What-No Beer? (1933)Two men decide to cash in on the end of Prohibition by selling watered down beer. Director:Edward Sedgwick |
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What-No Beer? (1933)Two men decide to cash in on the end of Prohibition by selling watered down beer. Director:Edward Sedgwick |
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| Complete credited cast: | |||
| Buster Keaton | ... |
Elmer J. Butts
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| Jimmy Durante | ... |
Jimmy Potts
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Roscoe Ates | ... |
Schultz
(as Rosco Ates)
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Phyllis Barry | ... |
Hortense
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John Miljan | ... |
Butch Lorado
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Henry Armetta | ... |
Tony
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Edward Brophy | ... |
Spike Moran
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Charles Dunbar | ... |
Mulligan
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Charles Giblyn | ... |
Chief
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Although he has never met her, Elmer Butts loves Hortense secretly and from afar. He dreams of making a million dollars so he can buy her a Rolls automobile and marry her. With prohibition apparently on the verge of ending, Elmer's friend Jimmy Potts gets an idea to make them both rich by opening a brewery just before the legalization of alcoholic beverages. Their timing is off, and the police raid them, but their inept brewing has created a beer with no alcohol, so they are let off. But it has also resulted in a cheaply made beer, and bootlegger Spike Moran realizes that he can vastly increase his profits by partnering with Elmer and Jimmy. But none of them reckons with the competitor, another bootlegger, gangster Butch Lorado. Butch has a girlfriend....Elmer's dream girl, Hortense. Written by Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
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.