Tillie and Gus

Tillie and Gus was the last film directed by Francis Martin. Alison Skipworth and W C Fields star in this tale of two swindlers who have come to help out their family after a relative has died. In this, we get to see a lot of Fields' tricks with props - the hat and cane bits, cards, rolling the coin along his knuckles. And of course, he teams up with Clarence Wilson (the lawyer) again, from several of his previous films. Gotta love the "make your own paint" bit, when he adds in a scoop of lead, (which we now know is poisonous when ingested) as directed by the radio host. Did people really mix up their own paint ?? Baby LeRoy steals the show once again (Fields would make four movies with him-- has an interesting bio on IMDb). In Tillie and Gus, it all comes down to the big race to see who gets the job as ferryboat for the town. While quite a good, plain, fun, simple story, it's not the usual hilarious, non-stop antics that we see in some of the other W C Fields flicks.

TILLIE AND GUS (Paramount, 1933), directed by Francis Martin, stars W.C. Fields and Alison Skipworth, in their second collaboration together following their hilarious "roadhog" segment from the episodic motion picture, IF I HAD A MILLION (1932). With Fields and Skipworth as Paramount's answer to MGM's own Wallace Beery and Marie Dressler, of MIN AND BILL (1930) and TUGBOAT ANNIE (1933) fame, the plot for TILLIE AND GUS could very well be Paramount's equivalent to TUGBOAT ANNIE (1933), however, the only difference is that there's no need in borrowing from MGM or calling this one TUGBOAT TILLIE, for example, considering how Paramount has Fields and Skipworth at the helm is all that's needed in keeping this 58 minute comedy afloat.

The story begins not with Tillie and Gus but with the introduction of a young married couple, Tom (Clifford Jones) and Mary Sheridan (Jacqueline Wells), along with their baby boy called "King" (Baby LeRoy) and their very smart pet duck, taking up residence in the town of Danbury. After the reading of the will by Mary's father, John Blake, who died bankrupt, Phineas Platt (Clarence Wilson), a family lawyer and a crooked one at that, loots the estate for himself, leaving the girl nothing but an old ferry boat, forcing Tom, a college student, from obtaining his engineering degree. Mary, who has notified her Aunt Tillie and Uncle Gus, working their separate ways as missionaries, of the situation, hopes they'll come over to guide them. Enter Augustus Q. Winterbottom (W.C. Fields), revealed not as a missionary as depicted, but a professional card sharp forced to leave Alaska by a judge (Edgar Kennedy) following a crooked game; and Tillie Winterbottom (Alison Skipworth), his ex-wife, owner of a Soo Chow Club in Shanghai, China, who, after received Mary's telegram, gambles away her place to the Swede (Ivan Linow), earning enough money to book passage to Danville. Once they meet at a train station in Seattle, where Gus addresses Tillie as "My Little Chickadee" (Fields' most famous catch phrase), the couple soon forget their differences, offering their assistance to the young couple by arranging a ferry boat race between the defunct Fairy Queen and Pratt's very own Keystone to the Old Town dock that's to take place on the 4th of July, with amusing results.

For Fields' first starring feature role since the silent era of 1928, TILLIE AND GUS offers great promise with fine comedy material (Fields and Skipworth as dedicated missionaries shown in their true surroundings; W.C. cheating suckers at cards and his mixing of paint while listening to the instructor on radio), offbeat one-liners (Tillie: "Do you like children?" Gus: "I do if they're properly cooked"), and a touch of suspense (Baby LeRoy in a mini-bathtub that falls off the deck and floating down the river), there's not enough to rank this the comedy classic as Fields' latter IT'S A GIFT (1934) and THE BANK DICK (1940). In some ways, it's a quiet comedy in the Will Rogers tradition, highlighted by both the steamboat race and the support of familiar faces as Edgar Kennedy, George Barbier, Barton MacLane, and of course Clarence Wilson, whose face is enough to frighten any child away from his property whenever ordering them to "scoot." Baby LeRoy, the year-old infant whose dialog consists of overdubbed baby noises, cries and laughter, makes one of Fields' better known advisories under the age of five.

Never distributed on video cassette, TILLIE AND GUS was one of the features presented on Turner Classic Movies in June 2001 with W.C. Fields as its "Star of the Month," before being placed to DVD a few years later. Although Fields and Skippy would be paired once more in SIX OF A KIND (1934), who else can play phony missionaries and he singing "Bringing in the Sheeves" as their lovable characters of Tillie and Gus? (**1/2)

"Tillie and Gus" is a must-see early Paramount effort by the great W.C. The Great Man is in top form, and is ably aided by Ms. Skipworth. I recently purchased the DVD of this film, and was taken aback during a quick sequence within the courtroom scene in the early part of the film. It has been noted, and can be verified upon viewing, that Edgar Kennedy let slip the "s" word, when uttering the exclamation "oh sh*t" in the Laurel & Hardy short, "A Perfect Day" and unless I'm mistaken, he utters the magic word much more blatantly during the courtroom scene in "Tillie and Gus" in which Kennedy plays the judge. Unless my ears deceive me, the exchange between High Card Harrington, the Judge and Gus goes: High Card: "Six shots" The Judge: "Six sh*ts" Gus: "Six Cigars." Everyone, please take a look at this scene and see if you hear what I heard! I watched it ten times in a row, and still can't believe it.

Sometimes it takes a crook to catch a crook. Thus enter TILLIE AND GUS Winterbottom, charlatans both, come to the rescue of their niece who's been cheated out of her inheritance by a shyster lawyer.

Alison Skipworth & W. C. Fields are a wonderful team in this little comedy, full of slapstick and verbal wisecracks. Eventually partnered in three films at Paramount - IF I HAD A MILLION (1932); TILLIE AND GUS (1933); SIX OF A KIND (1934); their characters only appeared together for a few seconds at the banquet climax of ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1933) - they played off each other beautifully. Theirs is one of the great unsung comedic duos in screen history.

Fields is terrific, as always. His two great scenes - the poker game & the paint mixing debacle - are played with great aplomb. Watching him handily defeat lesser crooks than himself is a real treat, whether it's the three cardsharps or the sour old lawyer. Never deigning to smarten up a chump, he is surprisingly warm with Baby LeRoy, in their first screen encounter. Always fascinating, never dull, W. C. Fields is secure in his place as the American cinema's greatest curmudgeon.

The formidably talented Skipworth (1863-1952), English born & bred, usually played comic, cultured ladies. Seventeen years older than Fields (unlike Tillie Winterbottom, she was not born in 1881), she was 70 the year she made TILLIE AND GUS. With her massive presence and clarion voice, she was an agile match for Fields' well known scene stealing techniques. Easily the most significant of all his movie matrons, it is unfortunate that today she is remembered primarily for her films with Fields, and not for the rest of her splendid work.

Julie Bishop & Phillip Trent do nicely as the young couple. Since they are already wed & with baby when the film commences there are no unnecessary romantic complications for the plot to deal with. Old Clarence Wilson once again does very well as an acid tongued villain. George Barbier is quaintly befuddled as the rival boat captain. And in his one scene as a harassed judge, Edgar Kennedy runs his hilarious slow burn around the block one more time.

The ferry boat race with which the film climaxes - the Fairy Queen versus the Keystone - is well produced, with elements of hilarity & suspense equally mixed into the sequence.

Before TILLIE AND GUS, W. C. Fields had already appeared in five talking full-length films, but always as one of the featured players. With this picture, the Paramount bosses felt he was at last ready to co-star in a movie, although he & Alison Skipworth still receive below the title billing. After a few more films Fields would begin to solo star in a series of comedy classics.

Tillie And Gus has Alison Skipworth and W.C. Fields respectively in the title roles in this shortest of the feature films of W.C. Fields. It runs slightly less than an hour, but a lot of laughs get packed in. I also think if the term can be applied to Fields, he's at his most heroic in this film that is too rarely seen.

Fields and Skipworth worked well together in their part of the Paramount classic If I Had A Million so Adolph Zukor decided to give them a shot at a feature. I only wish they had done more joint projects.

Skipworth is unusual because she's an equal partner with Fields in chicanery. Usually Fields is married to a bossy tyrant like Kathleen Howard, but Skipworth is more an equal. She loves him despite his ways, but doesn't take anything off him either.

Aunt Tillie and Uncle Gus are called in by their niece Julie Bishop and her husband Phillip Trent who've been the victim of a bottom feeding shyster played deliciously by Clarence Wilson. All they have left is a ferry boat that has seen better days and Wilson is determined to get his hands on that too.

It all gets settled in a boat race and Fields sabotages the opposing boat as nicely as the Marx Brothers sabotaged La Traviata in A Night At The Opera. Seeing Fields in one of those old diving suits is funny enough, what he does to the boat is hilarious.

Bishop thinks her uncle and aunt are missionaries, they're actually a pair con artists. But they never had a greater mission than helping a family member. Blood is thicker, just ask the Corleones.

In any event this film proves you don't mess with Tillie And Gus.