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YOU CAN'T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN |
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Universal, 1939.
Directed by Eddie Cline and George Marshall. Camera: Milton
Krasner. With
W.C. Fields, Edgar Bergen, Constance Moore, James Bush,
Mary Forbes, Thurston Hall, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, John
Arledge, Edward Brophy, Arthur Hohl, Princess Baba, Blacaman, Jan Duggan. |
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Circus owner Larson E. Whipsnade, a shoestring P. T. Barnum, is pursued by a
barrage of sheriffs bearing summonses. One day, Whipsnade's daughter
Victoria visits from college and meets ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his
dummy, Charlie McCarthy. While aloft in a hot air balloon, Vickie and
Edgar fall in love but, when Vickie learns of her father's dire financial
circumstances, she agrees to marry wealthy socialite Roger Bel-Goodie,
although she does not love him.
As Vickie drives off to wed Roger, Whipsnade
cuts the anchor rope to Edgar and Charlie's balloon, sending them aloft.
Desperate, the pair parachute to the ground, land in Vickie's speeding car
and are all arrested by the police.
As the wedding party awaits the tardy bride,
Whipsnade arrives in a horse drawn chariot and proceeds to infuriate the
snobbish Bel-Goodies with his boorish behavior. After being released
on bail, Vickie rushes to the Bel-Goodie mansion to find her prospective
in-laws locked in a battle of insults with her father. When the
sheriff appears to serve Whipsnade with yet another summons, Vickie, her
brother Phineas and father leap into the chariot and speed away, passing a
bicycling Edgar. As Vickie shouts to Edgar that she is free to marry
him, he peddles his bicycle in pursuit of the chariot. |
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American Film Institute
Catalog
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W.C. Fields is at his best as he portrays the quick-witted, mean-spirited,
degenerate drunk Larson E. Whipsnade. Whipsnade runs a circus and is
constantly on the run from the law as a result of financial troubles.
In addition to his legal difficulties, Whipsnade despises Edgar Bergen and
his dummy Charlie McCarthy, who are the only decent act in the circus.
What makes matters worse is that Whipsnade's doting daughter, Vicki
(Constance Moore), falls hard for the charming Bergen—even
as the fabulously wealthy Roger Bel-Goodie is asking for her hand in
marriage.
Somehow all of this leads to a hilarious ping-pong showdown between
Whipsnade and one of the Bel-Goodies. The story, written by W.C. Fields
under a pseudonym, and the biting repartee between McCarthy and Fields, make You Can't Cheat an Honest Man a classic comedy.
Fields was never the easiest star to handle, and
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man required the work of two directors—Eddie
Cline directed all of Fields' scenes, while George Marshall directed the
rest of the film. |
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Rotten Tomatoes |
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