Main Cast: Joe E. Brown, Leo Carrillo, Beverly Roberts, Wynne Gibson, Steffi Duna
Release Year: 1938
Country: US
Run Time: 69 minutes
Plot
Flirting with Fate is one of the lesser Joe E. Brown vehicles for independent producer David L. Loew. Brown is cast as Dixon, the manager of a third-rate vaudeville troupe stranded in a mythical South American country. Completely broke, Dixon hits upon a plan to finance the actors' trip home: he'll take out a huge life insurance policy, then arrange to get himself killed by bandit chieftan Sancho (Leo Carrillo). Unfortunately, Sancho has no interest whatsoever in knocking off our hero, nor can he be insulted into committing the deed. By the final reel, of course, Dixon has decided to go on living-and that's when his life is really in danger, courtesy of a cannister of nitroglycerine. Hungarian-born Steffi Duna provides unintentional laughs as an offkey Latin American songstress. The title Flirting with Fate had previously been used by Douglas Fairbanks in 1917; coincidentally, that film also had a leading character with suicidal notions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Frank McDonald - Director, Robert O. Crandall - Editor, Walter Samuels - Composer (Music Score), Victor Young - Composer (Music Score), Charles Newman - Composer (Music Score), George Schneiderman - Cinematographer, David L. Loew - Producer, Dan Jarrett - Screen Story, Harry Clark - Screenwriter, Joseph Moncure March - Screenwriter, Ethel La Blanche - Screenwriter, Charlie Melson - Screenwriter, A. Dorian Otvos - Short Story Author
