“W. C. FIELDS AND THE TERMITE’S FLOPHOUSE”

By Raymond Benson

By 1939, comic superstar W. C. Fields (real name William Claude Dukenfield) had a love-hate relationship with Hollywood. While he was still something of a box office draw and enjoyed immense popularity, Fields’ relationship with the bottle was causing more problems for the actor, and he had lost his contract with Paramount, the home of his earlier talkies. After a resurgence in admiration due to radio broadcasts with ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (and his dummy partner, Charlie McCarthy), Fields signed a new contract with Universal. The first picture out of the gate was a team-up with Fields and Bergen/McCarthy.

You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man can’t be counted among Fields’ best pictures, but it’s entertaining and funny enough. It is arguable that Bergen and McCarthy steal the show based on Bergen’s charm and good looks, and Bergen’s is the most likable character in the story. While Fields has some great signature lines in the picture, Bergen and McCarthy have a great deal of funny dialogue.

The movie’s story is by Fields (using the pseudonym Charles Bogle), with a screenplay by Everett Freeman, Richard Mack, and George Marion, Jr. George Marshall received screen credit as director, although historians have claimed that Marshall and Fields did not get along. Hence, Edward F. Cline was brought in to exclusively work with Fields on his scenes; Cline was then hired to direct Fields’ next films with Universal. Furthermore, second unit director B. Reeves Eason did more than his share of action and chase sequences. Remarkably, the film, with three directors, came out all right.

Fields is Larsen E. Whipsnade (Larsen E.? Get it?), a traveling circus proprietor who cheats his own staff by not paying them. The law is after him, too, and the circus is one step away from bankruptcy. He has grown children not involved in the circus—Vicky (Constance Moore) and Phineas (John Arledge). Phineas wants Vicky to marry wealthy but boring socialite Roger Bel-Goodie (James Bush) so that Phineas can get a job in Roger’s company, but Vicky isn’t keen. When she visits her father at the circus, Vicky meets Edgar Bergen (playing himself, as one of the circus acts), who is never without his dummy, Charlie. Edgar immediately falls for Vicky, and while Whipsnade has no problem with Edgar, he can’t stand Charlie (a “termite’s flophouse!”). Vicky eventually agrees to marry Roger in order to become wealthy enough to save her father’s circus. During the final half hour of the film, Vicky and Roger’s engagement party at the posh Bel-Goodie mansion becomes a chaotic disruption as Whipsnade manages to insult and frighten the elder Bel-Goodies, while Edgar/Charlie have been cast adrift in a weather balloon. Will Vicky and Edgar get together? Will the circus be saved? Who cares, it’s all just a vehicle for the brilliance of W. C. Fields’ comedic antics and Edgar Bergen’s talent at ventriloquism.

Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray 2K master looks and sounds fine, certainly an upgrade from previous DVD releases. There is an informative and humorous audio commentary by film historian Michael Schlesinger, plus the theatrical trailers for this and other Kino Lorber releases.

You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man is for fans of W. C. Fields, Edgar Bergen, and late 1930s Hollywood comedy. As Larsen E. Whipsnade’s grandfather Litvak used to say, “You can’t cheat an honest man. Never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump.”

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