Man on the Flying Trapeze
Director: Clyde Bruckman and W.C. Fields
Year Released: 1935
Rating: 3.5
Much-abused "memory expert" Fields - badgered by his wife, his mother-in-law and his purposely unemployed brother-in-law - just wants to take an afternoon off to watch a wrestling match, but he loses his first row ticket, has trouble with the police and can't tell a decent lie if his life depended on it. It's classic W.C. from the very beginning, as he has to sneak off to the bathroom in the middle of the night to get a snort, then deal with burglars in his basement, then ends up in jail: as Rodney Dangerfield would say fifty years later, a guy just can't get no respect. Unlike the more devilish Fields characters - you know, the ones that kick children and skip out on bills - this one is pathetic if redeemable: he's a very good worker and loyal to his only daughter. That he's granted a happy ending is only fair.
