Man on the Flying Trapeze

A rich example of middle period Fields, when his films were squarely centred on the nightmare of American small town life and all the jokes had an extra edge. Fields' Ambrose Wolfinger suffers a termagant wife, a rude mother-in-law, her sponging son, and a job where he hasn't had any time off in 25 years. His only blessings are a very lovely daughter and a stock of applejack in the cellar. Director Clyde Bruckman worked on The General, but don't expect any cool control: it's just the usual helter-skelter style of all unpretentious comedies, with the kind of blatant back projection that only adds to the fun.