Supelice Dreadfully Boring

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

weezeralfalfa This may well be the most entertaining W.C.Fields film, as several reviewers claim. I couldn't say, as I haven't yet seen others....By 1939, W.C. had shed his contract with Paramount, to spend his few remaining film years at Universal. This was his last full feature film in which he starred. In it, he costars with precocious 15y.o. Gloria Jean, noted for her charm, beauty, and especially her operatic voice, with which she competed with Universal's other singing sensation: Diana Durbin. The previous year, Gloria Jean had costarred with Bing Crosby in the musical drama "If I had My Way". In both films, she was characterized as recently orphaned, with Bing or W.C. as her new guardian, much in the manor of most Shirley Temple films, over at Fox. It was a consistently endearing characterization. In this film, the story is that her mother(Anne Nagel), with the circus name of Madame Gorgeous, had fallen to her death in a performance accident, and her friend 'Uncle Bill' agreed to become her guardian.)(Some of Anne's scenes communicating this event seem to have been cut, rendering the relationship between W.C. and Gloria Jean more mysterious than should have been the case). Gloria Jean is sometimes present without W.C., as when she is the star in a movie being filmed. In it, she sings several classic songs with her operatic voice. Later, she accompanies W.C. on his idiosyncratic trip to a Russian colony in Mexico. She gets separated from him during the flight when his whisky bottle falls out the open(!) window. He follows it, landing on the outdoor sofa of wealthy Mrs. Hemoglobin, on the flattish top of a mountain with precipitous sides. He first encounters her 21y.o. daughter, played by knockout blond Susan Miller, in a revealing outfit. Reportedly, she has never seen a man before, her mother having left her father for this isolated mountain around the time of her birth. Thus, W.C. teaches her the fine art of kissing.(Much reminds me of a similar situation in "Against All Flags", with Errol Flynn doing the teaching). Two more men will soon appear in the persons of Leon Errol, as 'the Rival', who hopes to steal Mrs. Hemoglobin away from W.C., and Charles Lang, as Peter Carson, who hopes to charm the daughter(Ouilotta), fulfilling her desire to practice kissing more. Both had considerable difficulty scaling the cliffs of the mountain. 'The Rival' had extra trouble when the Hemoglobins' pet gorilla was met. Actually, it behaved more like a chimp than a gorilla. W.C. manages to push 'the Rival' off a cliff. Meanwhile, Susan breaks out with "Coming Through the Rye", first in standard meter, finishing in jive mode. Meanwhile, Gloria Jean has been interacting with the Russians, including singing a classic Russian song. Somehow, she gets transferred to the base of the mountain and is taken up in a basket. Later, W.C. and Gloria Jean return to the US, where W.C. argues with the producer (Franklin Panghorn) about the suitability of a story he has written, based on the experiences in the film, for use in a film. Panghorn had interceded several times before, expressing his dissatisfaction. Panghorn added some comedic content to the film. In general, he was most noted as playing men of some authority, who were frustrated in their ability to achieve order and predictability in their lives. Panghorn was rather distinctive looking, with his pudding face, frequent exasperated look, and often submissive posturing.Despite the many sight gags and one liners, by far, the most entertaining comedy was provided by ultimate Keystone Kops production, while W.C. was transporting a matronly woman in a rush to get to the maternity ward of the hospital. She passes out from the hair-raising driving of W.C. He has many wild near misses before crashing outside the hospital.In the future, Gloria Jean would switch to having fellow teen Donald O'Connor as her male partner, in a number of musical comedies, before her film career fizzled. In part, she was signed as insurance against problems with Universal's first songbird: Diana Durbin, and no other studio seemed interested in her. As of this date, she's still around, as is the older Susan Miller(Ouilotta), being nearly a centenarian.As Field's film career waned, in effect, he was being replaced at Universal by the Abbott and Costello comedy team.

MARIO GAUCI I watched this one first from the second of Universal's W.C. Fields Box Set because of its almost legendary status for being "completely insane", as Leonard Maltin so aptly puts it; incidentally, the film also turned out to be The Great Man's last starring vehicle (based on his own story, credited to Otis Criblecoblis). It's amazing how Fields' essentially unlikable personality has endured over the years: he's the only actor who has made a career out of constantly dwelling on his vices, i.e. the "golden nectar", and pet hates (especially children). Besides, his comic style is so personal as to be incoherent at times - but that's part of his genius: who else could come up with such a bizarre line as "How'd you like to hide the egg and gurgitate a few saucers of mocha java?" and make it sound so utterly hilarious through his unique delivery? While self-references such as abound in this film weren't uncommon in the old Hollywood, not to mention its anything-goes attitude revolving around a wisp of plot - think Universal's own HELLZAPOPPIN' (1942), for instance, with Olsen & Johnson - Fields was the only one among the great comedians who was willing to experiment in this way; in fact, some of the cast members (including the star) play themselves and, at one point, Fields is even seen admiring the poster of his latest success THE BANK DICK (1940) while two boys exclaim to one another what a bummer it was! The end result is perhaps patchy overall but often uproarious nonetheless: there are too many pauses for song - though Gloria Jean herself is pretty and charming, and the jive rendition of "Comin Thru' The Rye" by a girl who has been sheltered from the world all her life is an inspired touch. Among Fields' comic foils in the film are Franklin Pangborn (as a flustered studio head), Marx Bros. regular Margaret Dumont (playing the grande dame even in her mountaintop retreat) and Leon Errol (as Fields' rival for the hand of wealthy man-hating Dumont). Incidentally, the receptionist in Pangborn's office is played by Carlotta Monti - Fields' then-companion.The film's best scenes and gags include: the diner sequence with Fields exchanging insults with a heavy-set waitress; the disruption of Gloria's rehearsal of a musical number, over which Pangborn presides, by the set construction crew; Pangborn reading Fields' surreal script (in which, among other things, he dives off an aeroplane - whose interior and rear deck resemble those of a train's - after the gin bottle he accidentally drops, and again from a parapet when Dumont suggests that they kiss!); Dumont's fanged mastiff (an equally fake-looking gorilla also turns up here); and, of course, the classic and brilliantly-sustained chase finale (which was later lifted for the Abbott & Costello vehicle IN SOCIETY [1944]). The dialogue is equally great - including one of the star's best-remembered lines: "I was in love with a beautiful blonde once: she drove me to drink - that's the one thing I'm indebted to her for"; he even throws in a dig at the censor, when a scene that was supposed to take place in a bar had to be reset to a soda fountain! P.S. At the end, Gloria leaves with Fields and he tells her that he had promised her mother he would take care of the girl; the mother, a trapeze artist, appears at the beginning of the film but her death scene (to which this brief exchange refers) was subsequently deleted.By the way, I'm again baffled by the fact that I've yet to come across any online review for this wonderful set; also, I'm personally not bothered by the Collection's relatively high price-point - considering that we're getting, at least, 4 comedic gems (besides, by having only one film per disc, we don't risk the freezing issues which plagued Universal's Abbott & Costello Franchise releases and which have so far kept me from purchasing them).

lugonian NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK (Universal, 1941), directed by Edward Cline, stars the legendary comic, WC Fields, in his final starring role. While Fields' catchphrase title might indicate a circus story or one about a man cheating at cards, it's actually a satire on Hollywood, in fact, Fields poking fun of himself. In spite of some Hollywood in-jokes, two or three separate stories for the price of one, along with site gags lifted with some alterations taken from earlier Fields comedies to assure guaranteed belly laughs, this is probably the strangest comedies ever made, even for Fields, and it's funny. Actually, for a movie without a real story, it's quite funny. It even features teenage soprano Gloria Jean acting as Fields' niece. She's not really funny but adds that certain charm into the story, even when frequently saying to herself or looking directly to the camera, "My Uncle Bill, and I still love him." She takes time out to sing a couple of songs, either straight through or with interruptions by others, and even with that, it's still funny. In short, for a movie that bears no resemblance to a movie, it's very funny.From an original story by Otis Griblecoblis (guess who that is), the scenario revolves around W.C. Fields playing himself as he goes to Esoteric Studios for a conference with production head (Franklin Pangborn playing himself), to present a screenplay he has written for his next production. After Pangborn reads through the script (in which Fields, Jean and Leon Errol enact their roles through add in sequences for the movie audience), he finds it an insult to a man's intelligence, even his, for that the story, consisting of Fields traveling on an airplane with his niece, consisting of compartment beds, later to jump overboard from an observation deck to retrieve his liquor bottle that has fallen, landing unharmed on the mountaintop where lives the middle-aged Daisy Hemogloben (Margaret Dumont), the richest woman in the world, and her youthful daughter, Ouliotta (Susan Miller), who has never seen a man, which leads Fields to teach her a kissing game. Because Mrs. Hemoglobem is worth millions, Fields finds himself competing with Leon Errol for her hand in marriage. After the script is rejected, Fields drives away from the studio with Gloria, drops her off at a drug store, which is followed by Fields' assisting a middle-aged woman he believes to be in labor, on a mad drive through the streets over to the maternity hospital. If this lengthy car chase involving police cars and fire trucks looks familiar, much of it was reused for the Abbott and Costello comedy, IN SOCIETY (1944).Many years following the initial release of NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK, WC Fields still has loyal fans who continue to love "Uncle Bill" as Gloria Jean does in the story. Sadly, age has caught up with Fields, looking older than his 62 years, being physically heavier and reciting his lines in a slower manner than usual, but in spite of these handicaps that marked the end of his career in a leading role, Fields proves to still be capable in being funny, even through a story without a plot tied together with a series of sight gags, ranging from Fields' encounter with a snooty waitress (Jody Gilbert) in a diner, to dealing with two mischievous boy actors named Buddy and Butch (Kenneth Brown and Billy Lenhart), to one of the funniest car rides ever put on film.Soundtrack includes Gloria Jean singing "Estrellita" and Johann Strauss's "Voices of Spring," Russians singing "Ochye Tchornia" and Susan Miller doing a jive number to "Comin' Through the Rye."Others in the cast include Mona Barrie Pangborn's wife; Charles Lang as Peter Carson, the engineer; and in smaller roles, from Carlotta Monti to character actors Irving Bacon and Bill Wolfe. Anne Nagel, who appears in the opening scene as Gloria Jean's mother, Madame Gorgeous, was originally supposed to have a scene where she is killed in a trapeze fall while working in a circus film, leaving Fields as Gloria Jean's guardian, but this piece ended up on the cutting room floor, leaving no explanation in the final print to the disappearance of Gorgeous and Fields' sudden guardianship of Gloria Jean.NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK should make a good double feature with THE BANK DICK (1940) mainly due to certain similarities, such as Fields starring in both, each having the same opening and closing musical score, as well as the Fields introduction in the story as he's standing on the street looking at the billboard advertisement that reads W.C. Fields in THE BANK DICK.Of the handful of movies made throughout the 1940s to feature Gloria Jean, NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK is the only one to have survived on the television markets the longest, solely because it has WC Fields, whose comedies have become legendary. A delightful young actress/singer, Gloria Jean was quite popular in her day but as fate would have it, with each passing decade, much of her film work, mostly second features, are hardly shown anymore. Although Gloria Jean is largely forgotten by today's standards, at least there is a movie of hers to still be in circulation today, and it's this one. Available on either video cassette and/or DVD format, NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK, which formerly played on the American Movie Classics cable channel from 1995 to 1999, followed by its Turner Classic Movies debut in 2001, continues to be a funny movie as well as a confusing one. What was the story about? We'll never know for sure. Our Uncle Bill ... and we still love him. (***)

Karl Emanuel Without doubt, "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break" is Fields at his absolute best. The "plotline" is so completely beyond belief that it provides the nearly perfect vehicle for Fields' unique and irreverent style with its constant stream of sight gags and one-liners. His mumbled verbal interactions with Madame Hemoglobin (Margaret Dumont) and the "tiny waitress" in the café (Jody Gilbert) are as memorably irreverent as anything he had done previously and are worth listening to closely to fully appreciate. The constantly changing scenes and situations in this film provide ample opportunity for his verbal and visual "charms" to be fully utilized, and in my opinion this is his finest and most consistently funny effort. If you haven't seen this film, give it a viewing or two. If you are a true Fields fan, you'll enjoy it as much as or more so than any of his other more well-known offerings.