Man on the Flying Trapeze

Man on the Flying Trapeze
August 3, 1935
Paramount
Comedy
DVD
B-

Well, this movie surprised me.  My expectations were low when I saw that Kathleen Howard again plays Fields's nagging wife, but there's more to her character here, although she's not given as much screen time.  The second half of the movie, with all the complications of Fields's job as a memory expert, his desire to see a wrestling match, and his family troubles (as usual, only the roughly 20-year-old daughter, here named Hope, is loyal to him), is much better than the first, although I can see how that first half sets things up.  The direction, by Fields himself, has much more energy than anything since International House, which admittedly was not just a Fields movie.  There are some nice comic touches, like the way his boss Peabody pronounces "decades" like "decayeds" and "condolences" like you've never heard it before.  Fields even gets a few lines past the censors, like "Nuts!" while stepping on walnuts, and calling a nosegay "nose candy."

Carlotta Monti, Fields's real-life live-in lover, does a fine job playing his secretary, even telling off Peabody, and she would play a receptionist in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.  Lew Kelly and Billy Bletcher were both in The Old Fashioned Way.  Jack Baxley would go on to Double Wedding, both Helen Dickson and Sarah Edwards to It's a Wonderful Life.  And one of the wrestlers is none other than future "star" of Plan Nine from Outer Space Tor Johnson!

Since it's a Paramount comedy, what does the title mean?  I thought that the classic song would be one that the burglars (one played by Walter Brennan, the other of course Tammany Young), the one friendly cop Fields meets, and Fields would sing in their basement quartet, but they don't.  I think the title is meant to be an ironic comment on how Fields's Ambrose Wolfinger isn't daring or young, nor does he float through the air (or life) with the greatest of ease, but there's something quietly heroic about him.  I think this is the first of his movies where I actually cared about his character.

It's a Gift

It's a Gift
November 30, 1934
Paramount
Comedy
DVD
C

Despite McLeod as director, this is even more slow-moving, and less funny, than the other two Fields movies I have from '34.  It comes close to being amusing in the "picnic on private property" scene, but nothing builds.  Baby LeRoy is given less to work with than in Old Fashioned Way, and even a very talented toddler can't do much with molasses in two movies.  Kathleen Howard, who was in OLW, plays Fields's nagging wife and gets far too much screen time.  And it feels unbalanced that so much of the film is set before they actually get to the "orange ranch" in California, and then the day is saved with much less set-up than when Fields's invention sells in You're Telling Me!  It's hard to believe that this is considered one of Fields's best.

Fields regulars include Eddie Baker, Del Henderson, and Josephine Whittell.  Some of the cast would go on to appear in Marx Brothers movies:  Jerry Mandy in A Night at the Opera, Edith Kingdon in A Day at the Races, and Diana Lewis in Go West.

You're Telling Me!

You're Telling Me!
May 18, 1934
Paramount
Comedy
DVD
C+

Slow and meandering though this movie is, it did make me chuckle a couple times.  I was more interested in the characters besides the W.C. Fields "hero" Sam Bisbee, particularly Joan Marsh as Sam's daughter Pauline and Adrienne Ames as the Princess.  I also liked seeing the small-town gossip, although there's no real pay-off.  I definitely could've done without the tedious golf game, which goes on for several minutes but never gets beyond the first swing.

I'm limited in the number of tags I can put on a post, so here are some people who would go on to appear in other Fields films:  Eddie Baker, Dorothy Bay, Nora Cecil, Dell Henderson (as Del), James B. "Pop" Kenton, Edward LeSaint, Robert McKenzie, and Josephine Whittell.

Also, Frank O'Connor had already appeared in International House.  Florence Enright, who plays Mrs. Kelly here, was the seamstress in Little Women.  George McQuarrie was the first judge, Frederick Sullivan the second judge, in Duck Soup.  Edmund Mortimer was in Design for Living and Flying Down to Rio.  And, yes, that's a pre-Flash-Gordon Buster Crabbe as Pauline's boyfriend.

Although this isn't a Marx Brothers movie, it is a Paramount '30s comedy, so I should explain the title.  Bisbee doesn't realize that his friend is a real princess, and he says they really put one over on his town.  She replies, "You're telling me!"