Le cirque en folie

In yet another variation of his "Poppy" role from his Broadway hit of the 1920s, Fields here plays Larson E. Whipsnade, owner of a circus. He has 2 children who have been off at school. The daughter, Constance Moore, feels compelled to marry for money. The son has no role.

At the circus, among Fields' attraction are Edgar Bergen and his dummies. Fields and Bergen had a solid chemistry and the radio "fued" between Fields and the dummy Charlie McCarthy were hugely popular. Their banter here is quite funny.

The plot is thin and revolves around the daughter's marriage and the financial troubles of the circus. But it's enough for Fields to build some hilarious routines around. The climactic ping pong game at the home of the groom's parents is very funny. Also funny is Fields dressed up as circus star, Buffalo Bella, the sharp-shooter.

Moore and Bergen have zero chemistry as the "lovers." But good support is provided by Eddie Anderson, Mary Forbes, Thurston Hall, James Bush, Grady Sutton, and especially Jan Duggan as Miss Sludge, the woman who starts the ping pong match. Duggan memorably co-starred with Fields in THE OLD FASHIONED WAY.

The Fields universe rarely goes well but there is a happy ending.

You Can't Cheat An Honest Man finds widower W.C. Fields running a second rate circus and trying to stay one step ahead of the law as he's creditors just about every place he goes. His children, John Arledge and Constance Moore attend a really posh Ivy League type school and you sympathize with Fields because you know this why he's probably not paying his bills. One also can speculate what his wife must have put up with back in the day.

Moore on a visit to Dad's show falls for the ventriloquist sideshow performer Edgar Bergen. But Bergen doesn't really get along with Fields or I should say his alter ego Charlie McCarthy doesn't.

The Fields-McCarthy feud was legendary on radio and it might seem hard to fathom how a ventriloquist could entertain on radio. But the characters he created were so powerful and had such a hold on the minds of the public that they were real. Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd were characters in their own right, they almost but not quite gained separate identities away from Edgar Bergen.

Anyway on Bergen's show, Bill Fields was a frequent guest and the repartee between Fields and McCarthy is still classic. Even without knowing that background, today's audience can still enjoy You Can't Cheat an Honest Man because the comedy is eternal.

There's not much of a plot except for Moore loving Bergen, but being ready to marry snobbish James Bush to help her father in his financial troubles. I'm sure you can figure out how that goes, especially when prospect in-laws Thurston Hall and Mary Forbes meet Fields at a little clambake they're throwing.

The circus offers a range of opportunity for some great gags including trying to pry Charlie McCarthy out of an alligator, an elephant who gives Fields showers on command and of course sawing Charlie in half during a magic act.

Still it's the repartee between Fields and Bergen and another of the unforgettable characterizations that Bill Fields brings us which makes You Can't Cheat An Honest Man a comedy classic.

YOU CAN'T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN (Universal, 1939) directed by George Marshall, is a circus movie, and with W.C. Fields in the lead, accompanied by the support of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, along with an assortment of oddball characters, ranging from another dummy named Mortimer Snerd, to human numskull Grady Sutton, plus circus attractions of the world's largest midget and smallest giant, one should expect this madcap comedy to be none other than a circus. In spite of its backdrop, where much of it takes place, there's no man on the flying trapeze nor Sally of the Sawdust or clowns juggling bowling pins, yet, Fields provides several opportunities clowning around by not taking it's title seriously. He is far from being an honest man and actually does most of the cheating, not in the illicit sense, but as a circus impresario who holds back salaries from his employees and cheating his paying customers of their change.

The story actually concerns Larson E. Whipsnade (W.C. Fields), the manager of a circus, who is heavily in debt of $3500, and in a comedic way, is at wits end with his troupe and constantly one step ahead of the sheriff. His problems are further complicated when Vicki (Constance Moore), his attractive daughter, becomes interested in the Great Edgar (Bergen), but in order to help their father out of his financial difficulties and from being arrested, Phineas (John Arledge), her brother, arranges for Vicki to marry Roger Bel-Goodie (James Bush), the son of society snobs (Thurston Hall and Mary Forbes), who may have money but not her love.

The supporting cast consists of circus performers Blacaman and Princess Baba playing themselves; Edward Brophy as Corbett; Arthur Hohl as Burr; Eddie "Rochester" Anderson as Cheerful, the crap-shooting handyman; and several Fields staff players including Grady Sutton, Jan Dugan and Bill Wolfe in smaller roles, plus Evelyn Del Rio, who would go on to play Fields' brat of a daughter in the upcoming comedy, THE BANK DICK (1940), seen here as a crying girl annoys Whipsnade about her "lost" dog. Children and animals continue to make good comedy props for Fields in this one.

The movie itself comes is a sort of mixed blessing for some considering how comedy routines shift from Fields to the antics of Bergen and McCarthy. The ventriloquist and his dummies acting like humans certainly will appeal to younger children than Fields, yet the older kids or adults with minds of children could find the Bergen, McCarthy and Snerd exchanges quite intrusive. While the Fields comedies of the past focused solely on his character, he doesn't have the entire movie nor does he share much screen time with Bergen and McCarthy in spite of their current popularity of verbal insults on radio. The story itself, written by Fields, under the assumed name of Charles Bogle, is slight with some situations unresolved, but the verbal exchanges and comedy routines are first rate. Standouts include Fields taking a shower behind a circus tent as his elephant Queenie acquires water from a bucket and sprays upon his command of "Give Queenie!"; Fields staging a ventriloquist act sporting a false mustache as none laughing spectators look on with blank expressions; and if those scenes don't provoke laughter, then the climatic ping-pong game at the society party certainly will. Watch how character actress Jan Duggan catches the ball.

YOU CAN'T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN has become a favorite on commercial television for many years, and later on cable channels, including American Movie Classics from 1995 to 1998, and Turner Classic Movies where it made its premiere in June 2001. Take notice that the prints available on these mentioned cable channels are not from the original 1939 release but from reissue copies with an entire different background during its introduction elevating Eddie "Rochester" Anderson's name (of Jack Benny radio fame) from bottom billing to co-starring status, thus reducing co-stars Bergen, McCarthy and Constance Moore further down the list. Video prints, from MCA Home Video, however, have become available with its original theatrical opening credits.

For his debut at Universal Studios after many years at Paramount, W.C. Fields comes off to a good start. It's may not be perfect but the laughs are there. Several comedy routines from previous Fields comedies are repeated here, and in many ways, much improved. The feud between Fields and "smart mouth" McCarthy continue to become highlights. McCarthy to Fields: "Is that a tomato or your nose?" McCarthy eventually gets his from Whipsnade (Fields) in one scene where the child-like dummy finds himself inside a live crocodile. After watching this, the circus may never be the same again, thanks to the one and only Larceny Whipsnake, better known as Larson E. Whipsnade, profession, "Honest Man." (**1/2)

This has probably become Feild's most underrated film. It has a few clumsy scenes, probably the most questionable racial "jokes" (through, given the milieu, probably quite true to life), and a lot of screen time goes to Edgar and Charlie.

Still, it is quite a wonderful film; and it retains the fundamental wacko universe that defines top Feilds. Some of the circus stuff is pretty amazing too, and they get a fine performance from the Lion tamer.

I think the ending probably must have looked so bad in the editing room they just said the hell with it and went for the sort of non ending with Mortimer. No matter, it's a jem, and if not "A" grade W.C., it's very close.

It is true that Edgar Bergan and Charlie McCarthy were far more effective in their national audience on radio than in the movies. This was due to the close-up affect of cinematography on Bergen's face - he could not hide the fact that his lips moved a little. When on a stage in a nightclub or in vaudeville he'd be too far away to be seen moving his lips. Not so on film.

But Bergan and McCarthy put ventriloquism on the map. Their act and radio show took the art of throwing one's voice and brought a biting humor to it, giving the dummy a real personality: a wise guy little man, with an eye for the ladies and an eye for making trouble for people he did not like (among whom was Fields). The feud of McCarthy and Fields mirrored the contemporary feud of Fred Allan and Jack Benny, except that Allan and Benny were both real. But on radio Charlie was as real as "Uncle Claude" was, so the fact that it was a block of wood that was manipulated fighting a real life man did not matter. The public just loved Charlie reminding Fields of his alcoholism, in particular his large red nose. And the public loved the threats of Fields to give Charlie a ride on a buzz saw.

Because of the strong personality of McCarthy, a movie audience even today looks at this film and tends to ignore Bergen's slight lip movements. Charlie is the real personality of interest, not Edgar - here playing a hard working young man who would like to marry Vicki Whipsnade (Constance Moore) but is resigned that she wants to marry a wealthy young wastrel instead. Bergen could act (look at his performance in I REMEMBER MAMA, as Ellen Corby's boyfriend/husband, and his comic scene there with Oskar Homolka regarding the dowry). But he did not have to act as Bergen here - all he had to do was let Charlie do his job (and, for that matter, let Mortimer Snerd do his work too in two scenes). The tricks used by the director to have scenes where Charlie appears without Bergan are just even more effective, as they enhance the idea of an independent comic personality coming out of the dummy.

For Fields there are many choice moments too. His walk, supposedly naked after a shower, across the circus grounds - hidden behind people carrying items, or elephants and other animals, until a lady screams and faints (and Fields is finally physically revealed to the audience) is a gem. So is his wrecking the Bel-Goodies engagement party, first by his mad ping pong match, and then by his insistence of telling the story of how his life was saved once by an intelligent rattlesnake (not realizing that Mrs. Bel-Goody hates even the mention of snakes). His interactions with the circus staff, with the idiotic Grady Sutton, with labor union organizer Edward Brophy, and with the various people buying tickets for the circus, or for that matter mispronouncing his name as "Larceny Whipsnake" are priceless. So is his own attempt at ventriloquism: he does it so you can't see his lips move, but you just can't believe he is throwing his voice. Well he is throwing dust or something else at that moment.

But it is his running confrontations with McCarthy, some of which he actually loses (he has one where he has to bribe Charlie at one point to keep quiet) that maintains the audience's attention. The film is one of Fields' best ones, and deservedly retains it's popularity to this day.