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| Man On The Flying Trapeze |
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  (7/10)
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Runtime: 65 m |
| Public Rating: 9.91 (11 votes) |
Director: Clyde Bruckman |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Comedy |
Year: 1935 |
| Writer(s): Jack Cunningham, Ray Harris, Bobby Vernon |
| Reviewed by: Vadim Rizov |
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The Great Man treads on tricky territory in Man On The Flying Trapeze. Half of the film is spent in directing his bile at his wife, her mother, and her son. He steps dangeously close to misogynism, but, because the female performers deliver horrendous, grotesque performances, the viewer has no choice but to sympathize with him. It's caricature, not progressive feminist drama, so get over it.
Basically, W.C. Fields plays a man who hates his family, with the exception of daughter Mary Brian, left over from a previous marriage (just like in The Old-Fashioned Way, his only happy relation is with a daughter from a previous marriage). He married after his wife's death only so that his daughter would have a marriage. As a result, he's saddled with a shrewish, hostile wife (former Metropolitan star Kathleen Howard) who suspects his every movement, plus her relations.
At work, however, Fields is a well-respected man. He's never organized his papers in any conventional manner, so nobody but he knows how to find anything. He's made himself indispensible through his voluminous memory. He wants the day off (his first in 25 years) to see a boxing match. An unfortunate lie, however, triggers a series of events that face him to eventually deal with his family.
From the opening, the film's filled with hilarious performances, especially by the duo of Howard and, as her mother, Vera Lewis. They are the butt of any number of jokes about marriage come horifically to life. Fields, of course, is stellar, particularly in the opening sequence, where he has to stop two burglars in his basement. The film's ending may be uncomfortably close to Fields going on a shooting rampage, but tragedy is the source of all good comedy. Sadly, director Clyde Bruckman (who collaborated on many Buster Keaton films as a writer, and co-directed The General) commited suicide in 1955 when he was no longer able to get work.
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