W.C. Fields: Six Short Films.

• Author: Rothenberg, Robert S.

Public Media Home Vision / 112 minutes/$19 95

Irascible, iconoclastic, irreverent, and insanely funny, W.C. Fields created a screen persona that had audiences in stitches for three decades. His bulbous nose, topless straw skimmer, and constant befuddlement over the complications caused by all those confounding him--love rivals, children, and, especially, women--rarely varied from film to film. The very familiarity of his routines was comforting as well as hilarious, and his distinctive delivery probably has been imitated at one point or another by every impressionist and most of the people who viewed his antics.

This compilation of digitally remastered short films encompasses his first silent movie, "Pool Sharks" (1915); his first talkie, "The Golf Specialist" (1930); and four two-reelers produced by Mack Sennett, creator of the Keystone Kops: "The Dentist" (1932) and a trio from 1933--"The Fatal Glass of Beer," "The Pharmacist," and "The Barber Shop." Not one of them has a coherent plot, merely providing vehicles for Fields to do his thing, including his classic vaudeville pool and golf routines. The latter, as he tries to...