Don't give a fool a chance

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Movie
German title Don't give a fool a chance
Original title Never give a sucker at even break
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1941
length 77 minutes
Rod
Director Edward F. Cline
script WC Fields (under the pseudonym "Otis Criblecoblis")
production Jack J. Gross for
Universal Pictures
music Charles Previn
camera Charles Van Enger
cut Arthur Hilton
occupation

Hollywood plot

Script plot

Don't give a fool a chance (or don't give a fool a chance ) is a 1941 American comedy directed by Edward F. Cline . The film star in its last leading role is WC Fields , who also wrote the screenplay.

action

WC Fields more or less embodies himself in this film, an actor and screenwriter in Hollywood. In front of his film studio, Esoteric Pictures, you can see him admiring a poster from his previous film The Bank Detective . Fields' niece Gloria Jean is also an emerging star at Esoteric Pictures. However, this has its price: When shooting her film, Gloria has to record some idiotic songs against her wishes, because the incompetent studio boss Mr. Pangborn demands it. Pangborn later receives a visit from Fields in his office, who introduces him to his latest script for a film project. Pangborn reads through the completely illogical film script, the content of which also forms the main part of the film:

Fields travels on a plane with his beloved niece Gloria Jean to sell nutmegs in Mexico. On board he causes all kinds of unrest and meets other eccentric passengers such as a tall, aggressive Turk or a nervous Englishman. When Fields was sitting on the - open - observation deck of the plane in the morning, he accidentally dropped his beloved whiskey bottle . Fields jumps after the bottle from the observation deck, catches it and then lands completely unscathed in the "Nest", a lonely villa on a cliff. The “nest” is inhabited by Ouliotta Hemogloben, a charming young woman, and her cynical mother, Mrs. Hemogloben. The mother had brought her daughter to the cliff when she was a baby because she did not want her to meet men later. Fields takes advantage of Ouliotta's inexperience by selling her kissing as a "game". When Ouliotta's not very handsome mother also wants to "play along" with the kissing, however, he fled down the cliff by pulley . He arrives in the nearby village, where he tells other men about Ouliotta's beauty and wealth in the local pub (only later does he mention her good character). While a young engineer can climb the "nest" and finally win Ouliotta's heart, Fields is content with Ouliotta's mother and proposes to her. On the other hand, he throws a love rival named Leon down the cliff. His niece Gloria Jean, who had meanwhile been very worried about Fields, now appears. She manages to dissuade Fields from having the money wedding with the nasty mother. Jean and Fields secretly disappear from the nest together.

At this point, producer Pangborn breaks off reading the insane script and orders Fields to leave the studio premises as soon as possible. Gloria Jean realizes what was done to her "Uncle Bill". She threatens Pangborn that if her uncle is fired, she will also leave the studio. Gloria is reunited with her uncle and they make plans to travel together. While Gloria is just buying some clothes in the store, Fields rams a policeman's car with his car. A middle-aged hysterical lady appears who wants to be taken to the hospital for her granddaughter to be born. Fields helps the woman and races with her on an adventurous trip to the hospital, while at the same time his life is threatened several times and causes a great deal of traffic chaos. When he finally arrived at the hospital in his battered car, his niece Gloria also appears. She smiles and tells the audience about her uncle: "My Uncle Bill ... but I still love him!"

background

WC Fields also wrote the screenplay for the film under the pseudonym Otis Criblecoblis . The original title comes from two earlier Fields films. In the film Poppy (1936) he says to 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 the film You Can 't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) he tells a customer about his grandfather's last words: “You can't cheat an honest man; never give a sucker an even break, or smarten up a chump. “However, Fields didn't want the film title Never give a sucker an even break; it was the producers at Universal Pictures who wanted him. Fields originally wanted to self-ironically call the film The Great Man .

The 15-year-old singer and actress Gloria Jean, who was under contract with Universal, played more or less herself. She sings four songs in the film: Estrellita in Spanish, then the lyrics to the voices of spring by Johann Strauss, son and also Hot Cha Cha and the Russian song Black Eyes . With Leon Errol and Franklin Pangborn, Fields, who largely had a free hand in casting, cast two of his favorite comedians and personal friends in supporting roles. Anne Nagel appears in the opening scene as Gloria's mother "Madame Gorgeaus", but she does not appear any further during the course of the film. Allegedly Fields should have planned the death of Gloria's mother in the script, so that as an uncle he would have had full responsibility for the youth. The actress Carlotta Monti makes a brief appearance as a receptionist, she was Fields' girlfriend from 1933 until his death.

With Never give a sucker an even break , Fields also criticizes the studio system in Hollywood at the time . Franklin Pangborn's film producer is an incompetent man, little respected even by his staff, who has no sense of the script of Fields' character. Instead, the producer insists at the beginning of the conversation that his wife should definitely play the leading role. He also pokes fun at the Hays Code censorship, which was common at the time. In one scene, Fields, who is usually hard-drinking, is not sitting in a bar, but in a milk bar and comments with a glance at the viewer: "This was supposed to be a saloon, but the censor cut it out!" Play saloon, but the censor cut it out! ")

With his surreal script, Fields got into a dispute not only with the producers of Universal, but also with the controllers of the Hays Code , who criticized the sexual innuendos and allusions in particular. Universal, contrary to the agreement with Fields, clearly intervened in the script and had it rewritten. Fields and his director Edward F. Cline ignored the changed script, however, which the producers did not notice, at least until the end of the shooting. After this dispute, Fields' contract with Universal was not renewed. Until his death in 1946, he only returned to the camera in guest roles.

Reviews

When it was published, the reviews were rather mixed, with a gap of three decades, Der Spiegel wrote:

“Once he was allowed to make a film 'how I want it'. Never Give a Sucker at Even Break became, according to The New York Times, 'perhaps the most perfect free film farce ever made'. (...) It is never quite clear which film is playing: the 'Sucker', a completely different production or the story that Fields wants to sell. Fields put all the tried and tested gags into the absurd plot. He cheats and is cheated, he hunts for liquor, money and success, and every now and then a boulder falls on his head. "

- Der Spiegel No. 53/1971

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941) Notes. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Jeff Stafford: Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941) Articles. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved May 9, 2019 .
  3. ↑ A chance for the sucker . In: Der Spiegel . No. 53/1971 , December 27, 1971, pp. 90–91 ( online at Spiegel.de [accessed on May 9, 2019]).