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Research dossier · Arts & Letters

Nothing But Pleasure

1940 film by Jules White

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ18152940 ↗
Source-derived summary

Nothing But Pleasure is the third short subject American comedian Buster Keaton made for Columbia Pictures. Keaton made a total of ten films for the studio between 1939 and 1941.

Plot

Clarence Plunkett and his wife drive to Detroit to buy a new car. To save money on the shipping fee, they decide to drive it back home.

Cast

Buster Keaton as Clarence Plunkett

Dorothy Appleby as Clarence's wife

Production

This short was later remade as an episode of The Abbott and Costello Show.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Nothing But Pleasure” as 1940 film by Jules White. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Nothing, Pleasure and film.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1939, 1941—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1940. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Nothing, Pleasure and film providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Nothing But Pleasure”, the useful work is to connect “1940 film by Jules White” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18152940. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939 and 1941.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Nothing But Pleasure”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Nothing But Pleasure primary sources, Nothing But Pleasure archive and Nothing research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Nothing But Pleasure”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Nothing But Pleasure” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.