Fish

Name: Fish
Genre: Short, Comedy
Released: 1916-11-20
Duration: 8 min
Rating: 5.5
Cast: Bert Williams

1916
8m

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

YOUR RATING

Comedy Short

After laboring for a couple of hours digging a "mess" of worms for the afternoon fishing trip, Bert Williams returns home for his fishing-pole only to find there is a big load of wood to be ... Read allAfter laboring for a couple of hours digging a "mess" of worms for the afternoon fishing trip, Bert Williams returns home for his fishing-pole only to find there is a big load of wood to be cut. Why should he cut wood when old "Pappy" and the younger brothers are there to do it. ... Read allAfter laboring for a couple of hours digging a "mess" of worms for the afternoon fishing trip, Bert Williams returns home for his fishing-pole only to find there is a big load of wood to be cut. Why should he cut wood when old "Pappy" and the younger brothers are there to do it. So while they are all working and "Mammy" is busy with the wash, Bert sneaks off with his ... Read all

Director
- Bert Williams
Star
- Bert Williams

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

YOUR RATING

Director
- Bert Williams
Star
- Bert Williams

3User reviews

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos

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Bert Williams

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
In an unprecedented move for its day in 1915, Biograph Company executives hired actor Bert Williams to star, produce, direct, and write his own films, having full control, the first time a Black-American ever had such control given by a mainstream movie company. The two films made for Biograph were A Natural Born Gambler (1916) and Fish (1916).

Goofs
After Bert catches a fish and leaves the stream, his parents come looking for him and find his cloth cap left behind. In Bert's next scene however, when he attempts to sell the fish he has caught to a woman living nearby, he is once more wearing the cap. In the following scene, as his parents search for him, his father is holding the cap. Afterwards, and for the rest of the film, Bert is bare-headed.

User reviews3

Review

Featured review

4/10

The second surviving Bert Williams comedy

This is one of two surviving comedy films of the pioneering black comedy legend Bert Williams. He was known to have made 3 films, but only this and "Natural Born Gambler" have survived.

This is based on one of Williams' stage routines about him being a self-styled fish salesman. The then-40 year old Williams is shown as ditching his parents' desires for him to chop wood to go fishing.

No titles (remember, it's a silent film) are known to survive, but you can pretty much get what's going on by the action. More historically interesting than funny. Bert Williams surviving 80+ recordings of comedy songs and stories holds up better than this film.