April 22, 2021, 9:00 pmThe Heights Theatre, 339 W 19th St, Houston, TX 77008
Cross W.C. Fields with Salvador Dali you would get this surreal comedy. On the lot at Esoteric Pictures, W. C. Fields (played by W. C. Fields) pitches a script to a movie to a producer Franklin Pangborn (Franklin Pangborn). The movie concerns airplanes, alcohol, and eventually culminates in Fields falling from said airplane and into a giant bird's nest occupied by a wealthy Russian woman. Never Give a Sucker an Even Break is Fields' final starring role, and it was so zany the studio didn't know what to do with it. But this is the comedian his most truly insane, breaking the fourth wall, throwing gag after incredible gag at you, and creating an upside-down movie-within-a-movie in which nothing is weirder.... except perhaps the movie it's in. W. C. Fields' masterpiece was unappreciated in its day, but has since been regarded as a classic.35mm print courtesy Universal Pictures.
