a British film, and a Mexican film. MGM was never a great studio for broad comedians. They really didn't know how to handle Buster. But he's not alone. The Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, and Red Skelton were also done in by MGM's inept handling of slapstick comedy. This film is worth a view. It's still young Keaton and it proves that Buster could handle himself very nicely with sound.

Certainly not great, but not awful either. It's topical with the end of Prohibition, and the film's treatment of this is a celebration, with some wonderful moments towards the end. Unfortunately, Buster Keaton, already depressed and drinking heavily, was fired afterwards, marking an even sadder inflection point in his career, as bad as the MGM years were. These things tugging the emotions in opposite directions make it worth seeing.

The film leans on Durante, who delivers his malapropisms and "ha cha cha" shtick with zeal. "Say, it's so dark here, I can't see the nose before my face," Buster says. "I don't have that trouble," Durante replies, in perfect deadpan. Contemplating Buster being with the woman he's fallen for, he quips "Can you imagine? At a time like this. Elmer's in the park - spoonin'. Why, it's enough to give a man 'varicoose' brains!" There are many others, not uproarious, but delivered energy and charisma.

As for Buster, it's always sweet to see him lovelorn (the object of his affection played by Phyllis Barry), but the only moment truly worth the price of admission is him running down a hill away from a bunch of beer barrels bounding along after him. It ain't Seven Chances (1925) with the rocks, but it ain't bad. Buster also reprises the overflowing yeast gag from My Wife's Relations (1922), but the slapstick from Durante and the workers who are like 3 stooges-lite isn't all that funny.

There was a clever bit of innuendo at the polling place, when Durante's character says his name is "Potts - and no crack!" When Buster steps up next he reports his name is "Elmer J. Butts," and the silent "and no crack" can be felt. Buster also gets in a funny line when a swarm of townspeople descend upon the brewery to "drink up all the evidence." The best moment is saved for Durante, however, who while breaking the fourth wall blows the suds off a stein of beer and says "It's your turn next, folks! It won't be long now! Ha cha!" While FDR had been elected, it would be another 10 months before this was true.