George Marshall and Edward Cline’s You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man offers us W.C. Fields in fine, irascible form with commanding co-stars Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and an excellent cast of supporting players that contribute to the merriment.
The Production: 4.5/5
After recovering from a heart attack and other ailments connected with his alcoholism, comedian W.C. Fields signed a lucrative contract with Universal for more money than he had ever been paid before. His Universal contract assured Fields that he would basically run the show incorporating into the scripts everything he had ever wanted to do in films. With this free hand, his first Universal effort You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man is quintessential Fields: ornery, penny-pinching, and quick to take offense but just as easily the target of every man, woman, or beast within ear-shot. Co-starring with the Great Man were Oscar-winning ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and dummies Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd continuing their shot-taking feud with one another from Edgar and Charlie’s radio show. It’s a movie filled with hilarious jokes, sight gags, and Fieldsian chicanery, but it’s really just a prelude to his marvelous trio of films to come.
Circus entrepreneur Larson E. Whipsnade (W.C. Fields) manages to stay one step ahead of the sheriff in each state where his traveling carnival lands. As the owner, Whipsnade must often substitute for various acts that can’t go on, and that even includes a new, talented ventriloquist act The Great Edgar (Edgar Bergen) who is owed back salary and is thus feuding vociferously with the boss. Whipsnade’s pretty daughter Vicky (Constance Moore) is being pursued by wealthy but arrogant Roger Bel-Goodie (James Bush) though she and Edgar have definitely become fond of each other. But when Vicky learns that the circus is $3,500 in debt, she decides she must marry for wealth so she can help out her desperate father.
W.C. Fields’ story (under his familiar pseudonym Charles Bogle) has been adapted into a script by George Marion, Jr., Richard Mack, and Everett Freeman though it’s clear that there were many hands who contributed to the final product. Because Fields was likely still not up to full speed, it’s notable that he’s absent for fair amounts of the film when Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy take over to do some comic set pieces: two different tries at a magician’s act (with Charlie inevitably sawed in half) and some shenanigans in a hot-air balloon. Those scenes were helmed by the director of record George Marshall, but as Marshall and Fields were incompatible on-set, Fields’ sequences were directed by Eddie Cline with whom he had worked before and who would direct his next three Universal outings. As usual, Fields is at his funniest when he’s a scoundrel: short changing customers, substituting for acts as varied as a bearded lady sharpshooter and a substitute ventriloquist, barking at little kids trying to take advantage of him, insulting the affable Grady Sutton at every turn, and going tit-for-tat with Charlie McCarthy in the wisecracking department. Some of their jokes were lifted straight from their radio scripts, but it doesn’t matter: they’re nastily hilarious. But the best is saved for last: Fields’ clueless recitation of his encounter with a rattlesnake (oblivious to the fact that his hostess faints at the mere mention of them) followed by a marathon ping-pong match.
Though many prefer W.C. Fields as a victim of the world, quietly muttering his disgust while pretending to go along good naturedly with life’s slings and arrows, I’ve always preferred the bullying, bellowing Great Man: a coward at heart but disguising it with layers of bluster. Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy get some prime set pieces and are reliably amusing, especially devilish Charlie whose antics had to be curtailed a bit for the Production Code. Constance Moore and John Arledge play Whipsnade’s children: she’s a doting daughter and he’s a college gadabout with a strangely thick Virginia accent. Their down-to-earth qualities are in stark contrast to the airs of the stuffy Bel-Goodies: Thurston Hall and Mary Forbes as the parents and James Bush as the cloddish son. Grady Sutton and Eddie Anderson make welcome comic foils for Fields, of course, and Blacaman does impressive work with lions and alligators in a funny set piece as everyone hunts for the missing Charlie whom Whipsnade has dispensed with he hopes for the last time.
Video: 4/5
3D Rating: NA
The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 1.37:1 is faithfully rendered in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. For much of the running time, the image looks pristine, but the last couple of reels begin to display some age-related artifacts like dust, small scratches, and occasional blurriness which do mar one’s enjoyment just a bit. Grayscale is quite strong, however, with some very strong black levels and crisp whites. The movie has been divided into 8 chapters.
Audio: 5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix sounds as good as elements of this age can sound. Dialogue is strong throughout mixed astutely with the occasional music and copious sound effects. There are no problems with age-related hiss, crackle, flutter, or pops.
Special Features: 2/5
Audio Commentary: film historian Michael Schlesinger provides an amiable and most informative commentary track offering lots of background information on both major and minor players and the directors as well as other members of the behind-the-scenes crew.
Theatrical Trailer (1:37, HD)
Kino Trailers: The Old Fashioned Way, The Bank Dick, My Little Chickadee, Alice in Wonderland, The Ghost Breakers, Murder He Says.
Overall: 4/5
George Marshall and Edward Cline’s You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man offers us W.C. Fields in fine, irascible form with commanding co-stars Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and an excellent cast of supporting players that contribute to the merriment. This latest Kino Lorber offering of a W.C. Fields classic makes a welcome debut in high definition and comes with a steadfast recommendation.
You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man
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Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.
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