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The irreverent Fields gives spark to what would otherwise have been a quite humdrum comedy movie.

His politically incorrect jokes seem very present-day, and so makes you understand that the people back in the 1940's weren't so far removed from us as we sometimes think.

Fields is nasty to children, his wife and the bank examiner, whistles at pretty girls and in general just behaves terribly. You wouldn't think they would film stuff like that back in 1940, but Fields did. The movie is populated by crooks and phonies, as for instance the bank president, who says "let me give you a hardy handshake" and then just rests his hand lightly in Fields' for a second. It's a very observant and stinging visual commentary which tells more than many phrases: that's what films are good at, and it is used here to great effect.

The final car chase is really scary, with extra's ducking under cars with only inches to spare!

'The Bank Dick' is a wonderful piece of comedy from W.C. Fields. He plays the town loser, who is given a job as a bank security guard when it appears that he helped stop a bank robbery. Fields' scenes with Franklin Pangborn as the bank examiner are the highlight of the film. The climactic chase sequence, with Fields mentioning points of interest as he is chased by the police, is also hilarious. Only a sequence early in the film, in which Fields pretends to be a Hollywood film director, fails to delight. Overall, a comedy classic!

W.C. Fields uses his expert timing and his large collection of gags to make "The Bank Dick" a classic comedy that gets even better as it goes along. The amusing, tangled plot gives Fields plenty of material to work with, and the other characters also pitch in to keep you smiling.

After a few amusing introductory scenes that introduce Egbert Sousé, the kind of character Fields loved to play, things really start rolling once Egbert somehow manages to land a job as a bank detective. The wackier the plot gets, the more it shows just how effective Fields's dry style can be. His stoic character and the confusion going on around him often make a hilarious combination. It's very entertaining, goes by quickly, and is filled with comic detail that makes it just as funny when you watch it over again.

This is a wonderful example of classic comedy from the late vaudeville era. Fields is brilliant in spite of the fact that he's far past his prime. The story is fun and timeless. I saw it years ago, and I have watched it a couple times since I got my DVD last week. It's a movie worth having on your shelf.

As I understand it, W.C. Fields spent at least most of his career playing henpecked drunks. Believe it or not, "The Bank Dick" is the first of his movies that I've ever seen; and I really liked it. Fields plays Egbert Souse - with an acute accent on the E - a bored family man never too aware of his surroundings. One day, he accidentally stops a bank robber but is only too happy to take credit for it. So they make him a security guard.

Throughout parts of the movie, I wasn't sure whether it was going to be as funny as I usually like (and there was a scene portraying a black man in a manner that wouldn't be allowed nowadays), but it was quite entertaining overall and the whole chase was certainly beyond a hoot. I suspect that they had a lot of fun filming it. Moreover, one might interpret Fields's as a look at America's aspirations of getting out of the Depression (that's pure conjecture, so don't quote me).

So, having seen this movie, I understand what W.C. Fields's brand of humor constituted. One can see why Warner Bros. animation department liked to caricature him as a manipulative pig in some cartoons. Worth seeing.

Affable drunk Egbert Sousé (W.C. Fields) is henpecked at home. He gets a job as a film director over the more drunk director. He accidentally thwarts a bank robbery during his lunch hour claiming it as a heroic action. He is given the job as a bank dick.

This is W.C. Fields at his comedic drunk best. His charisma is up on the screen. He's fun. He's a Forrest Gump of drunks. I'm not sure why he gets the director job other than to make fun of the movie business. The story doesn't need it. I'd rather have him start right away with the bank robbery. The character as a fool works very well. There are instances where his foolishness gets unlikeable like him talking Og into taking the money or claiming his heroic takedown. Egbert needs to be blameless in his random foolish chaos and isn't as loveable as a lying braggart. It would be more appealing for Og to be taken in by the bank robber rather than Egbert. In that situation, Og has limited option other than pleasing his future father-in-law. Overall, it's a fun performance.

Every year, United States National Film Preservation Board selects up to 25 films of cultural, historical and aesthetic significance, which will be preserved by being included in the National Film Registry. This one was chosen in 1992 and it's considered to be one of the best comedies ever. I really have to ask - why? Although it lasts just a bit over an hour it successfully bored me so much that I fell asleep sitting at the table. In my opinion, the only thing worth seeing in this movie is hilarious, and for its time excellently shot, car chase scene. I do not recommend.

5/10

THE BANK DICK (Universal, 1940), directed by Edward Cline, from an original story and screenplay by Mahatma Kane Jeeves, better known as W.C. Fields, stars none other than W.C. Fields in his third of four comedies for Universal, a classic in the sense of it becoming his most famous and admired works next to IT'S A GIFT (Paramount, 1934). Unlike YOU CAN CHEAT AN HONEST MAN (1939) where Fields loses screen time in favor with a ventriloquist act of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy; MY LITTLE CHICKADEE (1940) in which he divides his time with Mae West; and NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK (1941) where he steps aside in favor for the singing of the teen-age Gloria Jean, THE BANK DICK is pure Fields from start to finish. As the head of a household of a dysfunctional family, with Fields playing the henpecked husband on screen for the last time, the supporting players consists of a fine assortment of character actors who can be just as funny as Fields himself and not draw attention away from him.

As for the story, set in the town of Lompoc, the focus obviously is on Egbert Souse, accent over the final "E" (W.C. Fields), an unemployed husband who spends much of his leisure time smoking cigarettes and hanging around the local bar, The Black Pussy Cat Cafe, as well as coping with Agatha, his wife, (Cora Witherspoon), Mrs. Hermisillo Brunch, his mother-in-law (Jessie Ralph), Myrtle, his adult daughter, (Una Merkel) and Elsie Mae Adele Brunch, the obnoxious youngster, (Evelyn Del Rio). Of the members in his family, only Myrtle, his eldest, understands him. Aside from being a character herself, she's in love with the hayseed Og Oggilby (Grady Sutton), a bank teller who later encounters a couple of robbers at his window and forced to hand over a large sum of money at a point of a gun. When their getaway car is taken away, the crooks make a run for it. Chased by the police, one gets away while the other is found by Souse seated on a bench nearby, making him a hero for "capturing the crook." In gratitude Souse is awarded a job as a special officer by Mr. Skinner (Pierre Watkin), the bank president. In order for Oggilby to earn enough money to marry Myrtle, Souse arranges for him to invest the bank's money on Beefstake Mines Stock, which finds Souse spending much time preventing the visiting bank examiner (Franklin Pangborn) from looking over the books to find a shortage. More complications occur when the bank gets robbed again with Souse being forced to take the driver's seat in another exciting car chase from the police.

Supporting players enacting under oddball names include Shemp Howard (Joe Guelpe, the bartender whose whistle to "Listen to the Mockingbird" entices Souse to follow him to the bar); Richard Purcell (Mackley Q. Greene); Russell Hicks (J. Frothingham Waterbury); Jack Norton (A. Pismo Clam); Bill Wolfe (Otis), with Jan Duggan, another favorite of the Fields stock players, once again doing a funny bit in a wonderful cameo set in the bank. While Al Hill is credited as Filthy McNasty in the credits, he is called Repulsive Rogan in the final story. As for the support provided by the diversified Una Merkel, her performance is unlike the assortment of starlets, ranging from Mary Brian, Judith Allen or Constance Moore as Fields' daughters playing their roles in a more serious-minded and caring fashion. Merkel provides her role with comic flare and free-spirit. She and and Grady Sutton (in his final Fields comedy) certainly make a perfect odd couple.

THE BANK DICK may have some flaws, such as having the audience accept the middle-aged Fields and Cora Witherspoon as parents to a minor child while physically they pass more as grandparents. However, overlooking such minor details, highlights include Souse filling in for a drunken director (Norton) of Tel-Avis Picture Productions, a movie company filming on location; Sousé getting the bank examiner (Pangborn) ill on a "Michael Finn" drinks in order to keep him from examining the books; the climatic car chase; and bank president Mr. Skinner on two separate occasions giving Sousé the "hearty hand clasp" in which Skinner's fingers barely touches Souse's outstretched palm heightened by going to a split-second freeze-frame. While the attention is focused more on Souses' outside activities than on his domestic affairs, one cannot ignore the underscoring to "There's No Place Like Home" used during each opening scene at the Souse household.

THE BANK DICK, along with MY LITTLE CHICKADEE, became the first of Fields' comedies to be distributed on cassette during the early days of home video in the 1980s. Other than frequent revivals on commercial television prior to 1990, THE BANK DICK assured popularity to a new generation when shifted over to cable stations as American Movie Classics (1995-1999), and later Turner Classic Movies since 2001.

Fields' fourth and final starring role for Universal being NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK (1941) not only reunites him with Franklin Pangborn, but opens and closes with the same underscoring from THE BANK DICK. It even has an in-joke of Fields, playing himself, standing in front of a billboard advertisement which reads "W.C. Fields in THE BANK DICK." Because of these similarities, these both Fields comedies make logical choices as double features whether on television or a DVD package. As THE BANK DICK is a fun movie, it's kind of sad in a way watching W.C. Fields, older and heavier, in what's to become the final phase to his long career. All good things come to an end but the legend of Fields and his movies lives on. (***)

A classic comedy from the irreverent W. C. Fields who unapologetically dismantles as many of the Production Code's rules as he can as he frequents the Black Pussy, a bar managed by Shemp Howard, one-third of the Three Stooges. The plot is secondary to the gags, which come thick and fast; they don't always hit, but when they do they're smack bang in the centre of the bullseye.

I had no particularly high expectations for "The Bank Dick" but since it is reputed to be one of W.C. Fields' best movies I thought I'd take a flier on it. Not the worst movie I've ever seen but far from the best. The real problem is the acting is very mediocre. All the types are there... the shrewish wife, the nasty mother in law, the super-bratty offspring, con men, drunkards, etc. but they just don't pull their weight. Most of the lines aren't all that funny to begin with but they could succeed much better with superior delivery.

As I think about it, comedies don't seem to age nearly as well on the whole as dramas. That must have to do partly with comedies being much more culturally/contextually dependent for their success with audiences. Perhaps whatever W.C. was trying to poke fun at or deflate is so irrelevant in 2011 that this dated movie just isn't worth the bother any longer.

This is the second best Fields film (after It's a Gift) and it's similar in that it casts Fields as the lovable drunk with an absolutely hateful family. From the almost surreal episode directing the movie to the eye-poppingly ridiculous chase scene, this one is pure comic entertainment. One side note: it's sad and not a little scary how bloated and tired the Great Man looks in this compared to just six years earlier when It's a Gift was released.

This movie is so brilliant, it is almost sad that Fields did not make more movies than he did. As 1940 approached, he actually was doing his best work but was in deteriorating health through his death in 1946. This movie was all written and done under Field's supervision and a masterpiece it is.

The all time funniest scene in movie history, in my opinion, was when he gets the bank examiner, J. Pinkerton Snoopington drunk and sick and brings him back to the hotel he was staying at. When he allegedly falls out the window and Field's comes running down the stairs to retrieve him was so brilliantly executed, it's amazing. He moves the camera to the far side of the lobby which allows you to get the full view of him running down the stairs. While the content of this humor may seem ordinary, it was filmed and executed brilliantly and is forever etched in my mind as the single most funny scene I can think of in movie history.

This was a fairly enjoyable W. C. Fields film. While the plot, such as it is, meanders aimlessly, that wasn't really the point of films like this in those days. Back then, famous comedians played their persona, with plotting as a distant afterthought. The same holds largely true of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, The Marx Brothers, etc. Previous commenter "The_Film_Cricket" hit the nail on the head about the current popularity, or lack thereof, of Fields. His dipsomania, and his misanthropy are now totally politically incorrect. Erelong, he will likely be put down the memory hole, along with Amos & Andy, and "The Song of the South". But for now, we have his good, old-fashioned comedy.

I believe the funniest thing about this movie is that is was not as funny as I thought it would be. This is W.C Fields material, and if you don't like these early comics on film, you won't like this one. But Fields makes a point in this movie to hate kids, to be nasty to people (especially some women), and to degrade work. This would be a great film for your collection of early comedy, and Fields is always collectable, even if you don't like the humor. In this film, as the title implies, he's a somewhat lazy, irresponsible bank guard. From the time you meet his character, you just know this isn't going to go well (in the funny sense). Regardless, this is fine little film and worth the watching if only to see the social relationships of the time. James Welch Henderson, Arkansas 12/4/2020

The Bank Dick was the first W. C. Fields film I saw. I was a teenager at the time, and had to drive into Hollywood where it was playing at one of the trendy "art houses" that routinely featured films made in the 1930s and 1940s. Unknown to me at the time, there was a full blown revival of W. C. Fields films going on, but the only way I could see his films was to scout out theaters where they were featured, or hope that one of the local TV stations would occasionally play one of his better known films.

Even as a teenager I was immediately struck by The Bank Dick's crisp dialogue which was generously sprinkled with double entendres. It was obvious that Fields clearly enjoyed pushing the proverbial envelope well beyond the strict censorship which existed in 1940. I mean, come on! A bar called "The Black Pussy Cat?" Oh my! What was he thinking? Incidentally, the "Dick" in The Bank Dick isn't a reference to a certain part of the male anatomy, but rather, it was slang for "Dick Tracy," a well loved fictional comic book crime fighter of the 30s.

Whatever the case, from then on, I was hooked. One watches W. C. Fields films not for the plot, but to see Fields drinking, smoking, and his endless gibberish which seems totally normal for a man who in real life did as much drinking as he does in his films.

No matter where you begin, any film with W. C. Fields in it is better because of him. One only wishes there were more to enjoy.

Henpecked Egbert Sousè (W. C. Fields) has comic adventures as a substitute film director and unlikely bank guard.

Otis Ferguson was not so keen on it. He said, "When the man (W.C. Fields) is funny he is terrific... but the story is makeshift, the other characters are stock types, the only pace discernible is the distance between drinks or the rhythm of the fleeting seconds it takes Fields to size up trouble and duck the hell out." It is number 8 of Stanley Kubrick's ten most favorite films. I have to agree more with Kubrick on this one. Ferguson comes down too hard, as some of the things he criticizes are what make it such a great comedy. That sort of stuff may not fly today for sophisticated audiences, but Fields fits right in with Keaton, Chaplin and others... he is a natural successor to the silent age.

W.C. Fields plays a henpecked husband who's a police officer in a bank. That's about it for plot! What happens is a string of disjointed and increasingly stupid escapades with Fields becoming a director and a hero for catching bank robbers.

I've never seen a Fields film but heard that this one was one of the best. I tuned in and HATED it! I didn't laugh or even smile once! This is one of those early movies where alcoholism is treated as a big joke and violence is supposed to be side-splitting. Fields mumbles most of his lines which ends up making his jokes either inaudible or lifeless. At the end it seems the filmmakers gave up and just threw in a WILD car chase which goes on forever and also isn't funny. I realize Fields is considered a genius and his movies classics but this one totally escapes me.

"The Bank Dick" is the most consistently funny comedy from W.C Fields. The routines and the dialogue are far above average, as is Fields himself. The plot concerns a small town loafer who first becomes a movie director during a film's shoot. Later on, he accidentally foils an attempted robbery at the local bank. For his reward, W.C Fields is employed as the bank's security guard. All kinds of comic mayhem ensure! Released in 1940, "The Bank Dick" was about the last film of any quality from W.C Fields. He only lived a few more years and his chronic drinking was getting the better of him. The laughs are pretty good here and Fields has dialogue that's worthy of his style.

...but not side-splitting hilarious. Beware the reviews labeling "The Bank Dick" one of the greatest comedies of all time. If you watch it with that idea in mind, you're likely going to be at least mildly disappointed.

Plot in a nutshell: A useless drunk bumbles his way into money and a job, mostly by pure dumb luck.

I will say that the film gets better as it moves along. But I was struck with the realization about 20 minutes into it that I really hadn't laughed yet. Needless to say, that is not good for any film purporting to be a comedy. Thankfully, it does pick up steam and there are some good moments from that point forward. One that comes to mind was when Fields' character makes front page headlines for being a hero. He hurries home to share the news with his family, and his mother-in-law, without saying a word, takes the newspaper from his hands and immediately whips it into the fire, so great is their contempt for him. They don't care what he has to say, they've heard it all before and frankly don't give a ****! I am smiling now just remembering that scene.

The story, such as it is, centers around Egbert Sousé (Fields) who seems to be as focused on drinking booze as Whimpy is on eating a hamburger. One wonders how he is able to support a family with such a singular purpose; but then again these films aren't known for their solid plots. Sousé soon finds himself entangled in all manner of situations, including foiling a bank robbery, standing in for a film director, embroiling his future son-in-law in an embezzlement/get-rich-quick scheme, and a car chase that reminded me of the climax of 1963's "The Pink Panther" (minus the gorilla suits).

I like W.C. Fields, but I've always liked The Marx Brothers and Laurel & Hardy more, and I think I know why. They were able to take their comedy/craziness to another level, where you literally are laughing out loud and rewinding the film to watch a skit over again. I don't get that feeling with Fields. He is funny, but he's like 'slow-burn' funny. He'll mumble things, or make odd, out-of-place statements like "yeah we have mustard at the house" and "I'll have a fountain pen by then." (You'll know them when you hear them in the film.) They make you smile, but they aren't gut-busters.

I think that sums up Fields in general, and "The Bank Dick" in particular. They are funny, and worth your time, but you aren't going to fall off your chair watching them. Good, sometimes very good, not necessarily great.

7/10. Would I watch again (Y/N)?: Yes.