A Fatal Glass of Beer

A huckster repeatedly robs a comedian, leading Toby on a cross-country chase

The bank accounts are in the names of men like Otis J. Raisincluster, Quigley E. Sneersight, and Cormorant Beecham, but any comedy connoisseur knows that names that nonsensical could come only from the twisted brain of W. C. Fields. When toiling on the vaudeville circuit, the acid-tongued comic actor opened a new account in every town he played, adding up to a mountain of bankbooks and nearly a million dollars squirreled away in banks across the country. When a burglar makes off with a stack of the books, Fields hires private investigator Toby Peters to protect his nest egg. Toby’s going on a road trip, and Fields wants to come along for the ride.

As the trail winds through the nation’s smallest towns, complications pop up in the form of the Amish, John Barrymore, and the Ku Klux Klan. If the thief doesn’t kill Toby Peters, W. C. Fields’s ceaseless shtick might.