YOU'RE TELLING ME

(1934)
With W. C. Fields, Joan Marsh, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Adrienne Ames, Louise Carter, Kathleen Howard
Directed by Erie C. Kenton
Black and White
Reviewed by JB

You're Telling Me     After featuring Fields in several  All-Star extravaganzas or attempting to team him with Alison Skipworth, Paramount finally let Fields carry a film by himself.  He wound up making what would be a typical Fields film, although it had a more realistic, morose edge to it.  For perhaps the only time in his talkie career, Fields is shown drunk several times.  In later films, we would often see him drinking, or hung over after the event, but rarely in the actual state of insobriety.  And whereas other Fields characters would sail through life with few regrets, Field's Sam Brisbee is seen contemplating suicide after an unsuccessful sales pitch for one of his new inventions.  These sad touches put a slight damper on the comedy.

       The film is greatly enhanced by a sympathetic performance by Adrienne Ames as a princess who helps restore Fields to respectability in his home town, and by the great Kathleen Howard as a haughty neighbor who abhors the man.  Fields liked Howard's comic skills so much, he later cast her as his wife in his two best Paramount films, IT'S A GIFT and THE MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE, where she proved herself to be nearly as hysterical as Fields himself. 

     YOU'RE TELLING ME contains one of The Great Man's most touching performances - it's a splendid acting job on his part - and ends with his classic golf routine, previously captured in the short The Golf Specialist. ½ - JB

W. C. Fields     The Age of Comedy

ADD ANOTHER QUOTE AND MAKE IT A GALLON

"Mrs. Bisbee, you're the luckiest woman in the world."
"Is my husband dead?"