There’s a little more plot than usual for a W.C. Fields film with Erle C. Kenton’s You’re Telling Me! but it doesn’t prevent the master comedian from offering some of his best routines for our ready consumption.
The Production: 4/5
Erle C. Kenton’s You’re Telling Me! is a remake of one of W.C. Fields’ silent comedies So’s Your Old Man, and while it’s clear he’s on the right track as a sound comedian, some of the casting and direction for his starring vehicles had not yet quite fallen into place. He’d score a masterpiece with his next – It’s a Gift – but You’re Telling Me! contains plenty of laughs even if it’s not quite prime Fields.
Optometrist Sam Bisbee (W.C. Fields) spends the majority of his days in his backroom drinking and working on various inventions. He’s especially proud of his puncture-proof automobile tires which he hopes will lift his lower middle class family out of debt. Living on the wrong side of the tracks, Sam’s daughter Pauline (Joan Marsh) doesn’t feel she’s worthy to accept the marriage proposal of the wealthy upper class Bob Murchison (Buster Crabbe), but while he’s completely unconcerned with class snobbery, his snooty mother (Kathleen Howard) finds the Bisbees beneath them and won’t agree to the marriage. When his demonstration of his tires goes awry, Sam is so distraught he plans suicide but changes his mind upon meeting the Princess Lescaboura (Adrienne Ames) whom he mistakenly assumes is also considering suicide. The two have a heart-to-heart talk, and she’s greatly impressed by Sam’s kind heart and good intentions, enough to hatch a scheme of her own to help both Sam and his daughter Pauline to realize their dreams.
Julian Street’s story has been adapted into a screenplay by Walter De Leon, Paul M. Jones, and J.P. McEvoy. It offers Fields ample opportunities to wrestle with life’s little miseries at his office (drinking roach insecticide instead of corn liquor), in his home (struggling with locks and curtain ornaments), on a train, and inevitably in the film’s comic highpoint: Fields’ celebrated golfing sketch which runs for over ten minutes and is loaded with hilarious one liners and a panoply of sight gags. Director Erle C. Kenton doesn’t stage and shoot Fields’ encounter with an ostrich very imaginatively, and a grab bag of inventions he rummages through in front of the tire company executives is thrown away and not milked nearly enough for the laughs they could have generated. Still, he stands back and lets Fields hang himself repeatedly in his wife’s house décor, test his tires with a loaded revolver (and later shoot out the tires of a car he mistakes as his own), and stage that golf sketch for optimum laughs. And the ending is greatly satisfying allowing the hapless Fields to win after taking it repeatedly on the chin during the previous hour’s running time.
You’ll see a somewhat younger, slimmer Fields here with a full head of combed hair and fit enough to spin his puncture-proof tire chasing it down several blocks without using a stunt double. Of course, his comic timing as always is aces, and his continual hilarious barking at caddy Tammany Young to “stand back and keep your eye on this ball” grows more hilarious with each fresh utterance. Louise Carter as his at-wit’s-end wife doesn’t quite have the authority Fields needed to appear properly henpecked. Kathleen Howard, here playing the haughty Mrs. Murchison, would become a more formidable better half in Fields’ next comedies It’s a Gift and Man on the Flying Trapeze. The best and most earnest performance is provided by Adrienne Ames who as Princess Lescaboura sees beneath Fields’ bluster to the kind man underneath and becomes the springboard for the second half of the film. Joan Marsh as faithful, loving daughter Pauline and Buster Crabbe as her ardent suitor make a lovely couple. Mention has to be made of prune-faced Nora Cecil as the town gossip who finds Fields completely repugnant (not for the last time) and Del Henderson as the town mayor who can’t believe the local drunk is being celebrated by a visiting princess.
Video: 4/5
3D Rating: NA
The film’s original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.37:1 is faithfully rendered in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. The film looks very good in a transfer being touted as a new 2K master. Grayscale is generally strong with excellent black levels, and sharpness is quite good, too. There are some dust specks and digs here and there, but they’re minor and not intrusive to the film’s many pleasures. The movie has been divided into 9 chapters.
Audio: 4/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound mix is quite typical of its era. Dialogue has been recorded well and has been mixed with music and sound effects quite professionally. You’ll hear some intermittent soft hiss here and there, but it fades in the later reels, and there are no problems with pops, crackle, or flutter.
Special Features: 1.5/5
An Affectionate Look at W.C. Fields (51:52, SD): Canadian comedians Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster host a special devoted to celebrating the uniqueness of W. C. Fields. They show clips of some of his famous billiard, golf, and poker routines from both Paramount and Universal era films including You’re Telling Me, It’s a Gift, Poppy, Mississippi, You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man, The Bank Dick, My Little Chickadee, Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, and If I Had a Million and feature co-stars like Baby LeRoy, Mae West, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Bing Crosby, Una Merkel, and Alison Skipworth.
W.C. Fields/Kino Lorber Trailers: The Old Fashioned Way, You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man, The Bank Dick, My Little Chickadee, Alice in Wonderland.
Overall: 3.5/5
There’s a little more plot than usual for a W.C. Fields film with Erle C. Kenton’s You’re Telling Me! but it doesn’t prevent the master comedian from offering some of his best routines for our ready consumption. This new Kino Lorber Blu-ray release earns an easy recommendation.
You’re Telling Me
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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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