Never Give a Sucker an Even Break

1941

71 Min

Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
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DIR Edward F. Cline

CAST W.C. Fields, Gloria Jean, Leon Errol, Billy Lenhart, Kenneth Brown, Margaret Dumont, Susan Miller, Franklin Pangborn, Mona Barrie, Charles Lang, Anne Nagel

Synopsis

A man with big ideas (W.C. Fields) pitches an outlandish adventure story to a dumbfounded studio exec (Franklin Pangborn) who’d much rather make a romantic comedy starring the man’s pretty niece (Gloria Jean). The result is a whale of a tale. The madcap plot involves a young girl (Susan Miller) and her millionaire mother (Margaret Dumont), a flask of gin and a gorilla — and, of course, the man and his niece.

Director

Edward F. Cline

Entering films as one of Mack Sennett’s Keystone Cops in 1913, Cline began assisting Sennett and by 1916 was directing shorts at Keystone. In the early ‘20s he co-wrote and co-directed seventeen of Buster Keaton’s shorts, including such classics as The Playhouse, The Boat, and Cops, as well as Keaton’s first feature, the Intolerance-parody The Three Ages. Later in the decade he was reunited with Sennett when he directed two-reelers for such comics as Ben Turpin and Carole Lombard. In 1932 Cline directed W.C. Fields in the memorable satire Million Dollar Legs and became one of the few directors whom the irascible comedian could tolerate. Called in to helm most of Fields’ scenes in You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (signed by George Marshall), Cline went on to direct the classic features that capped Fields’ career in the early ‘40s: My Little Chickadee (co-starring Mae West), The Bank Dick, and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. Cline’s last important work was with Olsen and Johnson on Crazy… read more

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David M.K.

8Jan13

A comedy without any comedy. They're more aerodynamic that way.

Trolley Freak

6Feb12

The final starring vehicle for the Great Man has to be seen to be disbelieved. He plays himself, attempting to sell a script to a producer but after it is rejected he decides to leave town. However, before he can get away there is the small matter of a madcap car chase... Fields would live another five years and make a handful of cameo appearances in other films but this completely insane comedy was his last hurrah..