Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (Blu-ray)

In his last starring role, comedy legend W.C. Fields (It’s a Gift, My Little Chickadee, The Bank Dick) plays himself in a takeoff on the eccentricities of filmmaking. It’s a harum-scarum collection of song, slapstick and thumbnail sketches, the likes of which defy dramatic law! The focus of the story is on Fields’ presentation of an imaginative script for a new picture at Esoteric Pictures, Inc. The script turns out to be a vehicle for himself—a hero who makes Superman look like a wimp. It’s a Fields-day on a vaudeville bill, with the bulbous-nosed star in every act! In one he is a Russian mujik sampling fermented goat’s milk; elsewhere he drops 2,000 feet from a cliff; in another he goes a-wooing in a tailcoat requiring two flunkies to carry the tails. He even embarks on a frantic car chase, in vintage Keystone Cops style. The mayhem was staged by the great Edward F. Cline, the director of many classic Buster Keaton shorts and features, including One Week, Convict 13, The Haunted House, The Boat and Three Ages.