Your response to "Never Give A Sucker An Even Break" will largely depend on your taste for W. C. Fields and / or surrealism. If you like at least one (or both) of the above, you'll probably be in heaven; if you don't, you probably won't even finish it. The film is both self-deprecating and self-serving; Fields is not afraid to make fun of himself, but it seems like he felt that, at this stage of his career, he didn't even need a script anymore: he could just show up in front of the camera, say some funny lines (his delivery is slower than usual, probably due to health problems), place himself (and others) in a series of inexplicable situations, and the audience would have no choice but to roll around on the floor laughing. This stream-of-consciousness, breaking-of-the-fourth-wall style may seem revolutionary, until you remember that the Marx Brothers had already done that sort of thing 10 years earlier (Groucho talking to the audience in "Horse Feathers", as Chico is about to start playing the piano: "I have to stay here, but there is no reason YOU folks shouldn't go out into the lobby until this thing blows over!"). Speaking of the Marx Brothers, their frequent co-star Margaret Dumont also appears here, but her role is disappointingly small; and the young Gloria Jean, who has a terrific voice but her songs have about as much to do with anything else as....anything else, co-starred with Groucho in his later vehicle "Copacabana". The film does end with a (literal) bang, though: a car chase that features some incredibly dangerous and accomplished stunt driving. **1/2 out of 4.
Review of Never Give a Sucker an Even Break
