Man on the Flying Trapeze ***** (1935, W C Fields, Mary Brian, Kathleen Howard) – Classic Movie Review 9782

Director Clyde Bruckman’s 1935 comedy Man on the Flying Trapeze [The Memory Expert] is a hilariously funny W C Fields film from his best period, in which he stars as Ambrose Wolfinger, who rails against the world as usual, particularly his shrewish wife Leona (Kathleen Howard).

Mary Brian plays Hope, the daughter on his side.

Man on the Flying Trapeze is quintessential Fields, who is full of hilarious pumped-up high self-aggrandisement and low mutterings when things go wrong.

W C’s character Ambrose Wolfinger is a man with a good memory Trapeze [hence the film’s British title The Memory Expert], who helps his employer.

The story is written by Fields (with one of his regular silly pseudonyms as Charles Bogle) and Sam Hardy. The screenplay is written by Ray Harris (screenplay), Sam Hardy (screenplay), Jack Cunningham (contributor to treatment), Frank Griffin (contributor to dialogue), John Sinclair (contributor to special sequences) and Bobby Vernon (contributor to special sequences).

The character of Charlie Bogle appears in Fields’s film You’re Telling Me! (1934) and he used it as a pen name for four of his screenplays.

Also in the cast are Grady Sutton, Vera Lewis, Lucien Littlefield, Oscar Apfel, Lew Kelly, Walter Brennan, Tor Johnson, Tammany Young, Arthur Aylesworth, David Clyde, Ed Gargan, Eddie Chandler, James Burke, James Flavin, Sarah Edwards, Carlotta Monti and Sam Lufkin.

Kathleen Howard makes her initial appearance with Fields as Mrs Murchison in You’re Telling Me! (1934) and is famous for pairing as Fields’s shrewish wife in both It’s a Gift (1934) and Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935).

Ambrose’s Secretary is played by Carlotta Monti, Fields’s mistress.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9782

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com