Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941)

Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
Directed by Edward Cline
Written by John T. Neville and Prescott Chaplin; original story by “Otis Criblecoblis” (W.C. Fields)
1941/USA
Universal Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] His Niece: [Last Lines] My Uncle Bill. But I still love him.[/box]

I don’t know why I continue to watch these things and I don’t have it in me to say a bad word against Fields’s last hurrah.

The Great Man (Fields as himself) has a loving niece (Gloria Jean) who is a singer trying to break into the movies.  Fields shops a fantastical script to a movie studio executive (Franklin Pangborn) with a part for her in it.  We see the script played out.  It’s centerpiece has Fields falling from the veranda (!) of an airplane into a hidden land populated by a mother (Margaret Dumont) and her daughter, who has been raised in the absence of men.

Poor Fields looks tired and ill in this one.  He’s still game though.

This was the last movie to star Fields; his remaining film work had him in supporting roles or cameos, as his health began to decline.

Clip -scene with waitress