NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK (1941)

Cast

Plot

W.C. Fields plays himself, having a typical day at his studio, Esoteric Pictures. Fields eats breakfast, spars with a sarcastic waitress and then pitches his fractured script to studio head Franklin Pangborn. The script reading becomes a film within a film, commencing with the hero of the tale leaping out of an airplane in hot pursuit of a flask of whiskey. He lands on the bed of an innocent young girl and tries to seduce her before her mom comes crashing in. Fields then escapes over a cliff in a basket. Things get even more bizarre before Pangborn throws him out and back into a reality that culminates in a lengthy, frenetic car chase. Director Eddie Cline masterfully imbues the relevant level of surreal spontaneity to Field's digressions and misadventures in what was the star's last leading role.