My beloved father, a man resembling W.C. Fields in both form and temperament, often imitated him. I'd heard, "It's not a fit nigh out for man nor beast," and "Ma, I think I'll go out and milk the elk," often since I was little. It wasn't until after his passing that I discovered this delightfully hilarious short film, The Fatal Glass of beer, that was the source for both. Good memories of two great and funny men.
"When Fields would later appear on radio programs sponsored by Lucky Strike cigarettes, who would often talk about his son Chester, a gag the Lucky Strike company eventually figured out: Chester Fields (Chesterfields) was the name of a rival cigarette company!"
I’m 62 now and grew up very aware of WC Fields, but You Tube has allowed me to really understand his genius. There was so much of himself in every character he played.
Takes the time to pause and set up for the line and then the shot in the face with the snow. No hurry each time. Timing and the punch line is the most important part of a joke and Fields was a master. Completely enthralled watching his timing in each set up, perfect. Laurel and Hardy were also masters in timing. It is such a joy to see these repeatedly. They never grow old.
@@Ourladyrules As much as they actually wallowed in the fake (asbestos) snow and must have done repeat takes of scenes, it is a wonder they each did not have respiratory or cancer related illness. Laurel was a chain smoker, but even that did not affect his breathing. At least as far as their biographies or other personal accounts mention. Of course much has been written and there may be other evidence. Never knew asbestos was used to represent snow. Thanks for the info.
An absolute masterpiece. 20 years after first seeing it, my parents and I still shout "Don't forget to open your window a bit, Chester!" when saying goodnight.
My sons, after hearing it from me for many years, now say " T'aint a fit night out for man or beast" every time they walk out the door in winter...hahaha
I was surprised to see U M&M TV Corp. on the opening credits next to a date of 1936 as there was no television in 1936. Per Wikipedia UM& TV, Corp. in 1950 purchased 1600 cartoons and short subjects from Paramount pictures. And paramount pictures insisted that their logo not appear for some reason on any of the TV broadcasts. So evidently UM &M made new credits for the short subjects and that’s why we see their name in the opening credits. UM&M had a short life only existed from 1955 to 1957 when they were purchased by another corporation and went out of existence. So the title credits we see here replaced the originals for broadcast TV in the 1950s.
I like how chester shows up in the same suit that he wore in the flashbacks--no coat, no hat, no mukluks. Nothing to indicate that he may have trudged miles to that cabin in the middle of a fierce blizzard. That's both intentional and hilarious.
Everything it looks like a mistake in this film is done intentionally... Field s is spoofing the old dramatic genre to the hilt... And it ain't a fit night out for man nor Beast... Poww!
The English rhyme sometimes titled "The Wind and the Fisherman" was already old in 1850 when included in "The Mother Goose" anthology (ed. Dame Goslin). It begins: When the wind is in the east, 'Tis neither good for man nor beast;
I like the dogs calmly walking at the speed of a passing train through the sound of a blizzard even though not all of them are carrying their own weight and in spite of the fact that it's not a fit night for man nor beast.
@Marcus Rosen l was about to disagree but your theory about bread is difficult to dedunk. Regardless, crackers are actually the healthier choice because they are often made from animals.
Back a million years ago when I attended a small Catholic HS, 300 in the whole school, I was what used to be refgered to as the AV geek, I ran the movies fixed the PJs etc, I used to be able to take the odd 16mm home to work on and our local library used to loan out films, one of them was this one, me and my friends, yes I had some, would watch all manners of films, they had star trek episodes on 16mm also, one of the other WC films they had was the bank dick, somewhere I still have the catalog of the film's they loaned out it cost a dollar and was updated yearly, they would also get them from other libraries in the county which was cool, this was one of our favorites, I even built a projection booth in my basement and ran a wire for a speaker under the screen, you couldn't hear the projector, it was a good setup, now I'm running a video PJ onto a 9ft wide 120 inch acoustically transparent screen I built and stream with Chromecast, it's not much but I enjoy it.
Most of these guys got their training in Vaudeville, where they had to do just about everything to make the show run. Fields was also a really fine juggler.
Love the fact they can't move the cameras... the cameras are encased in large sound proof boxes because they made so much noise the actors would be drowned out... Beautifully done.. true talent Thank you for posting
The first 3 seconds with the wind blowing, i'm already laughing. Because I know that something hilarious is about to happen if W.C. Fields has anything to do with it!
Wow, this is so different from the in the your face style comedy of today. This skit requires you to really think and be engaged to notice all the funny moments. You could watch this over and over and still miss some.
The scene where he keeps dipping the baguette in the soup without taking a bite, gets me every time. And of course every time a handful of fake snow is thrown at him
7:30 The light gag cracked me up. It's the kind of Laurel/Stan would do with a dumbfounded look on his face while he scratched the top of his head, I'm talking of course about from the genius comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. This reminds of stories my mother used to tell me. The way she grew up with little food for her 14 other brothers and sisters and no electricity or running water in Connecticut. Seeing this old film is sort of like going back in time and observing what life was like 100 years ago.
We Boomers grew up with George Chandler playing all types of character roles in Tv Series and "late night" movies...and to see him here with a younger, thinner and smaller nosed WCF is a wonderful surprise, just 5-6 years after the first talkies hit the screens. LOL
My theory is that he was trying to keep from being sick, as the Ivory soap flakes they were using for ''snow'' had fallen off his hat into his soup, and the soup was a ''practical'' [meaning he was supposed to eat it.] Ever the trooper, he swallowed it down and played thru for the ''take.''
@@HootOwl513 Dude, the scene clearly has them crying. That's what he was doing. Also, they were probably not using soap flakes for snow, but rather cornflakes, which Fields even makes an allusion to earlier while on the sled.
The film is a Kind of parody on now forgotten moralistic stage plays about alcohol, so I guess Fields played the crying deliberately "over the top" in a sentimental manner.
Officer Posthlewhistle is played by Richard Cramer. Cramer was in several Laurel and Hardy films and played one of the meanest characters the "Boys" would encounter. He plays the Judge in "Scram".
Always been a fan of W.C. and now, aged 87, still am. Kind regards to all his fans. Please keep watching, and enjoying. Juune, 2023.
There was never a comedian like W.C. Fields before or since. He was absolutely unique. We will never see his like again.
Think about Rodney Dangerfield ?
My beloved father, a man resembling W.C. Fields in both form and temperament, often imitated him. I'd heard, "It's not a fit nigh out for man nor beast," and "Ma, I think I'll go out and milk the elk," often since I was little. It wasn't until after his passing that I discovered this delightfully hilarious short film, The Fatal Glass of beer, that was the source for both. Good memories of two great and funny men.
it's like having ur own family secret code of "love words" to each other.
I love it! Your mom and dad sound wonderful!
"When Fields would later appear on radio programs sponsored by Lucky Strike cigarettes, who would often talk about his son Chester, a gag the Lucky Strike company eventually figured out: Chester Fields (Chesterfields) was the name of a rival cigarette company!"
His last name wasnt fields
@@KQwest98 Whoosh!
That’s so WC Fields and hilarious.
@@KQwest98 William Claude Dukenfeld...!
@@johnsewell6593Exactly 💯
I’m 62 now and grew up very aware of WC Fields, but You Tube has allowed me to really understand his genius. There was so much of himself in every character he played.
same:)
This is a classic in the very best traditions of comedy.
Takes the time to pause and set up for the line and then the shot in the face with the snow. No hurry each time. Timing and the punch line is the most important part of a joke and Fields was a master. Completely enthralled watching his timing in each set up, perfect. Laurel and Hardy were also masters in timing. It is such a joy to see these repeatedly. They never grow old.
sad note, in those days they used asbestos for snow. but this is a jem of a film for sure.
@@Ourladyrules As much as they actually wallowed in the fake (asbestos) snow and must have done repeat takes of scenes, it is a wonder they each did not have respiratory or cancer related illness. Laurel was a chain smoker, but even that did not affect his breathing. At least as far as their biographies or other personal accounts mention. Of course much has been written and there may be other evidence. Never knew asbestos was used to represent snow. Thanks for the info.
@@mvies77 Hardy was a heavy smoker too. they were all masters of comedy, true comedy. no swearing or vulgarity, just clean fun. cheers to the fatal 🍺
@@Ourladyrules Especially when it ain't a fit night out for man nor beast.
What a classic! They might not have known how to milk an Elk, but they sure knew how to milk a joke!
An ancient two minute Vaudeville gag stretched out for twenty. That's timing!
Awesome W.C no one ever like and never will be. He was pure genius
Brilliance. Comedians who think they've uncovered new ground only find his footprints.
Touché
Brilliantly said.
Indeed
Quite...
Balin had them all beat
Willner was a msn of feet
Lewit was a man in heat
An absolute masterpiece. 20 years after first seeing it, my parents and I still shout "Don't forget to open your window a bit, Chester!" when saying goodnight.
Master of comedy..
Timing is the key.
My sons, after hearing it from me for many years, now say " T'aint a fit night out for man or beast" every time they walk out the door in winter...hahaha
who's thah!
it's me Ma!
What about…
“Ain’t night out for man or beast!”
@@warpigg62 they are not alone in this habit ...
He was a master at his craft.
I love WC..the man cracks me up.
62 years old.
I was surprised to see U M&M TV Corp. on the opening credits next to a date of 1936 as there was no television in 1936. Per Wikipedia UM& TV, Corp. in 1950 purchased 1600 cartoons and short subjects from Paramount pictures. And paramount pictures insisted that their logo not appear for some reason on any of the TV broadcasts. So evidently UM &M made new credits for the short subjects and that’s why we see their name in the opening credits. UM&M had a short life only existed from 1955 to 1957 when they were purchased by another corporation and went out of existence. So the title credits we see here replaced the originals for broadcast TV in the 1950s.
I like how chester shows up in the same suit that he wore in the flashbacks--no coat, no hat, no mukluks. Nothing to indicate that he may have trudged miles to that cabin in the middle of a fierce blizzard. That's both intentional and hilarious.
John Otis very hilarious
Everything it looks like a mistake in this film is done intentionally... Field s is spoofing the old dramatic genre to the hilt... And it ain't a fit night out for man nor Beast... Poww!
He was so far ahead of his time, that we haven´t caught up with him yet
What an incredible comment.
True very true
Every time he repeats a particular line, I burst out in laughter! He really was a legend of his time ~ THX!
You're hot
W.C. Fields was so funny. Loved his sense of humor.
I like classic old movies
I wonder how many of his contemporary movie viewers saw W.C. crank out ice cubes and wondered how nice it would be to have such a machine.
That gag about the snow is just so funny when W. C. says it's not fit out for man or beast.
Cornelius heard it somewhere! Lol!🙄
Well, it ain't!
He keeps doing it, and I keep laughing...
I always share this come the first blizzard...my Pop and I loved Fields and he was old enough to remember vaudeville and the corny songs of the time.
My dad (who would be 94) used to say the phrase, "It's not a fit night out for man nor beast". Now I know where he got it.
👍
90 years ago an WC Fields is a classic.
SURREAL COMEDY HAS BEEN AROUND FOR DECADES.PYTHONS DID NOT INVENT IT.THANK TOU
The English rhyme sometimes titled "The Wind and the Fisherman" was already old in 1850 when included in "The Mother Goose" anthology (ed. Dame Goslin).
It begins:
When the wind is in the east,
'Tis neither good for man nor beast;
I like the dogs calmly walking at the speed of a passing train through the sound of a blizzard even though not all of them are carrying their own weight and in spite of the fact that it's not a fit night for man nor beast.
How the pros do it; understatement and timing.
"... with a kick she learned before she had been saved." Lol
I knew somebody would find this as funny as I did.
shelby namels oh my God. So funny.
Count me in too.
What a kick !
I always quote this line and it cracks my kids up.
I love how he continually dunks the bread, but never gets the chance to eat.
I think it's funnier that he clearly has no intention of eating it. The crackers are for eating - the bread's for dunking only.
@Marcus Rosen l was about to disagree but your theory about bread is difficult to dedunk. Regardless, crackers are actually the healthier choice because they are often made from animals.
I think this is Field's masterpiece. I saw it in college about 50 years ago, and it still holds up. Genius writing.
WC Fields was just a comic genius. The Bank Dick is probably my favorite
The dentist was another good one.
Back a million years ago when I attended a small Catholic HS, 300 in the whole school, I was what used to be refgered to as the AV geek, I ran the movies fixed the PJs etc, I used to be able to take the odd 16mm home to work on and our local library used to loan out films, one of them was this one, me and my friends, yes I had some, would watch all manners of films, they had star trek episodes on 16mm also, one of the other WC films they had was the bank dick, somewhere I still have the catalog of the film's they loaned out it cost a dollar and was updated yearly, they would also get them from other libraries in the county which was cool, this was one of our favorites, I even built a projection booth in my basement and ran a wire for a speaker under the screen, you couldn't hear the projector, it was a good setup, now I'm running a video PJ onto a 9ft wide 120 inch acoustically transparent screen I built and stream with Chromecast, it's not much but I enjoy it.
Dude that is awesome. I remember renting 8mm cartoons from the library (my Dad had a projector) but those moments were few and far between.
Dont forget about the 16 mm films that were called "smokers" i bet you watched also 😆😆😆
@@jamesvickers9476 I can honestly say I never heard of that, what were they?
Ive seen this video so many times and I laugh out loud every time. I love it! ❤
This was so ahead of its time. Absolutely dripping with contempt for humanity. :)
I don’t know if I agree with that. He was a very soft- hearted man with exquisite taste. He was playing a character.
No one could ever beat W.C. Fields!
I never knew that WC had such an amazing singing voice. Awesomely awesome song too. And the screenplay, flawless.
and a sensational musican!
Most of these guys got their training in Vaudeville, where they had to do just about everything to make the show run. Fields was also a really fine juggler.
W.C. Fields master of understated comedy. It is a lost art, shame
Seen that fifty times and still makes me laugh every time. Funny stuff.
I feel the same way about the dentist. My dad was a dentist and the Fields short and the Conway/Korman sketch always made him laugh.
W.C. Fields is the greatest
Love the fact they can't move the cameras... the cameras are encased in large sound proof boxes because they made so much noise the actors would be drowned out...
Beautifully done.. true talent
Thank you for posting
Love this one! ❤ Why it ain't a fit night out for man nor beast! PUFFFFFF!!!!
This sketch was written by Tim Moore, who portrayed George “Kingfish” Stevens on tv's “Amos 'n' Andy.”
"Ain't a fit night out for man nor beast!"
*snow throws in his face*
W.C. is a comedy genius.
I’m only 66: I’ve been a big W.C. Fields fan since I was about 12, in the 60s. “Any man that hates dogs & children can’t be all bad…” 😝
" I don't drink water , ... fish f*** in it. "
The more of the classic oldies I see the more I understand where Monty Python got their stuff.
The first 3 seconds with the wind blowing, i'm already laughing. Because I know that something hilarious is about to happen if W.C. Fields has anything to do with it!
"Once the city gets into a bo-hoy's sy-histem, he loses his a-hankerin' for the cuh-hun-tray."
Ditto.
Nicely done. I can see that you are most likely well educated and highly intelligent by the accurate syntax you used.
@@BladeRunner-td8be WOW..you can tell all that just from a few sentences...😆😆😆
Been one of my big time favorites since the 1960's. Never get tired of any of the gags!
Wow, this is so different from the in the your face style comedy of today. This skit requires you to really think and be engaged to notice all the funny moments. You could watch this over and over and still miss some.
Absolute comedic genius.
The scene where he keeps dipping the baguette in the soup without taking a bite, gets me every time. And of course every time a handful of fake snow is thrown at him
I'm 87 and I love that guy, they don't make'm like that anymore. July 2024.
A great parody of the old Melodramas.
This has better quality picture and sound than I have seen previously.
Love WC Field's comedy's....
Lots of fun for man or beast. 😊👍
George Chandler played Uncle Petry on the Lassie TV show for a season.
This is ten times funnier than most of the crap that passes for comedy today.
Only 10?
You sound angrier than I felt after rewatching this. Maybe just enjoy it for what it is?
Hey Pizzaflix - thanks for all the awesome movies!
"It ain't a fit night out for man or beast.." SPLAT! LOL
Love these old black and white movies.
Im reading a great biography of him at the moment. Title is WC FIELDS. Author James Curtis
“Hey Lena, come here don’t you know me?” 🤣🤣
Good comedians do funny things.
Great comedians do things funny.
7:30 The light gag cracked me up. It's the kind of Laurel/Stan would do with a dumbfounded look on his face while he scratched the top of his head, I'm talking of course about from the genius comedy duo Laurel and Hardy. This reminds of stories my mother used to tell me. The way she grew up with little food for her 14 other brothers and sisters and no electricity or running water in Connecticut. Seeing this old film is sort of like going back in time and observing what life was like 100 years ago.
The moral to the story is "Don't go round breaking people's tambourines".
Now I get the joke in the Rankin and Bass version of Rudolph!!! It’s not a fit night out for Man or Beast!!!
Compare this gem to the utter pig swill that passes for comedy today. There is no comparison.
So full of gems it's unreal...
Now that's entertainment!
I had to watch this again after my friend suggested I open the window a bit when I’m sleeping.
We Boomers grew up with George Chandler playing all types of character roles in Tv Series and "late night" movies...and to see him here with a younger, thinner and smaller nosed WCF is a wonderful surprise, just 5-6 years after the first talkies hit the screens. LOL
Love the song and innuendo like 'broke her tambourine'.
The comments are almost as good as the clip. So many people have such an appreciation for Fields 90 years later.
Love the dog gag 😀
" And it aint a fit night out for man or beast " this was great, thanks .
jsilence418
....PAF! great running gag. 👍
i love it!
I love the way WC can't help but crack up @ 11:22.
You're right. That about killed him.
He wasn't laughing, dope. He was mock crying like the other characters.
My theory is that he was trying to keep from being sick, as the Ivory soap flakes they were using for ''snow'' had fallen off his hat into his soup, and the soup was a ''practical'' [meaning he was supposed to eat it.] Ever the trooper, he swallowed it down and played thru for the ''take.''
@@HootOwl513 Dude, the scene clearly has them crying. That's what he was doing. Also, they were probably not using soap flakes for snow, but rather cornflakes, which Fields even makes an allusion to earlier while on the sled.
The film is a Kind of parody on now forgotten moralistic stage plays about alcohol, so I guess Fields played the crying deliberately "over the top" in a sentimental manner.
Cool dogsled. Broke my tambourine laughing.
Never go around breaking others' tambourines! Truer words were never spoken.
4:39 It ain’t no place for women, but pretty men go thar. 🤣
😆
I'm going out to milk the elk.
Nowadays, that would be a euphemism.
Might of been than too lol
The ending is hilarious ! 🐶🐶🐶
Fields is fantastically funny in this film.
Bunch of people get together and make this insanity. For other people. We're all nuts.
first saw this fifty yrs ago. as funny today as twas then. 🍺
they have serious momentum on that sled
Never stole nothing from no one .........hardly ever.
Officer Posthlewhistle is played by Richard Cramer. Cramer was in several Laurel and Hardy films and played one
of the meanest characters the "Boys" would encounter. He plays the Judge in "Scram".
Many thanks, a genius.
love the ending
When l young bags of Fritos had w.c.fields erasers in them
Yes, "WC Fritos", about 1973? After the Frito Bandito was shot down.
Love Bill Fields. Did you notice that Chester was the Indian Chief. Twenty five years later Chester would be in the classic TV series Lassie.
Astonishing FX they already had.
the bread though.
HAHAHAHA I know right?
great comedy melodrama thanks for posting this
"Did you get yer man"
my great grandma was in the salvation army and i can vouch for her kicking
X-Files episode brought me here - Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose
“I’m going out to milk the Elk.”