When counting out change for a customer buying tickets at his debt-ridden circus, Fields leads the customer to believe that he not only has counted out too much, but accidentally given him change for a 20 rather than a 10. The customer grabs the money and runs without bothering to point out the mistake. I think you can guess what actually happened.

This is really the only relevance of the title to a movie which is basically a series of skits showcasing W.C. Fields and Edgar Bergen, occasionally together, but usually in individual routines. Although W.C. is always a pleasure to watch, this is certainly not one of the better movies in which to do that. First of all, the Bergen routines grow tiresome quickly. There's only so much I can take of watching a ventriloquist who moves his lips while everyone pretends that his wooden dummies are alive. Second, Fields' routines never reach the level of inspired zaniness which his best films are able to achieve.

Finally, Fields never really imbues his character with any humanity until the final scenes. It his ability to do so which makes his best movies so special ("It's a Gift", "The Bank Dick", "You're Telling Me", etc.). Without it, all you have is a run-of-the-mill hit-or-miss comedy.

Lots of gags and double takes by W.C. Fields dot this comedy. Fields does his normal shtick regarding the mumbling, sometimes mean-spirited insults, double-takes when loud noises occur, which was frequent; scheming people out of money, running from the law, etc. Fields was anything but moral giant which I suppose made him a lovable rascal in the eyes of many. It didn't hurt to have funny names such as this one, either: "Larson E. Whipsnade."

I enjoyed Edgar Bergen's performance more than anyone in here, including W.C., because he gave his famous dummy, "Charlie McCarthy," some of the best lines in the movie. That, and I liked Charlie's laugh.

Like a Marx Brothers film, this didn't have much of storyline, just a bunch of comedy bits by Fields and Bergen, plus a love interest between Bergen and Constance Moore, who played "Whipsnade's" daughter.

Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, from the old Jack Benny television show, also is in here, and sometimes feels the sting of W.C.'s racist remarks, which he could never say today on film, and justifiably so.

It was very entertaining, fast-moving and the best of the Fields movies, I think, even though Edgar and Charlie steal the show. I also think getting a DVD with English subtitles would make it even better, to catch all of W.C.'s lines, some of which are too mumbled to understand.

You Can't Cheat An Honest Man finds widower W.C. Fields running a second rate circus and trying to stay one step ahead of the law as he's creditors just about every place he goes. His children, John Arledge and Constance Moore attend a really posh Ivy League type school and you sympathize with Fields because you know this why he's probably not paying his bills. One also can speculate what his wife must have put up with back in the day.

Moore on a visit to Dad's show falls for the ventriloquist sideshow performer Edgar Bergen. But Bergen doesn't really get along with Fields or I should say his alter ego Charlie McCarthy doesn't.

The Fields-McCarthy feud was legendary on radio and it might seem hard to fathom how a ventriloquist could entertain on radio. But the characters he created were so powerful and had such a hold on the minds of the public that they were real. Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd were characters in their own right, they almost but not quite gained separate identities away from Edgar Bergen.

Anyway on Bergen's show, Bill Fields was a frequent guest and the repartee between Fields and McCarthy is still classic. Even without knowing that background, today's audience can still enjoy You Can't Cheat an Honest Man because the comedy is eternal.

There's not much of a plot except for Moore loving Bergen, but being ready to marry snobbish James Bush to help her father in his financial troubles. I'm sure you can figure out how that goes, especially when prospect in-laws Thurston Hall and Mary Forbes meet Fields at a little clambake they're throwing.

The circus offers a range of opportunity for some great gags including trying to pry Charlie McCarthy out of an alligator, an elephant who gives Fields showers on command and of course sawing Charlie in half during a magic act.

Still it's the repartee between Fields and Bergen and another of the unforgettable characterizations that Bill Fields brings us which makes You Can't Cheat An Honest Man a comedy classic.