You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) on Netflix
Approved19391h 19mComedyFamily
Larsen E. Whipsnade owns a debt-ridden circus and stays ahead of the law. His performers, among them the ventriloquist Edgar and his dummy Charlie McCarthy, try to get money out of him.
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- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb6.9/102,025 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Larsen E. Whipsnade runs a circus that is perpetually in debt and constantly on the move, with sheriffs and bill collectors in pursuit. He does not pay his performers. The ventriloquist Edgar and his dummy Charlie McCarthy press him for money, and Charlie is ready to take some outright. Whipsnade's son Phineas and daughter Vicky attend a posh college, and there Vicky turns down Roger Bel-Goodie, a caddish but rich suitor. She visits the circus and falls in love with Edgar. Whenever one of his acts is taken sick, Whipsnade disguises himself and goes on in that performer's place, for a sword swallower with tonsillitis or a female sharpshooter with arthritis.
Cast
- Charlie McCarthyas Charlie (ventriloquist dummy)
Show all 20 cast
- Mortimer Snerdas Mortimer (ventriloquist dummy)
- Blacamanas Blacaman - The Lion Tamer (uncredited)
- Lulu Mae Bohrmanas Wedding Guest (uncredited)
- Ralph Brooksas Wedding Guest (uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- George Marshall, the credited director of You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, did not get along with W. C. Fields, so Eddie Cline was brought in to work with Fields; Cline went on to direct Fields' next three films.
- The film's title comes from a line W. C. Fields speaks about ten minutes in: "You can't cheat an honest man; never give a sucker an even break, or smarten up a chump." That tag, traced to a line in the 1923 musical Poppy, became the title of a Fields film made in 1941.
- W. C. Fields's character Larsen E. Whipsnade inspired the authors of the comic strip The Wizard of Id to create a shady lawyer caricature of Fields named "Larsen E. Pettifogger", and also inspired the Lucky Luke album Western Circus.
