You Can't Cheat an Honest Man

'It is overloaded with two-reel comedy and no story, no pathos, no believable characters': the perceptive critic is Fields himself, who helplessly watched Universal mishandle his heartwarming story of a roguish circus owner. Most of the comedy is put into the sticky hands of Edgar Bergen, known now as the father of Candice, known then as a ventriloquist and the manipulator of dummy Charlie McCarthy, whose radio feud with Fields had all America doubled up. But their antics now seem far more historical than hysterical, and Fields' character emerges sadly belittled and coarsened. Still, good moments survive here and there.