Director: D.W. Griffith
Year Released: 1925
Rating: 3.0
Juggler and confidence artist Eustance McGargle (W.C. Fields) volunteers to be a surrogate father for a sprightly young lady (Carol Dempster) whose late mother ran off with the circus - as she matures, she works with 'Pop' on his stage act(s) and even does a little dancing herself ... until McGargle's Three-Card Monte routine has him nearly arrested and her actually arrested. While hardly the best picture Griffith turned out, this one is a sleeper hit aided immensely by (a younger) Fields working in some of his famous vaudeville bits (all Dempster has to do is mouth the word "Pop" on screen and mouth the director off-screen) while Griffith bolts through the script, ending with a courtroom trial, a car chase, a courtroom escape, a game of hide-and-seek with the authorities, a dramatic revelation, a hastily resolved trial and, of course, marriage and happiness (why not?). Fields' character, too, is given a chance to carry on his deceitful ways: Third-Card Monte ... as a realtor. That sucker got more than an even break....
