''Never Give a Sucker an Even Break'' (known in some international releases as ''What a Man!'') is a 1941
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
starring
W. C. Fields
William Claude Dukenfield (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946), better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler, and writer. Fields's comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist who remained a sympathe ...
. Fields also wrote the original story, under the pseudonym "Otis Criblecoblis." Fields plays himself, promoting an extravagant screenplay he has written. As he describes the script to a skeptical producer, the often surreal scenes are shown.
The title is derived from lines from two earlier films. In ''
Poppy
A poppy is a flowering plant in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. Poppies are herbaceous plants, often grown for their colourful flowers. One species of poppy, ''Papaver somniferum'', is the source of the narcotic drug opi ...
'' (1936), he tells his daughter, "If we should ever separate, my little plum, I want to give you just one bit of fatherly advice: Never give a sucker an even break!" In ''
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man
''You Can't Cheat an Honest Man'' is a 1939 American comedy film directed by George Marshall and Edward F. Cline and starring W. C. Fields. Fields also wrote the story on which the film is based under the name Charles Bogle.
Plot
Circus propr ...
'' (1939), he tells a customer that his grandfather's last words, "just before they sprung the trap", were, "You can't cheat an honest man; never give a sucker an even break, or smarten up a chump."
Fields fought with studio producers, directors, and writers over the content of his films. He was determined to make a movie his way, with his own script and staging, and his choice of supporting players. Universal finally gave him the chance, and ''Never Give a Sucker an Even Break'' was the result. Fields hand-picked most of the supporting cast. He chose Universal's young singing star
Gloria Jean
Gloria Jean (born Gloria Jean Schoonover; April 14, 1926 – August 31, 2018) was an American actress and singer who starred or co-starred in 26 feature films from 1939 to 1959, and made numerous radio, television, stage, and nightclub app ...
to play his niece, and hired two of his favorite comedians,
Leon Errol
Leon Errol (born Leonce Errol Sims, July 3, 1881 – October 12, 1951) was an Australian-American comedian and actor in the United States, popular in the first half of the 20th century for his appearances in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in film ...
and
Franklin Pangborn
Franklin Pangborn (January 23, 1889 – July 20, 1958) was an American comedic character actor famous for playing small but memorable roles with comic flair. He appeared in many Preston Sturges movies as well as the W. C. Fields films '' Interna ...
, to play supporting roles.
Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont (born Daisy Juliette Baker; October 20, 1882 – March 6, 1965) was an American stage and film actress. She is best remembered as the comic foil to the Marx Brothers in seven of their films; Groucho Marx called her "practically ...
, best known as the
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act that was successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in motion pictures from 1905 to 1949. Five of the Marx Brothers' thirteen feature films were selected by the American Film Institute (AFI) ...
' matronly foil, was cast as the haughty "Mrs. Hemogloben." Fields was paid $125,000 for his performance, and $25,000 for his original story.
Plot
At the Hollywood studios of Esoteric Pictures, W. C. Fields, playing himself, is seen admiring a billboard advertising his previous film, ''
The Bank Dick
''The Bank Dick'', released as ''The Bank Detective'' in the United Kingdom, is a 1940 American comedy film starring W. C. Fields. Set in Lompoc, California, Fields plays Egbert Sousé, a drunk who accidentally thwarts a bank robbery and ends up ...
'' (1940). He encounters various hecklers and minor calamities, including a rude, sassy diner waitress (
Jody Gilbert
Jody Gilbert (March 18, 1916 – February 3, 1979) was an American actress.
Biography
Gilbert was born in Fort Worth, Texas. She studied voice and acting at Columbia University, and was a graduate of Pasadena Playhouse.
One of her first notabl ...
). His devoted niece, Gloria Jean, is on her way to rehearse some songs at the studio, where she demonstrates her classically trained
coloratura soprano. Fields himself is also on the premises, to pitch a script to Esoteric producer Franklin Pangborn.
Pangborn reads through the script, which comes to life in a series of scenes. Fields and Gloria Jean are flying to an exotic location on an airplane, which Fields specifies has an open-air rear observatory platform. Fields has run-ins with a couple of eccentric characters in which he tangles with a large, angry man in the lower berth and manages to hit him with a mallet and convince him that someone else did it. At one point Gloria Jean asks Uncle Bill why he never married, and he answers, "I was in love with a beautiful blonde once. She drove me to drink. That's the one thing I'm indebted to her for." When Fields's flask falls out of the plane, Fields jumps out after it and his niece cries out in horror. But he lands safely in a "nest" high atop a cliff, a home populated by a beautiful, young, naive girl (Susan Miller) and her cynical mother (Margaret Dumont). Meanwhile, the plane lands, and Gloria Jean sings a traditional Russian song to a group of peasants. She reunites with Fields in the village, where Fields learns that Dumont is wealthy. He returns to Dumont's mountaintop retreat, only to find a romantic rival (Leon Errol). Fields is about to marry Dumont when Gloria Jean takes him aside and convinces him that this is a bad idea, and they make a swift exit.
At this point, Pangborn has had enough of the absurdity of the script and tells Fields to leave the studio. Fields goes to an ice cream parlor to drown his sorrows. In a rare aside to the camera, Fields remarks, "This scene is supposed to be in a saloon, but the censor cut it out!"
At the studio, when Gloria Jean learns Fields has been sent away, she tells the flustered Pangborn that if her uncle is fired, then she quits. She and Fields make plans to travel, and she goes into a shop to buy some new clothes. Just then, a middle-aged matron (
Kay Deslys
Kay Deslys (28 September 1899, in London – 15 August 1974 in West Covina, California) was an English comedy actress, based in the United States from the 1920s on.
Born as Kathleen Herbert in London, one of her earliest roles was in Charlie Cha ...
) asks for help getting to the maternity hospital, where her daughter is about to give birth. Fields volunteers, thinking the matron herself is in distress, and she takes the back seat of his car. He speeds her through the streets and expressways of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, where he tangles with pedestrians, cars, and a hook-and-ladder fire truck. When his passenger passes out, Fields drives even more urgently. He arrives at the hospital, wrecking his car in the process, and his passenger is shaken but unhurt. Gloria Jean, who has just arrived by taxi, asks Uncle Bill if he's all right. He replies, "Good thing I didn't have an accident. I'd never have gotten here." Gloria Jean smiles and says to the audience, "My Uncle Bill... but I still love him!"
Songs
Gloria Jean sings the following songs in this film:
*"Estrellita" ("Little Star") - in Spanish, music and lyrics by M. M. Ponce
*"
Voices of Spring" -- music by
Johann Strauss II
Johann Baptist Strauss II (25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (german: links=no, Sohn), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed ov ...
, with special lyrics in English
*"Hot Cha Cha"—nonsense song by Universal's musical director
Charles Previn
*"
"Очи чёрные" ("Ochi chyornye" or "Dark Eyes") - in Russian, traditional Russian folk song
Production
Fields' preferred title for the film was ''The Great Man'', which had also been his original title for ''
The Bank Dick
''The Bank Dick'', released as ''The Bank Detective'' in the United Kingdom, is a 1940 American comedy film starring W. C. Fields. Set in Lompoc, California, Fields plays Egbert Sousé, a drunk who accidentally thwarts a bank robbery and ends up ...
'', but this title was once again rejected by Universal.
When the title was changed, Fields was afraid that "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break" would not fit on theater marquees, and it would be abbreviated to "W. C. Fields - Sucker".
Fields' first version of the script was only 12 pages long. The studio told him to expand it, which Fields' did, to 96 pages. This was still not enough, so Fields hired screenwriters
John T. Neville and Prescott Chaplin to expand it. This version came in at 156 pages.
This was the version of the script which was rejected in April 1941 by the
Hays Office
The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
because it was "filled with vulgar and suggestive scenes and dialogue" and had "innumerable jocular references to drinking and liquor," the producer was referred to as a "pansy", and the Fields character ogled women's breasts and legs.
The censors also objected to "all dialogue and showing of bananas and pineapples" which they felt was "a play upon an obscene story."
A revised script was approved two months later.
The studio hired a number of writers to continue work on the script, none of them billed, but Fields hated their version, calling it "the worst script I ever read." He was inclined to "throw it in their faces", but director
Eddie Cline told him not to—he would shoot Fields's own script, and the studio would be none the wiser, which turned out to be the case.
Aftermath
After the positive reception of Fields' previous Universal picture, ''The Bank Dick'', the studio had already touted ''The Great Man'' as one of its major features of the year, to be released during the holiday season of 1941. "That was the plan until the studio heads saw the film," reported Gloria Jean's biographers. "In late September they conveniently forgot about their bonded schedule, changed the title from ''The Great Man'' back to ''Never Give a Sucker an Even Break'', and moved the release date up to October 10, placing the Fields film among a succession of lesser releases... Universal, deciding that this would be Fields's last picture at the studio, gave a choice November release date to
Olsen and Johnson instead. ''Sucker'' became a non-event." Parts of the film were reshot without Fields's participation, and the film was re-edited and rearranged into a crazy-quilt of comedy sequences. "By keeping the film as nonsensical as possible, like
lsen and Johnson's''
Hellzapoppin''', Universal could bridge Fields's chaotic continuity and gloss over his occasional absences." The outrageously zany film played to mixed reviews but is today considered one of Fields's classics. It has been called "a thinly disguised attack on the Hollywood studio system."
[Stafford, Jeff (ndg]
"Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941)"
TCM.com
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of Atl ...
Upon release, columnist Ted Strauss in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' said, "We are not yet quite sure that this latest opus is even a movie – no such harum-scarum collection of song, slapstick and thumbnail sketches has defied dramatic law in recent history. We are more certain that at its worst the film is extravagantly bad, no less that William Claude is wonderful," further stating, "Yes, some parts of the film you will find incomprehensibly silly. Probably you also will laugh your head off."
This was Fields's last starring film. By this time, he was 61 years old and in declining health, for a lifetime of alcoholism had taken its toll. Fields often had to recuperate in his dressing room between takes.
He was already planning his next film for Universal, with Gloria Jean and
Anne Nagel
Anne Nagel (born Anna Marie Dolan; September 29, 1915 – July 6, 1966) was an American actress. She played in adventures, mysteries, and comedies for 25 years. She also appeared in television series in the 1950s. One book described her as "one ...
from the cast of ''Sucker'' rejoining him,
[MacGillivray, p. 71.] but after the lukewarm performance of ''Sucker'', Universal dropped him. The studio had the increasingly popular
Abbott and Costello under contract and no longer needed Fields.
[ Mankiewicz, Ben (January 3, 2018) Outro to ]Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...
presentation of the film
Cast
*
W. C. Fields
William Claude Dukenfield (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946), better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler, and writer. Fields's comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist who remained a sympathe ...
as The Great Man, W. C. Fields/Uncle Bill
*
Gloria Jean
Gloria Jean (born Gloria Jean Schoonover; April 14, 1926 – August 31, 2018) was an American actress and singer who starred or co-starred in 26 feature films from 1939 to 1959, and made numerous radio, television, stage, and nightclub app ...
as His Niece, Gloria Jean
*
Leon Errol
Leon Errol (born Leonce Errol Sims, July 3, 1881 – October 12, 1951) was an Australian-American comedian and actor in the United States, popular in the first half of the 20th century for his appearances in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in film ...
as His Rival, Leon
*Billy Lenhart and Kenneth Brown as His Hecklers (as Butch and Buddy)
*
Margaret Dumont
Margaret Dumont (born Daisy Juliette Baker; October 20, 1882 – March 6, 1965) was an American stage and film actress. She is best remembered as the comic foil to the Marx Brothers in seven of their films; Groucho Marx called her "practically ...
as Mrs. Hemogloben
*Susan Miller as Ouliotta Delight Hemogloben
*
Franklin Pangborn
Franklin Pangborn (January 23, 1889 – July 20, 1958) was an American comedic character actor famous for playing small but memorable roles with comic flair. He appeared in many Preston Sturges movies as well as the W. C. Fields films '' Interna ...
as the producer, Mr. Pangborn
*
Mona Barrie
Mona Barrie (born Mona Barlee Smith; 18 December 1909 – 27 June 1964) was an English-born actress, active on stage in Australia before establishing a career in the US, and in Hollywood films.
Career
Born Mona Barlee Smith in London to comedi ...
as the producer's wife, Mrs. Pangborn
*Charles Lang as the young engineer, Peter Carson
*
Anne Nagel
Anne Nagel (born Anna Marie Dolan; September 29, 1915 – July 6, 1966) was an American actress. She played in adventures, mysteries, and comedies for 25 years. She also appeared in television series in the 1950s. One book described her as "one ...
as Madame Gorgeous, Gloria Jean's mother
*
Nell O'Day
Nell O'Day (September 22, 1909 – January 3, 1989) was an accomplished American equestrian and B-movie actress of the 1930s and 1940s.
Biography
O'Day was born in Prairie Hill, Texas. Her father was an official with a railroad. Her firs ...
as salesgirl
*
Irving Bacon as Tom, the soda jerk
*
Jody Gilbert
Jody Gilbert (March 18, 1916 – February 3, 1979) was an American actress.
Biography
Gilbert was born in Fort Worth, Texas. She studied voice and acting at Columbia University, and was a graduate of Pasadena Playhouse.
One of her first notabl ...
as the waitress
*
Minerva Urecal
Minerva Urecal (born Florence Minerva Dunnuck; September 22, 1894 – February 26, 1966) was an American stage and radio performer as well as a character actress in Hollywood films and on various television series from the early 1950s to 1 ...
as Mrs. Pastromi, the cleaning woman
*
Emmett Vogan
Charles Emmett Vogan (September 27, 1893 – October 6, 1969) was an American actor with almost 500 film appearances from 1934 to 1954, making him, along with Bess Flowers, one of the most prolific film actors of all time.
In 1913, Vogan ...
as Steve Roberts, engineer
*
Carlotta Monti
Carlotta Monti (January 20, 1907 – December 8, 1993) was an American film actress, who was W. C. Fields' companion in his last years.
Born Carlotta Montijo in Los Angeles, California, Monti appeared in B-movies and uncredited bit parts inc ...
as Pangborn's receptionist
Uncredited:
*
Leon Belasco
Leon Belasco (born Leonid Simeonovich Berladsky; 11 October 1902 – 1 June 1988) was a Russian-American actor and musician who had a 60-year career in film and television from the 1920s to the 1980s, appearing in more than 100 films.
Musi ...
as Gloria Jean's accompanist
*
Dave Willock
David Willock (August 13, 1909 – November 12, 1990) was an American character actor. He appeared in 181 films and television series from 1939 to 1979.
Biography
Born in 1909, Willock began his professional career in vaudeville in 1931, teamin ...
as Johnson, the movie director
*
Jack Lipson
Jack "Tiny" Lipson (January 17, 1901 – November 28, 1947) was an American film actor. He appeared in over 85 films between 1927 and 1948.
Career
Lipson played character parts, and was usually uncredited. Due to his rotund, towering figure, Lip ...
as the Russian plane passenger
*
Claud Allister
Claud Allister (born William Claud Michael Palmer, 3 October 1888 – 26 July 1970) was an English actor with an extensive film career in both Britain and Hollywood, where he appeared in more than 70 films between 1929 and 1955.
Life and ...
as the British plane passenger
*
Kay Deslys
Kay Deslys (28 September 1899, in London – 15 August 1974 in West Covina, California) was an English comedy actress, based in the United States from the 1920s on.
Born as Kathleen Herbert in London, one of her earliest roles was in Charlie Cha ...
as Mrs. Wilson, visiting the hospital
*
Michael Visaroff
Michael Simeon Visaroff (December 18, 1889 – February 27, 1951) was a Russian American film character actor.
Biography
Visaroff was born Mikhail Semenonovich Vizarov ( Russian: Михаил Семёнович Визаров) in Moscow, ...
as a Russian peasant
*
Richard Alexander as a burly man
Sources:[ Introduction by Arthur Knight]
Cast notes:
*
Carlotta Monti
Carlotta Monti (January 20, 1907 – December 8, 1993) was an American film actress, who was W. C. Fields' companion in his last years.
Born Carlotta Montijo in Los Angeles, California, Monti appeared in B-movies and uncredited bit parts inc ...
, who plays Pangborn's receptionist, was Fields' mistress.
[ Mankiewicz, Ben (January 3, 2018) Intro to ]Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...
presentation of the film She later wrote an autobiography which was made into the 1976 film ''
W. C. Fields and Me'', which starred
Rod Steiger and
Valerie Perrine
Valerie Ritchie Perrine (born September 3, 1943) is an American actress. For her role as Honey Bruce in the 1974 film ''Lenny'', she won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles, the Cannes Film Festival Award for Bes ...
.
References
External links
*
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Never Give A Sucker An Even Break
1941 films
1941 comedy films
American black-and-white films
Films about filmmaking
Films directed by Edward F. Cline
Universal Pictures films
American comedy films
Films about con artists
1940s English-language films
1940s American films