IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM SHELF!

“I was in love with a beautiful blonde once, dear. She drove me to drink. It’s the one thing I’m indebted to her for.”

— W.C. Fields, Never Give A Sucker An Even Break (1941)

No one makes me laugh like W.C. Fields.  It is a shame that he is virtually unknown today by younger audiences, because he was the most modern of all of the classic film comedians, having popularized both cringe comedy and misanthropic humor.  His influence can be felt on the most intelligent and subversive film and television comedy that followed.  Such comedies as Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Seinfeld, Ghost World, Sideways, Bad Santa, The Office, Curb your Enthusiasm, and Veep would be unthinkable had Fields not previously fought the censors and pushed the boundaries of politically incorrect comedy.

Fields, or “The Great Man” as he liked to be called, was also unique among the classic film comedians in that he didn’t have a set character from film to film (such as Chaplin’s “Little Tramp” or the Three Stooges’ “Moe, Larry, and Curly” personas).  Certainly, he always played a variation on himself, but those variations were expansive, displaying every potential aspect of “the everyman.”  Fields character in a particular film could be bad-tempered, henpecked, gregarious, misanthropic, boastful, lovably inept, deceitful, timid, abrasive, cartoonishly surreal, flummoxed by inanimate objects, and/or commanding the virtuoso dexterity of a juggler.  Occasionally, he might portray an authority figure (such as the President of the mythic kingdom of Klopstokia), but more often he played the underdog, either under the thumb of nagging family members or short on cash and forced to grift to survive.  However, for his final starring film, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), “The Great Man” portrayed a character that incorporated all of the disparate aspects of his persona, a troublesome writer/actor by the name of Bill Fields.

“The Great Man” had a history of butting heads with the studio bosses at Universal (and previously Paramount) over creative interference and censorship, and he used this last starring vehicle to satirize those battles for comedic effect.  In Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, Fields is a famous film comedian, who is also the guardian of up-and-coming teenage starlet, Gloria Jean (a real operatic singing prodigy that Universal was grooming for stardom).  As the character of Bill Fields reads the script for his next proposed film to the head of Esoteric Pictures (played by familiar Fields foil Franklin Pangborn), the film-within-the-film depicts the loony action–W.C. jumps from an airplane to recover a fallen liquor bottle, landing in the nest-like dwelling of the beautiful Ouliotta Hemogloben (Susan Miller) and her ghastly mother (Margaret Dumont), a rich dowager, whom he later courts after downing several snorts of 100-proof goats milk.  Of course, the studio head in the film refuses to produce the Great Man’s script, and in reality, Universal refused to produce any more Fields vehicles after Sucker was completed.

Despite the use of his real name and a movie studio setting, no film W.C. Fields ever made was less grounded in reality.  Sucker displays “The Great Man” at his most outlandish, surreal, and inebriated.  While the film is a gem, it could have been even greater.  Fields had to constantly battle the studio bosses to keep his comic vision, and often he lost the fight.  The film was cut drastically, leaving most of the story continuity and character motivations on the cutting room floor.  Also some of what remains in the film was forced upon the comedian.  For example, Fields would have preferred not to end the film with a chase, and he was vehemently against including a comedic gorilla in the picture.  He thought gorilla-suit humor was beneath him, but he did manage to wring a good “pink elephant” joke out of the forced inclusion.  It’s likely that the studio also forced Fields to use Gloria Jean, but he was happy with that circumstance, as he found her to be a “trooper,” and he always wanted to have a “daughter” character in his movies that loved him unconditionally (in contrast with the problematic relationship that he had with his real son).

Sucker turned out to be “The Great Man’s” swan song.  Although W.C. Fields would appear briefly in four later movies, he never again wrote or starred in a film of his own.  This was partly due to Fields’ bad reputation among studio heads.  However, just as big a factor was Fields’ failing health.  Alcoholism had ravaged Fields’ body, and he does not look particularly good in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.  Consequently, “The Great Man” is off screen in Sucker almost as much of the time as he is on.  Still, we should be grateful that we received a few final hilarious scenes from the screen’s greatest comedian.  Despite his ill health, W.C. was still capable of generating belly laughs, and his hands were as nimble as ever (keep an eye out for some impressive hat twirls).  In short, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break serves as a fitting chaser to a 100-proof film career.

USA/B&W-71m./Dir: Edward Cline/Wr: John T. Neville & Prescott Chaplin from an original story by Otis Criblecoblis (W.C. Fields)/Cast: W.C. Fields, Gloria Jean, Franklin Pangborn, Billy “Butch” Lenhart, Kenneth “Buddy” Brown, Margaret Dumont, Susan Miller, Leon Errol, Jody Gilbert, Charles Lang, Anne Nagel, Mona Barrie, Irving Bacon, Jack ‘Tiny’ Lipson, Minerva Urecal, Kay Deslys, Carlotta Monti

For Fans of: If you like the work of other classic film comedians, such as the Marx Brothers or Abbott & Costello, you owe it to yourself to give “The Great Man” a try.  Never Give a Sucker an Even Break isn’t top-tier W.C. Fields (It’s a Gift, The Man on the Flying Trapeze, and The Bank Dick are the best of his features), but it isn’t a bad place to start.  It is an extremely funny film.

Video: Up until now, “The Great Man” has been woefully underrepresented on high definition home video.  Happily, Kino Lorber Studio Classics will release Never Give a Sucker an Even Break on Blu-ray on July 14th.  Fans of the film will be very happy with the presentation.  The film displays a few minor scratches here and there (which you may only notice if you’re looking for them), but overall the picture quality is fantastic.  The image is sharp and clear, with excellent contrast.  The only person who might not like the Blu-ray’s picture quality would be W.C. Fields himself, as the clarity makes it easier to see the ravages of alcoholism and illness on his face.  The disc’s sound is also beautifully clear, with no age-related hiss.  Every Fieldsian mumble is audible, and Gloria Jean’s powerful soprano voice sounds beautiful.  Finally, the disc is rounded out by some nice extras, including:

• A full-length audio commentary by film historian Eddy Von Mueller, which covers the vaudeville tradition displayed in the film, background on Fields and the supporting players, and the battles between Fields and the studio in the development of the movie.  The commentary is well thought out and entertaining.
• Wayne and Shuster Take an Affectionate Look at W.C. Fields (a 50-minute episode of a 1964 television series for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) — This is a nice extra for audiences unfamiliar with “The Great Man,” because it includes clips from several of his movies.  However, pay no attention to the connecting dialogue from Canadian comics Wayne and Shuster.  The script for this show is filled with debunked myths and inaccuracies about Fields’ life.  I also completely disagree with their premise that “The Great Man” never played the underdog.
• Trailers for The Great McGinty (1940), Murder, He Says (1945), and Road to Utopia (1946)

Streaming: At the time of this review, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break was not streaming on any of the major subscription services.  It was also unavailable for purchase or rental through digital retailers.

More to Explore: The cartoonishly surreal gags on display in Sucker hearken back to Fields’ zany 1932 comedy Million Dollar Legs, which can be found on the Universal DVD set W.C. Fields: Comedy Essentials Collection.  There are also some memorable meta, surrealistic gags in Field’s greatest short, The Fatal Glass of Beer, which is available on Blu-ray as part of The Mack Sennett Collection, Vol. One.

Trivia: Fields’ contentious relationship with Universal extended to the title of this film.  W.C. wanted to call the film The Great Man, but the studio insisted on Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, which was a phrase associated with Fields ever since he used the dialogue at the end of the Broadway play Poppy.  Fields eventually gave up the fight, although he commented that theater marquees would undoubtedly shorten the title to “W.C. Fields – Sucker.”

For More Info: The best (and most accurate) biography of the Great Man is W.C. Fields: A Biography by James Curtis.  I’d also recommend Field’s intended autobiography, W.C. Fields by Himself.  Finally, for coverage of the movies, you can’t beat W. C. Fields: A Life on Film by Fields’ grandson, Ronald J. Fields.