Film

Cracked Ice

Age rating

NR

Director

Frank Tashlin

Year

1938

It's ice skating time. After a few generic ice-skating gags, we get to the main story. An animal falls through the ice, and a pig doing W.C. Fields (W.C. Squeals, apparently) calls for help from a Saint Bernard dog. The dog dispenses a drink, and Squeals begins scheming to get some himself. First he tries faking his own fall through the ice, but the dog sees through it and downs the drink himself. Then Squeals tries using a dish of bones and a magnet, but the magnet falls through the ice and gets stuck around a fish. The fish then swims through a liquor spill from the dog's casket; the drunken fish grabs an ax and, swimming in a circle, dunks another skater. He then latches onto Squeals' skates, and hauls him into an ice-skating contest, where the fish-induced antics win him first prize. Squeals fills the loving cup from the dog's cask, and the fish swims off with it.