Mines de rien

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!

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.

'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!

a source of strange joy, even in its quiet and failed moments. great moments mostly mumbled and underplayed so that the film seems so humble and so unaggressive, unlike most comedies now which would wring your neck if they could...Fields' before-its-time irony and self-consciousness about moviemaking is revealed in a throwaway line during the car chase at the end...in the midst of all the obviously speeded-up film and projection effects, Egbert Souse deadpans "you're going to make me have an accident....." I'm almost ready to move into Lompoc, with its Spanish-Americo chili parlor, and, I hope, "rivers of beer flowing over your grandmother's paisley shawl...." and, apparently, absinthe is still available....

"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.