DPMay As the years tick by, it seems that modern audiences have less and less time for the comedies of the earlier decades of motion pictures. Certainly here in the UK you'd be hard-pushed nowadays to find any of the output of Chaplin, Keaton, the Marx Brothers or Laurel & Hardy on television. As for Harold Lloyd or Harry Langdon - forget it.W C Fields has, perhaps, never enjoyed a particularly strong following on this side of the Atlantic but even so, there was a time when his films would populate the TV schedules. That time seems past and Fields is unquestionably becoming something of an obscurity. The image of an ageing, obese comedian fell out of favour when audiences turned their backs on once-popular stars of more recent times such as Benny Hill and Bernard Manning and the liquor-loving lechery of W C Fields in this context is unlikely to find much support.Fields oughtn't be so casually dismissed. He was a strong identifiable and quite unique character on screen, and a comedian with a sharp repartee who knew his craft. "Never Give A Sucker An Even Break" dates from the latter stages of his career as ill health was beginning to take a grip of him, but his wit is still on top form and he is still able to engage in a surprising amount of physical comedy.The film betrays the notion that it had a rather turbulent production. The original script apparently contained scenes that are not even alluded to in the finished picture, which would have expanded upon the relationship between Fields and his niece (played by Gloria Jean). Several actors who allegedly shot scenes for this film are wholly absent from the final cut. And at one point even Fields himself breaks the fourth wall to actually tell the watching audience of a scene which was excised at the behest of the censors! What we are left with is a slightly disjointed mess. The plot, such as it is, involves Fields visiting a film studio to try and sell his latest script to a producer. Along the way we are treated to glimpses of the rather chaotic life at the studio where Fields' niece is employed as an up-and-coming star.As the producer reads through Fields' rather far-fetched story idea, the events in the script are related through live action so we actually get to 'see' the movie as Fields' character envisaged it, albeit with interruptions from the producer.This story-within-a-story approach is novel for the time, and is an interesting mirror of the true genesis of "Never Give A Sucker An Even Break", but it is also rather limiting. The 'Esoteric Studios' plot is simply too weak to hold up a feature film and is far more the sort of situation you'd expect to find in a Three Stooges short subject.Much more interesting is the 'inner story', that is the plot of Fields' script that the producer reads, which concerns Fields falling out of an aeroplane and landing in the isolated mountain-top residence of a man-hating woman and her beautiful daughter who has grown to adulthood without even being aware of the existence of men. The arrival of Fields in this situation is ripe for comedy and has great potential, but that potential is barely tapped as too many possibilities are spurned and Fields leaves the scene all too quickly.Fields is easily the most interesting character in this film. Unfortunately too many of the others are found wanting and the sequences where Fields is absent suffer badly because they rely on weak comedy from others (notably Franklin Pangborn as the film producer, and juvenile double-act Butch and Buddy) and rather superfluous musical scenes in which the very capable Gloria Jean sings numbers which are badly dated now.The film ends rather abruptly after a lengthy car chase sequence which again has little relevance to the plot, and seems contrived to give the film a more spectacular conclusion, but in reality it's not a conclusion at all - whilst Fields' character was determined to reach a specific destination the rather thin plot, sadly, was not going anywhere and so the film just - well, ends.

Neil Doyle This was my first view of NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK--and although one can quibble with the long, long title for a breezy comedy of this sort--you can't say the film doesn't provide a number of well-deserved laughs.W.C. FIELDS brings his insanely constructed script to director FRANKLIN PANGBORN who, despite his protestations over the silliness of many of the scenes, keeps reading it. We see the movie-within-the-movie taking shape on the screen and can well understand Pangborn's protests. However, it's insanely funny, especially since the story is peppered with talent like LEON ERROL, MARGARET DUMONT, IRVING BACON and others.GLORIA JEAN is featured prominently as Fields' niece and given plenty of opportunity to show that she had a talented way with operatic ditties. The rehearsal scene with Pangborn as workers continue construction on a set being readied for the next day, leads to some of the funniest moments in the whole story.The film ends with a mad car chase to get what Fields supposes is a pregnant woman to a nearby hospital--hilariously staged with split second timing and some truly dangerous stunts. The chase and various other set pieces, along with all the witty one-liners from Fields delivered in his usual dry manner, are enough to keep you highly amused throughout.

MARIO GAUCI I watched this one first from the second of Universal's W.C. Fields Box Set because of its almost legendary status for being "completely insane", as Leonard Maltin so aptly puts it; incidentally, the film also turned out to be The Great Man's last starring vehicle (based on his own story, credited to Otis Criblecoblis). It's amazing how Fields' essentially unlikable personality has endured over the years: he's the only actor who has made a career out of constantly dwelling on his vices, i.e. the "golden nectar", and pet hates (especially children). Besides, his comic style is so personal as to be incoherent at times - but that's part of his genius: who else could come up with such a bizarre line as "How'd you like to hide the egg and gurgitate a few saucers of mocha java?" and make it sound so utterly hilarious through his unique delivery? While self-references such as abound in this film weren't uncommon in the old Hollywood, not to mention its anything-goes attitude revolving around a wisp of plot - think Universal's own HELLZAPOPPIN' (1942), for instance, with Olsen & Johnson - Fields was the only one among the great comedians who was willing to experiment in this way; in fact, some of the cast members (including the star) play themselves and, at one point, Fields is even seen admiring the poster of his latest success THE BANK DICK (1940) while two boys exclaim to one another what a bummer it was! The end result is perhaps patchy overall but often uproarious nonetheless: there are too many pauses for song - though Gloria Jean herself is pretty and charming, and the jive rendition of "Comin Thru' The Rye" by a girl who has been sheltered from the world all her life is an inspired touch. Among Fields' comic foils in the film are Franklin Pangborn (as a flustered studio head), Marx Bros. regular Margaret Dumont (playing the grande dame even in her mountaintop retreat) and Leon Errol (as Fields' rival for the hand of wealthy man-hating Dumont). Incidentally, the receptionist in Pangborn's office is played by Carlotta Monti - Fields' then-companion.The film's best scenes and gags include: the diner sequence with Fields exchanging insults with a heavy-set waitress; the disruption of Gloria's rehearsal of a musical number, over which Pangborn presides, by the set construction crew; Pangborn reading Fields' surreal script (in which, among other things, he dives off an aeroplane - whose interior and rear deck resemble those of a train's - after the gin bottle he accidentally drops, and again from a parapet when Dumont suggests that they kiss!); Dumont's fanged mastiff (an equally fake-looking gorilla also turns up here); and, of course, the classic and brilliantly-sustained chase finale (which was later lifted for the Abbott & Costello vehicle IN SOCIETY [1944]). The dialogue is equally great - including one of the star's best-remembered lines: "I was in love with a beautiful blonde once: she drove me to drink - that's the one thing I'm indebted to her for"; he even throws in a dig at the censor, when a scene that was supposed to take place in a bar had to be reset to a soda fountain! P.S. At the end, Gloria leaves with Fields and he tells her that he had promised her mother he would take care of the girl; the mother, a trapeze artist, appears at the beginning of the film but her death scene (to which this brief exchange refers) was subsequently deleted.By the way, I'm again baffled by the fact that I've yet to come across any online review for this wonderful set; also, I'm personally not bothered by the Collection's relatively high price-point - considering that we're getting, at least, 4 comedic gems (besides, by having only one film per disc, we don't risk the freezing issues which plagued Universal's Abbott & Costello Franchise releases and which have so far kept me from purchasing them).

miloc So many great comedians retired when they were past their heights: Chaplin never quite adjusted to the sound era; Keaton went from substandard vehicles to sad cameos; Laurel and Hardy went on in B pictures until age took the joy out of their slapstick.Fields, on the other hand, made what was arguably his funniest film, "The Bank Dick," next to last, and saved his most thorough insanity for his final shot, "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break." While not as funny as its predecessor, nor "It's a Gift," an earlier masterpiece, his last movie is a glorious kick in Hollywood's pants.Fields plays The Great Man (himself, naturally) pitching a script to Franklin Pangborn, who although also going by his own name has been somehow promoted to producer. Fields used Pangborn in other films as the embodiment of humorless, easily-shocked Society, in all its prim priggishness; it's revealing that here Pangborn becomes Hollywood too. Doubtless W.C.'s feelings about the movie industry at that point were much the same as they were about the social order: too many rules, not enough fun. His script of course, is utter hogwash: a bizarre Munchausen tale about gorillas on mountaintops, 90 proof goat's milk, and himself diving sans parachute from an airplane (which rather puzzlingly possesses an open-air observation deck) to rescue a fallen bottle of liquor.Even outside the movie studio enemies are all around: insolent children, a sarcastic waitress ("There's something awfully big about you," she comments, apropos his nose; he waits until she bends over a counter to respond, "There's something awfully big about you too."), scornful policemen, and of course the "real" movie business behind the scenes. (Fields bellies up to an ice-cream counter, darkly informing the camera, "This scene used to be set in a saloon.") Presumably these last are the geniuses responsible for saddling him a singing starlet, Gloria Jean, who gets just enough screen-time to be safely irrelevant, one more strange distraction in a movie completely full of them.Other, more welcome presences include Leon Errol, as a romantic rival of sorts, and the redoubtable Margaret Dumont, presumably on loan from the Marxes. She famously never "got" Groucho; what in God's name must she have thought of Fields?Thus the greatest comic iconoclast of his time makes his final bow, with a flourish. If it's not laugh-out-loud funny as his previous movies, it's weird, exhilaratingly pointless, and, thoroughly and wonderfully his own.