Man on the Flying Trapeze

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Man on the Flying Trapeze
Directed by	Clyde Bruckman W. C. Fields (uncredited)
Produced by	William LeBaron
Written by	W. C. Fields (story, as "Charles Bogle") Sam Hardy (story) Ray Harris Jack Cunningham (uncredited) John Sinclair (uncredited) Bobby Vernon (uncredited)
Starring	W. C. Fields Mary Brian Kathleen Howard
Release date(s)	August 3, 1935
Running time	65 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
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IMDb profile

Man on the Flying Trapeze is a 1935 comedy film starring W. C. Fields as a henpecked husband.

[edit] Synopsis

Ambrose Wolfinger works as a bank president's "memory expert"; he keeps files of details about all the people President Malloy meets with, so that Malloy will never be embarrassed about not remembering things when meeting with them. Ambrose supports himself, his shrewish wife Leona, his loving daughter Hope (from a previous marriage), his freeloading brother-in-law Claude, and his abusive mother-in-law Cordelia.

At the start of the film, two burglars break into Ambrose's cellar late at night, get drunk on his homemade cider, and start singing; Ambrose is forced to handle the situation, and he winds up being arrested for making cider without a license.

The next day, Ambrose falsely tells Malloy that Cordelia had died from drinking poisoned liquor, and asks for the afternoon off to attend the funeral; in fact, he wants to go to see the big wrestling match. Malloy, touched by Ambrose's tale, lets him go for the day, and then tells all the other employees the tragic news so they can pay their respects to the family.

Throughout that day, Ambrose has one problem after another: He has encounters with ticket-writing policemen and cars that are parked too close to his; he finds himself chasing a tire along railroad tracks and narrowly avoids getting hit by trains; and while trying to get into the wrestling arena (Claude had stolen his ticket earlier), he gets knocked down by the body of a wrestler who had been thrown right out of the building by his opponent.

Later that day, Ambrose comes home to find that Cordelia and Leona are furious about seeing Cordelia's obituary in the newspaper and receiving a huge amount of flowers, sympathy cards, and funeral wreathes. Furthermore, Malloy's assistant Mr. Peabody calls to say that Ambrose is fired because of his deception. During an argument, Ambrose punches out Claude for a crack he'd made about Hope, and Ambrose and his daughter leave the house.

Later, Malloy demands that Peabody rehire Ambrose because no one else can figure out Wolfinger's filing system; Hope answers the telephone, and says (falsely) that Ambrose has a better offer from someone else. After some bargaining, Ambrose is rehired with a huge raise in pay and four weeks' vacation.

The film ends with Ambrose taking the family for a ride in his new car; Hope and Leona (who is now much less shrewish) ride inside the car with him, while Cordelia and Ambrose ride in the rumble seat... during a heavy rain.