You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

George Marshall

Writers:

W.C. Fields (story)
Everett Freeman (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 February 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Larson E. Whipsnade runs a seedy circus which is perpetually in debt. His performers give him nothing but trouble...

Plot Keywords:

Circus | Elephant | Con Trick | Ventriloquist | Racial Slur

Cast

W.C. Fields	...	Larson E. Whipsnade
Edgar Bergen	...	The Great Edgar
Charlie McCarthy	...	Charlie McCarthy
Constance Moore	...	Victoria Whipsnade
John Arledge	...	Phineas Whipsnade
James Bush	...	Roger Bel-Goodie
Thurston Hall	...	Mr. Archibald Bel-Goodie
Mary Forbes	...	Mrs. Bel-Goodie
Edward Brophy	...	Corbett
Arthur Hohl	...	Burr
Princess Baba	...	Princess Baba, The Great Edgar's Assistant
Blacaman	...	Blacaman - The Lion Tamer
Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson	...	Cheerful (as Eddie Anderson)

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

W.C. Fields became a big hit on radio, especially on Edgar Bergen's radio program, where he had a long-running "feud" with Charlie McCarthy. This film was an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of that feud by having it carried on in a movie.

Quotes:

Whipsnade: Never trust a ventriloquist or a barber.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Hollywood Screen Tests: Take 1 (1999) (TV)

Soundtrack:

The Irish Washerwoman

"Somebody Took The Cork Out Of My Lunch"

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.