My Take:

The original fixer! I dug this film; it clocked in at a breezy one hour and fifteen minutes and explores the world of a fast talking fixer in a traveling circus played by Lee Tracy. Trouble ensues when the main attraction, a high wire walker played by Rita La Roy, falls to her death leaving her daughter as an orphan among the carnies. This is the first time I’ve seen Lee Tracy in anything and thought he did a great job; I’ll have to check him out in Doctor X, which I hear is a pretty cool pre Hays Code film.

What I liked:

The opening title credits were very original and germane to the film.

What I didn’t like:

I wasn’t too impressed with Virginia Weidler, the young orphan who seems to be just a device in the film, rather than I true character.

What I learned:

Peggy Shannon, who plays the lion tamer and the orphan’s de facto maternal figure, was chosen to replace Clara Bow in the film The Secret Call, after Bow suffered a nervous breakdown. Shannon died two years after Fixer Dugan was released at the age of 34 from a heart attack.