It's a Gift

W. C. Fields specialized in two kinds of characters, tricksters and henpecked husbands. "It's A Gift" works as a showcase of Fields in the latter department.

Fields is Harold Bissonette, pronounced "bis-son-ay," a store clerk who dreams of an orange grove to call his own. His nagging wife Amelia (Kathleen Howard) just can't wait to tick off all the ways Harold ticks her off in as loud a voice as possible. Harold puts up with this as he plots to buy his orange grove despite her persistent objections.

"What did I say last?" she demands at the end of one tirade.

"Yes, yes, every word of it," a distracted Harold meekly replies.

If you are a die-hard W. C. fan, it's not hard to recommend "It's A Gift." It's a series of quintessential setpieces of Fieldsian slow burns and double-speak. There's not much to be said for the plot, as you shouldn't have to pay more attention to it than Fields and his team of writers did. The point is to get Fields in various messes, and this "It's A Gift" does with brisk efficiency.

Plenty of famous bits make their way on screen. The infamous Carl LaFong is name-dropped and name-spelled for eternity, and there's of course the biggest cinematic nod in the direction of the kumquat industry, though unlike Mr. LaFong they get the name spelled wrong. Everyone remembers that scene where Harold tries to whack his son ("Well, he's not going to tell me I don't love him!") and when he comes up with a Churchillian reply when accused of being drunk.

The question of enjoying "It's A Gift" boils down to how much you embrace "aggravation comedy," where the humor is built into annoying situations made more so through sheer repetition. I can only take so much of Harold dodging customers in his store, or wrestling with a deck chair. A long sequence showcases Harold trying to sleep on a porch while a milkman, a coconut, a salesman, and a squeaky clothesline all conspire against him. I can't help but chuckle a few times, but am always happy when the scene ends.

Harold is a fascinating character, a beaten man who is the author of his own destruction. He bought an orange ranch even after knowing it was a lemon, lets a blind man smash everything in his store, and of course married Amelia. But he's still Fields, and manages to work his way through his self-created turmoil to a surprisingly upbeat, if left-field, conclusion.

That's my favorite part of the film, but you can't say enough for the able support of Kathleen Howard. Her Amelia is a wonderful shrew, kind of likable in her querulous way. She nags Harold even in her sleep, and her line readings are deliriously skewed in the way they seem to fall heavy on nearly every other syllable. "Don't be kicking Norman's skates around!" she huffs after Harold does a header slipping on one of his son's roller-skates, as if Harold did it just to annoy her. Considering this is Fields, maybe he did.

Director Norman Z. McLeod isn't much talked about even among film students, though he may be the only man who directed major vehicles for Fields, the Marx Brothers, Harold Lloyd, and Danny Kaye. He knew how to work with comedy stars, and here keeps Fields at the center of the action.

Watching "It's A Gift" can be hard on the nerves, but it's also a treat for the funny bone with a good heart discernible amid the mayhem.

As was my habit as a teenager, I often would stay up late at night watching old movies (which were just about the only things broadcast after midnight back then). One night, I turned on the tube and a W. C. Fields movie had just started. It wasn't long before I found myself laughing. My father, for some reason unable to sleep, got up to join me. Soon he was laughing out loud too, and he wasn't one who laughed at just anything. When the scene came in which Fields tries to take a little nap alfresco--both of us began laughing uncontrollably. If someone could have seen us through a sound proof window, I'm sure they would have thought we were having seizures. NO scene in ANY of the great comedies exceeds this one in hilarity, and few even approach it. Not the seduction/dance scene in "Some Like It Hot," not the hitchhiking, not the "piggy-back" scenes from "It Happened One Night," not the "water-in-the-face" scene in "City Lights"--no scene from "Tootsie," no scene from "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," not any of the zany scenes from "The Court Jester," or "A Night At The Opera"--none of these beat Fields' pitiful attempt at catching a little shut-eye. And this is just one sequence in a film filled with wet-your-pants laughing.

W. C. Fields was one of the screen's greatest comedians. His bumbling, surly, dipsomaniac is a creation right up there with Chaplin's Little Tramp. As a gift from the gods of comedy, Fields was given an APPEARANCE of a bungler, but he was, in fact, physically adroit to a level most athletes could only dream of. Thus, he could get away with doing things SO bungling--like accidentally putting his hat on his walking stick (resting on his shoulder) instead of his head, and then not be able to find it, or trying to walk out the wrong side of the door--that if someone else tried them, they'd only look ridiculous. Fields makes you think these things could actually, comically, happen. He was truly a comedic genius.

One of cinema's greatest comedians, in one of cinema's funniest films: Do yourself a favor--wear a diaper and SEE THIS MOVIE!

If W.C. Fields is the funniest comedian in sound films, and perfectly hilarious in starring vehicles (Bank Dick) and guest shots (International House), why is this one is his best? Because Fields' antagonists are, for once, as grand as The Great Man himself. Aside from an evil blind man, and a cheerfully homicidal baby (ever reliable Baby Leroy), there is the ultimate Spouse from Hell. Former Vogue editor turned actress Kathleen Howard is pure outraged selfishness (Fields' mirror image) as the wife; her declamatory style of acting would be at home in a John Waters epic. She is divine, and so is the film.

I'm not going to repeat the story here. The story line is serviceable, but not as important as the situations and the set pieces. Mundane things like light bulbs and back porches become magical in this movie, though exactly what kind of magic is open to debate.

But I will say that this is the best of W.C. Fields's films, and that's saying something (though I do like "Million Dollar Legs" an awful lot). And I'd put "It's a Gift" in the Top 10 list of the best sound comedies ever made, and maybe in the Top 5.

The production is about as tacky as Golden Age Paramount was capable of. Compared to the Marx Brother's "Duck Soup" which was made in the same place at almost the same time, it looks like home movies.

But "It's a Gift" is every bit as funny as "Duck Soup," if not more so, and has aged less than Paramount's high-style comedies with MacDonald and Chevalier (which are still wonderful but require more of an effort from modern audiences).

Whether you plug into Fields's comedy as a painful commentary on the human condition, or if you just want some belly laughs with no strings attached , this is the film to watch. And if it's the first time you're seeing it, I envy you.

And best regards from Carl LaFong.

I finally cracked the first WC Fields set that Universal put out a few years ago. I got the second set for Christmas and figured I should probably start watching the films.

I started with Its A Gift, the story of a put upon grocer in New Jersey who buys an orange farm and heads west. Of course everything goes wrong.

One of Field's classics, this is cinema of cruelty as the put upon Fields has to deal with a world that won't leave him in peace. His wife is a nag, his employee at the store is a moron, his customers-including Mr Muckle,the blind man- are self centered vortexes of destruction. Fields is not a bad guy he just has bad luck as everyone wants something from him. I hadn't seen the film in years and I never noticed how cruel it is. I laughed but I also felt really bad for Fields since he clearly deserved better than he got. Personally I'm mixed about its classic status. Yes Fields is wonderful and the set pieces from attempts to shave while his daughter invades the bathroom, to the day in the grocery store, to trying to sleep on his porch to everything that follows is pure comic genius. Its masterfully put together comedy in a way that very few people today understand, no one does set pieces like this any more its all throw away lines and two second gags.On the technical level it is a classic, but at the same time I didn't laugh enough to be a "classic". Perhaps its the fact fields' plight was also very sad at times. I don't know something kept it from crossing into classic status. Certainly this is a four star film, better than most modern comedies and it really should be seen and enjoyed but I don't if its a classic like some of Keaton, Chaplin or the Marx brothers films.

But I'm quibbling- no doubt the result of not seeing the film in too long a time. See this film for a really good laugh and to reacquaint yourself with a semi-forgotten master of comedy 7.5 out of 10