MovieChat Forums > Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941) Discussion > This movie is awesome

This movie is awesome

posted 18 years ago by classicmoviecomedy
7 replies | jump to latest

Seriously-this is just a hilarious movie. Totally wild and inventive, and totall funny. I still wonder how a film like this got made by a major studio in 1941. Fields' one of the very few full-blooded artists working in film during that time, though. Every aspect of every Fields film is pure Fields. It's hard to think of any other filmmaker who invested more of himself in every aspect of his films. This one is no exception-I loved the self-parody in the beginning involving THE BANK DICK. And the scenes with Franklin Pangborn have a great zany energy between them-I could almost see Jerry Lewis and Del Moore doing the same scenes 20 years later. What a brilliant movie. Too bad it's not on DVD.

Matt

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] rstephen52 17 years ago

Even though the continuity of "Never Give A Sucker An Even Break" is a little uneven, it is nonetheless Fields at the apex of his movie career. It is a shame that he went over to Universal Studios so late in life (and when he was also irreversibly ill from years of overindulging in "adult beverages"). Unlike Paramount, here he had more control and an outlet for his boundless, immesurable creativity.

[–] cabbageboy316 17 years ago

Fields' Universal work is really bizarre compared to the more normal Paramount movies (International House notwithstanding). His main 3 movies for Universal would likely make for great drunk/stoned flicks if one were so inclined.

[–] lastyear11 17 years ago

Although it has some good bits this is not one of my favorite Fields films.Too many dragged out musical bits with Gloria Jean that date very poorly.Similar musical interludes would also hurt many later Marx Brothers films.

[–] bmoore-13 17 years ago

Agreed, lastyear11. Any time Fields is on the screen it's hard to not watch him. He can be funny standing silently and still. While I like this movie (I gave it an 8), it pales next to The Bank Dick, It's a Gift, and You Can't Cheat an Honest Man. As another poster writes, when Fields is not on the screen, it gets pretty tedious (and the film is only 70 minutes long). But even when Fields is on the screen, he is far from his best. There are some memorable sequences, though. The jump out of the airplane after the booze is great, and he has some wonderful lines. This is better than My Little Chickadee, but I can't think of weaker later film of his. On the other hand, I wouldn't trade this one so-so film by the Great Man for all the films of Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell and Rob Schnieder combined!

[–] LawrenceJoseSinclair 8 years ago

Agreed!! the best WC Fields, film, the more proposterous the story the funnier it got!! makes the others look slow

My only regret in life is that I'm not someone else - Woody Allen

[–] w22nuschler 7 years ago

I love this film as well. I love Fields in the film, but Gloria Jean is wonderful as well. You can just see how much she loved the man. I just purchased her book because I had read she has many wonderful stories about Fields.