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| Never Give A Sucker An Even Break |
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  (9/10)
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Runtime: 71 m |
| Public Rating: 9.75 (4 votes) |
Director: Edward F. Cline |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Comedy |
Year: 1941 |
| Writer(s): Prescott Chaplin, John T. Neville |
| Reviewed by: Vadim Rizov |
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One of the earliest examples of Hollywood checking out what the outside world had to offer, Never Give A Sucker An Even Break. Instead of the shenanigans of Abbott & Costello, Universal offered (for the last time) W.C. Fields starring as himself, in a movie all about how tough it is to make movies. To support the thin plot, the movie is loosely plotted, providing space for all manner of strange gags, satire, and one of the coolest car chases ever.
W.C. stars as himself, but is off screen a great deal at the beginning. We get to see instead a screen test being shot. In what is (or should be) the model for such future shots, we begin with Gloria Jean singing an inane song in Hawaian outfit, then slowly pull back to encompass the background, the camera, the crane, the lighting director, and the sound man. Finally, the scene cuts. Eventually, after some hostile encounters with the outside world, W.C. arrives to read his new screenplay to Frank Pangborn. It's an absurdist comedy which, among other things, involves W.C. jumping out of the open-air deck of an airplane (!) to retrieve a fallen bottle of whiskey (no surprise there).
The movie was a "meditation on the boundaries between life and art" far before such pretentious terms began to be used. The conclusion Fields evidently draws: real life is tough and movies are made by the wrong people. Of course, the film-ending car chase, spectacular and hilarious, screws up my basic premise, but if you want to make this movie sound serious, there's no better way.
Fields didn't like the title (he wanted it to be called The Great Man) but said it didn't matter anyway - since the title was too long for the marquee, he reckoned they'd just cut it down to "W.C. Fields - Sucker." Universal hack writers rewrote his original screenplay. As he recalled, "I was going to throw it in their faces when the director said 'Don't bother. We'll shoot your script, and they won't know the difference.' We did - and they didn't." This film ended Fileds' career as solo comedian, but it's hilarious, breathtaking, and a smart cynical look at Hollywood movies (far smarter, in my opinion, than Sunset Blvd. Now send me insulting e-mail.)
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