Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1940)
Grade: 83
"Never Give a Sucker an Even Break" was the last real film that Fields made (he had bit parts in a few support-the-war movies). He also co-wrote the screenplay. It is an excellent and unique comedy, often ridiculous and even surreal.
W.C. Fields was a funny guy. Maybe it was his deadpan expression, maybe it was his delivery: halfway between a mutter and a drawl. Whatever his magic ingredient, he could transform lines that have no business being funny. When he says "Got my soap, got my razor, got everything" you have to laugh, but then you wonder just why it is so funny.
Just as it is a wonder how such a plotless, silly movie could be so much fun to watch. The "Naked Gun" series has nothing on W. C. Fields: he was the master at stringing together unrelated (or nearly so) scenes that have continuity only in being equally funny.
The plot, if it could be said to be such, has Fields hanging around a movie studio, peddling a script and promoting the career of his young niece, Gloria Jean. His script is alot of nonsense involving a plane with an open air observation deck (don't miss what follows after W.C. Fields drops his whiskey bottle out of the plane), a grown woman who has never seen a man before, and her homely but wealthy mother. His script rejected, Fields and Jean leave the studio but become involved in rushing a non-pregnant pregnant woman to the hospital.
This film marked the high-water mark for the career of Gloria Jean. Shirley Temple was one of the biggest stars of the late 1930s, and studios searched for young actresses who could duplicate her success. They came up with three of them: Judy Garland, Deanna Durbin, and Gloria Jean. All three were photogenic and could sing. Jean's career was the least successful, but Fields knew what to do with her. Cast as her adoring niece, she also serves as his protector, trying (without much success) to keep him out of trouble.
There is a terrific "chase scene" at the film's end.
One curious scene has a character similar to Will Rogers saying "I suffered from high blood pressure for years, then I lost my dough and had to give it up." Fields overhears this and dryly mutters "Very comical." Perhaps Fields disliked Rogers, even five years after Rogers' death.
kollers@shell.mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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