The Bank Dick

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!