The Old Fashioned Way

The Great McGonigle, ham actor extraordinaire, cares for his troupe of performers in THE OLD FASHIONED WAY, thorough chicanery, larceny & skullduggery...

Here is W. C. Fields in all of his pompous, vulgar glory: evasive, duplicitous, sneaky - utterly wonderful. Delivering dialogue in his unique buzz saw rasp, he gives out so many familiar lines that at times he almost seems to be performing a self-parody. This film brilliantly shows why Fields needed the sound cinema to let him be fully appreciated, and with Paramount giving him free rein to develop his material as he wished, it is not surprising that the film is a classic. Fans need look no further to find the essential Fields.

The romance between Judith Allen & Joe Morrison is a rather dull affair, although the young man sings well. Tammany Young plays Fields' loyal amanuensis. Movie mavens will recognize comedian Billy Bletcher as the tomato thrower & sour-visaged sheriff Clarence Wilson, both uncredited. Legend has it that Hollywood's first movie star, Florence Lawrence, derelict & forgotten, made one of her last unbilled appearances here before her 1938 suicide.

Fields found it useful to populate his films with at least one she-dragon, a female of frightful aspect against whom he could bounce off some of his best humor. This film has two: rail-thin, Nora Cecil - prim & dour as the troupe's suspicious landlady; and most especially silly Jan Duggan, horridly bejeweled & curled, as Field's wealthy target. Here was an actress, now nearly forgotten, who could easily equal in hilarity even Fields himself. It is generally overlooked how important her contribution is to the celebrated supper table scene with Fields & Baby LeRoy - one of the funniest sequences ever to appear in an American film. And her rendition of `Gathering Up The Shells On The Seashore' is a wonderful spoof of such sentimental songs as `When You And I Were Young, Maggie,' which were so popular in that era. Miss Duggan would return to briefly plague Fields in three additional films, including THE BANK DICK (1940). (She died in 1977 at the age of 95.)

Fields has included the old melodrama The Drunkard into the plot and to his credit he plays it ‘straight,' letting its honest antique sentiment speak for itself. In his own private olio, Fields makes a curtain call to show off his astonishing talent of legerdemain. It is wonderful to have his routine captured on film as he really is quite amazing - it is easy to see how at one time he was considered the world's greatest juggler. Now he is remembered as one of cinema's supreme comics.

If anything, this film is a must-see for two of W.C. Field's scenes: 1) Fields' first meeting with Baby Le Roy (who also appears in It's a Gift), which is easily one of the best comedy scenes in the movies, and 2) Fields' juggling routine, for which he was very famous when he was a vaudevillian, justly so. There are several other great moments of slightly lesser value. Also, the plot and the supporting characters are consistently entertaining and endearing, so this one's a real winner. 9/10

Quintessential W.C. Fields comedy (again, billed as Charles Bogle, he provided the story himself) boasting a pleasant period setting and a plot that revolves around a troupe of traveling players led by The Great McGonigle. The star is given yet another memorable introduction - being signaled by his daughter of the presence of the law, representing their creditors, on his way to the train which is to take them to the next town; here, again, we have a daughter who is willing to forgive her rascally father his every whim and foible.

The film, as such, relies more on atmosphere than the typical Fields 'sketches' and this, perhaps, lends it a charm - and a freshness - that it wouldn't otherwise possess. Among its many notable scenes are: Fields thinking the military reception waiting at the train station is for his troupe's benefit; the dinner sequence with a rampaging, famished troupe and Fields' hilarious encounter with Baby LeRoy (who throws food at him and drops his watch into a jar of molasses) - Fields manages to get even with the child by kicking him when no one's watching!; the rich old lady's cringe-inducing singing audition, with the star reacting accordingly (he's hoping to secure her financial backing for the play the troupe will be presenting in town by promising her a role in it - this is eventually whittled down to a single line, which she's never even called upon to deliver!); Fields falling off the stage during rehearsals, etc.

"The Drunkard" set-piece occupies a good deal of the second half: a hoary melodrama which the troupe performs with gusto - with Fields as the mustachioed and hissable villain of the piece who, at one point, reprises the immortal line from his short THE FATAL GLASS OF BEER (1933) "'T ain't a fit night out for man nor beast". With the closing of each act, the curtain comes crashing down making a loud thumping sound; still, the film is clearly intended as a valentine to the days of vaudeville - and even includes a wonderful juggling routine towards the end that showcases Fields' amazing dexterity (in spite of his advancing age, corpulent physique and propensity for booze).

The final sequence finds The Great McGonigle keeping busy as a medicine showman - having left his daughter behind, so as not to interfere with her happiness alongside a stage-struck boy emanating from a respectable family. Typically, for comedies from this era, romance and songs have been incorporated into the narrative as much as a device by which to counterbalance the star's antics as for purely commercial reasons (since these films were largely intended for family consumption).

This is one of the top 2 or 3 movies I recommend when someone wants an introduction to the films of W. C. Fields. Classic wisecracking Fields, interaction with Baby LeRoy (including a well-placed kick), the Fields juggling act, and Fields classic costume as he gets off the train and leads (he thinks) a parade, the oversized, ballooning coat. Hi slines are priceless, his interaction with Jan Dugan as Cleopatra Pepperday, singing a song about gathering shells on the seashore brings tears to my eyes with laughter, Nora Cecil does very, very well as the hatchet-faced boarding room landlord Mrs Wendelschaeffer. Very good look at turn of the century melodrama as they present "The Drunkard" onstage. If you see one full-length W. C. Fields movie as an introduction to this comic genius, make it this one! Recommended highly!

The Old Fashioned Way has W.C. Fields as the head of a troupe of strolling players who are just above the poverty level and Fields has to stay one step ahead of the law to dodge his many creditors. Part of that troupe is his daughter Judith Allen and she's got a young man played by Joe Morrison who wants to leave college and go on the stage in pursuit of her.

This is a period film and it goes back to the turn of the last century right about the time when a young juggler named W.C. Fields was going into vaudeville. The Old Fashioned Way offers us a rare treat to see Fields doing the juggling act which he started in show business with. I'm sure Fields drew from his experiences way back when to both write the original story on which the film is based and to give his usual good performance.

The film has a musical score of mostly old public domain standards, but the songwriting team of Mack Gordon and Harry Revel wrote a couple of original songs for the film. Gordon and Revel were with Paramount at the time, but would soon move to 20th Century Fox where they wrote a number of songs Alice Faye introduced. Morrison has a nice tenor voice and a pleasing, but somewhat limp personality. He does the best known song from the film, Poor Folk well with his tenor, but I have a bootleg radio recording of Russ Columbo doing it on one of his radio shows. Russ's baritone is far more suitable to the number than Morrison's tenor.

Still the show in this film is Fields and no one comes near stealing this film from him. Actress Jan Duggan plays the rich spinster who has stage ambitions and who Fields courts relentlessly, even putting himself through the torture of hearing her sing a really stupid song about gathering sea shells. Duggan would play Bill Fields's foil in several more film after The Old Fashioned Way.

Fans of the eternal Fields will like The Old Fashioned Way and if you see it you'll become a fan of W.C. Fields.