You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (1939)

You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man
Directed by George Marshall
Written by George Marion Jr et al and story by W.C. Fields (as Charles Bogle)
1939/USA
Universal Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Whipsnade: As my dear old grandfather Litvak said (just before they swung the trap), he said “You can’t cheat an honest man. Never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump.”[/box]

I’m not a huge W.C. Fields fan, but this movie is a cut above his lesser work.

Larson E. (get it?) Whipsnade (Fields) runs a carnival sideshow and is arrears on wages to his performers.  Charlie McCarthy complains constantly to ventriloquist The Great Edgar (Edgar Bergen) about this.  But Edgar is not willing to quit once he sets eyes on Whipsnade’s lovely daughter.

Fields with Eddie “Rochester” Anderson

I found several of the bits amusing if not laugh out loud funny.  The insults exchanged between Fields and the dummy are cute.  Your mileage may vary depending on your feelings about Fields and/or Bergen, whose routines occupy about 90% of the film.

Clip – the ping-pong match