The Old Fashioned Way / You're Telling Me!

THE OLD FASHIONED WAY, 1934, Universal, 70 min. Dir. William Beaudine. W.C. Fields and his ramshackle theatrical troupe travel the backwaters of America. As "The Great McGonigle," Fields pulls a series of successful cons on the small-town citizens with whom he comes into contact, and gives a hilarious performance as the lead in his troupe's staging of, appropriately enough, "The Drunkard."

YOU'RE TELLING ME! 1934, Universal, 64 min. Dir. Erle C. Kenton. W.C. Fields plays Sam Bisbee, a failed inventor who is the laughing stock of his neighbors due to his drunkenness and general ineptitude. Everything changes when he befriends a foreign princess whose appearance in town forces the upper crust to accept Sam as one of their own.