SOURCE: "W. C. Fields," in Great Movie Shorts, Crown Publishers, 1972, pp. 81-84.

In the following excerpt, Maltin contrasts Fields's popularity with 1970s audiences to the often disapproving response he received in his own day.

In the 1920s and 1930s, one of the most interesting parts of several motion-picture trade magazines was a department in which small-town theatre owners across the country sent in brief comments on the films they had played; this was done for short subjects as well as feature films. Today, these comments are invaluable as a barometer of what the mass movie audience really thought of the films that were being made—unaffected by critical reactions, and uncolored by modern reassessments.

Concerning the W. C. Fields comedies, most exhibitors were unanimous. They stank. Of The Fatal Glass of Beer, a Michigan theatre owner wrote, "Two reels of film and 20 minutes wasted," and a North Carolina...