Main Cast: W.C. Fields, Joan Marsh, Larry "Buster" Crabbe, Adrienne Ames, Louise Carter
Release Year: 1934
Country: US
Run Time: 67 minutes
Plot
W.C. Fields stars in a remake of his silent comedy So's Your Old Man. Fields plays Sam Bisbee, an erstwhile inventor who is the laughingstock of his small town. Returning in defeat from a disastrous big-city demonstration of his latest invention, Sam makes the acquaintance of a beautiful young woman (Adrienne Ames) who happens to be an incognito foreign princess. After Bisbee tells her of how he'd like to be a success for the sake of his family, the princess decides to use her celebrity to Sam's benefit. She arrives in his town and lets it be known of her high regard for the downtrodden Bisbee. Suddenly Sam is the town's big shot, enabling him to merchandise his inventions and do right by his wife and daughter. Sam earns the respect he's so long deserved--but he's never completely convinced that the princess is who she claims to be, and keeps congratulating her on her "racket." Based on a story by Julian Street, You're Telling Me is climaxed by a sidesplitting recreation of W.C. Fields' Ziegfeld Follies golf routine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
One of W.C. Fields' best features, You're Telling Me is a comic gem from one of the screen's finest comic performers. It's to be expected that a Fields flick will be funny -- or at the very least that Fields himself will be funny. What's surprising and rewarding about Telling is that it provides the cynical master with one of his most likeable roles. Don't worry -- he's still an oily curmudgeon who's never met a person about whom he can't find something to insult. But there's a slightly softer side to Fields here, both in his dealings with and feelings for his daughter and in the manner in which he "rescues" the Princess from what he misinterprets as a suicidal impulse. This latter scene is especially rewarding; it's still amusing, but there's a vulnerability and tenderness underneath Fields that is not often given this much rein. Like many Fields vehicles, this one is more a series of gags and routines tied around a more or less loose plot; but the vignettes are choice, including a version of his celebrated golf routine, as well as an ostrich sequence that is first class. Fields alone is more than enough reason to watch Telling, but there's also fine support from Adrienne Ames, Kathleen Howard, and Louise Carter, among others, that more than makes up from the rather perfunctory performances of Joan Marsh and Larry "Buster" Crabbe. Thought lost for many years, You're Telling Me's rediscovery in the 1970s gave quite a boost to Fields aficionados hungry for something "new." ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Kathleen Howard - Mrs. Murchison; Dell Henderson - Mayer Brown; Tammany Young - Caddy; Frederick Sullivan - Mr. Murchison; Harold Berquist - Doorman; Elise Cavanna - Mrs. Smith; Nora Cecil - Mrs. Price; Alfred Delcambre - Phil Cummings; Vernon Dent - Fat Man in Train; Billy Engle; Albert Hart - Lounger; George Irving - President of the Tire Company; James B. "Pop" Kenton - Doc Beebe; Edward J. Le Saint - Conductor; George MacQuarrie - Crabbe; Bob McKenzie - Charlie Bogle; James C. Morton - George Smith; Lee Phelps - 1st Cop; Jerry Stewart - Frobisher; John Maurice Sullivan - Gray; Josephine Whittell - Bit; Frank O'Connor - Second Cop; Hal Craig - Motor Cop; George Ovey; Eddie Baker - Motorcycle Police Escort; Dorothy Bay - Mrs. Kendall; Florence Enright - Mrs. Kelly; Isabelle La Mal - Rosita; William Robyns - Postman
