Customer Reviews

What! No Beer? [VHS]

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What! No Beer? plots Keaton and Durante trying out a beer selling biz starting the day after beer is voted legalized following prohibition. Figuring that the masses will be starved for legalized beer after waiting 13 years, these guys would be the first to sell it again and become millionaires overnight. They get involved with 2 bootleggers who are paranoid about losing their shirts because of the new legislation and a mess involving gangsters and bullets continues throughout the picture. Buster plays his typical babe-in-the-woods character, Elmer.

The old brewery they use looks like a grounded UFO in an Area 51 room. I kept expecting Ming the Merciless to creep out the hatch. Instead the boys are overwhelmed by near-beer suds that flood the room in a pretty good choatic scene that's one of the highlights of the picture.

What! No Beer? was filmed during the worst period of Buster's life, mainly because of his battle with alcoholism. The problem is obvious in a few scenes. One in particular is a scene of Keaton and Durante handcuffed together. Buster looks dazed, puffy and sick. The scene continues with Durante talking to Bus in a normal-sounding voice (the only time in the picture he isn't screaming) as he carries on a sympathetic conversation with Bus, who definitely sounds like he'd been drinking beforehand. A minute later, the scene continues where Buster further slurs his lines.

This film was made at the end of 1932 and was a big hit for MGM. The print on this VHS edition is excellent. I was surprised to see that such good quality sound existed in 1932. Film critics, historians and Buster are hard on this picture because they compare it to his silent classics instead of accepting it for what it was, a sound comedy with lots of talk and chaos. It's quickly paced and there's never a dull moment.

The plot of this film involves alcohol, which ironically is what ruined Buster's career as a major feature-length movie star. He was let go from MGM a few days after this film completed its shooting.

What! No Beer? is awful. This is Buster's last starring feature for MGM. Also his last starring feature made in the USA. He is slow and sluggish. As with most of his MGM sound pictures there are only a few good moments. And you have to hunt for them. At least "Speak Easily" has a story that made sense. In addition to not being funny, What! No Beer? is a mess. Ed Sedgwick directing couldn't even help.

Get What! No Beer? only if you want to see everything Buster was in...

"What! No Beer?" (1933) is a terribly uneven Prohibition-era comedy with some classic Buster Keaton moments undercut by the irritating verbage of Jimmy Durante. Despite his alcoholic condition (evident in several scenes), Buster makes the most of his non-Durante sequences - recreating his "Seven Chances" climax with beer barrels replacing boulders. Though a box-office hit, MGM fired Keaton for his uncontrollable drinking and the comic legend never starred in another Hollywood feature. Regardless of the sad ironies associated with Keaton's life and career, "What! No Beer?" is worth a look - just fast-forward past the Durante segments.

The film image is very good. It is clear, with a broad range of graytones, the details of the image is good, and the sound is good (it is 1933, remember). It seems amazing such a film has been so well preserved. They did not go back to the negative to do any scratch-removal treatment, so there is some white dust floating around, but I didn't really notice it much except during fade-outs. So, four and a half stars for the quality of the film on the dvd. The movie itself is a different matter... More like 3 stars, for an overall 4-star rating:

I did not originally look at this film as a "Keaton" film, so I did not experience the deep disappointment expressed by some writers about this film. Rather, I sought this out as a Jimmy Durante movie. Some of us LIKE Jimmy Durante. He isn't a stuntmeister and he isn't much of a dancer, but his energy and timing are exceptional, and his ability to suddenly flail about then stop abruptly is pantomimic. I love his cartoonish look, his voice, and find his throwaway Malapropisms hilarious. He has theatrical charisma, and he was an original. I love to watch him go nuts, and there is plenty of Durante going nuts in this film.

The problem has always been to find a "Jimmy Durante movie" that really shows him off. A "good" Jimmy Durante movie (heh)... Hollywood never knew how to use Durante as a leading comic. Too bad he wasn't a story writer himself or had his own throttle of sympathetic gagmen like Harry Langdon had, or Harold Lloyd. (Of course at MGM, this wouldn't matter; Keaton did have a core group of creative talent before it was dismantled by his new employers.) Nevertheless, I've found a few Durante movies that are entertaining enough to be fairly satisfying even without offering the final word on Durante's talents, and "What, No Beer?" is fair.

The best thing about this film is that is moves along briskly. Often I wished the director had used more imagination and gotten more gags out of a scene (or at least some gags), or more action out of a gag, but nothing went on so long that I was bored... just a little worn down by Durante's blustering; he certainly plays his part VERY vociferously! But his energy does much to keep the movie from flagging. Also the editing is pretty good: each shot leads to the next fairly quickly, and most scenes do not last too long (the beer-making scene is too long, but at least it's lively).

The physical humour is watered down, but occasionally this works to the advantage of the comedy. For instance, when Durante is shaving Keaton, and the barber's chair slips down, the two actors begin to disappear at the bottom of the frame. Then there is an edit and we see the two tumbling over each other onto the floor. Probably, Durante didn't want to take the fall; but seeing them disappear in shot 1, and roll out of the chair on shot 2 is really quite funny. My jaw didn't drop at any amazing stunt, but I couldn't help but smile. The scene with the barrels chasing Keaton down the hill is certainly not well mined for comedy (the 3 Stooges are actually more imaginative with the same idea), but it's still a nice moment of some "big" comic damage; too bad it doesn't involve the bootlegging gang a little more in the chaos, and too bad there weren't more scenes like this in the movie to give Keaton a little more room to breath.

The voting scene had just the right unexpected silliness and timing to make me laugh, particularly the two bits with the unseen female voter. "What, No Beer?" does not have enough of these types of scenes to merit multiple viewings, but it offers a fun hour if you like Durante and don't mind seeing Keaton as an "actor" in someone else's movie. I did not notice any unusual lethargy or slurred speech from Keaton. He plays his character with a calmness that works in favor of the story; his voice is distinctive, not low and harsh as many have opined. If Keaton's personal life had not been in such a shambles at this time, he might have finished out his contract with MGM, not been virtually blacklisted from the movies, and perhaps negotiated something better in his next contract. After all, these films were extremely successful moneymakers. But, history is history. At least he continued on to make "Jail Bait", "Le roi des Champs-Elysées", and "A Pest from the West".