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What-No Beer?

Original title: What - No Beer?
  • 1933
  • Passed
  • 1h 5m
IMDb RATING
5.6/10
637
YOUR RATING
Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, and Phyllis Barry in What-No Beer? (1933)
SlapstickComedy

Two men decide to cash in on the end of Prohibition by selling watered down beer.Two men decide to cash in on the end of Prohibition by selling watered down beer.Two men decide to cash in on the end of Prohibition by selling watered down beer.

  • Director
    • Edward Sedgwick
  • Writers
    • Robert E. Hopkins
    • Carey Wilson
    • Jack Cluett
  • Stars
    • Buster Keaton
    • Jimmy Durante
    • Roscoe Ates
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.6/10
    637
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Edward Sedgwick
    • Writers
      • Robert E. Hopkins
      • Carey Wilson
      • Jack Cluett
    • Stars
      • Buster Keaton
      • Jimmy Durante
      • Roscoe Ates
    • 20User reviews
    • 6Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos27

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    Top cast22

    Edit
    Buster Keaton
    Buster Keaton
    • Elmer J. Butts
    Jimmy Durante
    Jimmy Durante
    • Jimmy Potts
    Roscoe Ates
    Roscoe Ates
    • Schultz
    • (as Rosco Ates)
    Phyllis Barry
    Phyllis Barry
    • Hortense
    John Miljan
    John Miljan
    • Butch Lorado
    Henry Armetta
    Henry Armetta
    • Tony
    Edward Brophy
    Edward Brophy
    • Spike Moran
    Charles Dunbar
    • Mulligan
    Charles Giblyn
    • Chief
    Sidney Bracey
    Sidney Bracey
    • Dr. Smith
    • (uncredited)
    Eddy Chandler
    Eddy Chandler
    • Cop
    • (uncredited)
    James Donlan
    James Donlan
    • Al
    • (uncredited)
    Billy Engle
    Billy Engle
    • Beer Drinker
    • (uncredited)
    Sherry Hall
    • Moran's Henchman
    • (uncredited)
    Pat Harmon
    Pat Harmon
    • Moran's Henchman
    • (uncredited)
    George Irving
    George Irving
    • Politician
    • (uncredited)
    Al Jackson
    • Stool Pigeon
    • (uncredited)
    Wilbur Mack
    Wilbur Mack
    • Mr. Jordan--Banker
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Edward Sedgwick
    • Writers
      • Robert E. Hopkins
      • Carey Wilson
      • Jack Cluett
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Buster Keaton disappeared during production and married his "sobriety nurse" Mae Scriven during a drunken fling in Mexico.
    • Goofs
      Elmer and Jimmy are told by the brewery's previous owner that the bank had foreclosed on him "years ago". If so, the bank would own the brewery, and it wouldn't be his to sell.
    • Quotes

      Elmer J. Butts: Her smell will always linger in my nostrils.

    • Connections
      Edited from The Crowd (1928)
    • Soundtracks
      Happy Days Are Here Again
      (1929) (uncredited)

      Music by Milton Ager

      Played by a band at the end

    User reviews20

    Featured review
    7/10

    As good as any of Keaton's other MGM sound films...

    ... 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.
    • AlsExGal
    • Jan 19, 2013
    • Permalink

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    FAQ12

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • February 10, 1933 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Kako, nema piva?
    • Filming locations
      • Echo Park, Los Angeles, California, USA(Elmer and Hortense picnic in the park)
    • Production company
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 5 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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    Buster Keaton, Jimmy Durante, and Phyllis Barry in What-No Beer? (1933)
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    By what name was What-No Beer? (1933) officially released in Canada in English?
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