You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man **** (1939, W C Fields, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy) – Classic Movie Review 11,124

W C Fields stars as seedy circus owner Larson E Whipsnade: ‘Why, some of my best friends are snakes’… 

The often extremely funny 1939 black and white madcap screwball comedy You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man stars W C Fields as a bad-tempered, broken-down old circus owner called Larson E Whipsnade. The circus is seedy and in debt, and Larson E’s performers keep giving him trouble, and he looks to his daughter to help him out of his financial troubles.

Fields shares the gags with Edgar Bergen as The Great Edgar and his puppet/ ventriloquist dummy Charlie McCarthy. Constance Moore plays W C’s daughter Victoria ‘Vicky’ Whipsnade trying to get cash for him by marrying rich Roger Bel-Goodie (James Bush). Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson plays Rochester the handyman and John Arledge plays W C’s son Phineas Whipsnade, while Thurston Hall and Mary Forbes are Roger’s society snob parents Mr and Mrs Bel-Goodie. Also in the cast is Mortimer Snerd, another dummy of Edgar Bergen, created in 1938.

Invention does flag from time to time, though much of the movie delights and there are many big laughs to be found, while the sheer unpleasantness of Whipsnade is a joy.

Fields got $25,000 extra for the story, written as Charles Bogle.

Mortimer Snerd is an ‘actor’.

Also in the cast are Mary Forbes, Thurston Hall, Charles Coleman, Edward Brophy, Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson, James Bush, John Arledge, Arthur Hohl, Grady Sutton. Circus performers Blacaman and Princess Baba play themselves.

You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man is directed by George Marshall and Edward F Cline (uncredited), runs 79 minutes, is made and released by Universal Pictures, is written by George Marion Jr, Richard Mack and Everett Freeman, based on a story by Charles Bogle [W C Fields], is shot in black and white by Milton R Krasner, is produced by Lester Cowan, is scored by Frank Skinner and Charles Previn (musical director), and is designed by Jack Otterson.

It is shot at Universal Studios, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California.

The best of W C Fields: It’s a Gift (1934), My Little Chickadee (1940), The Bank Detective (1940), Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,124

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