140. The Bank Dick (1940)

Running Time: 74 minutes
Directed By: Edward F. Cline
Written By: W.C. Fields
Main Cast: W.C. Fields, Cora Witherspoon, Grady Sutton, Franklin Pangborn, Una Merkel, Shemp Howard

W.C. CONTINUES TO BRING THE FUNNY!

When I watched "It's a Gift" back in January, for the "1001" book, I couldn't resist going out and purchasing a W.C. Fields collection, which contained that very film. My W.C. Fields collection also contained "The Bank Dick", so it wasn't hard to find this film, as I walked down the hall to my DVD shelf. After watching "The Bank Dick", I was even more pleased with my purchase as it was also a hilarious romp, with some excellent gags by a true master of comedy.

Much like "It's a Gift", "The Bank Dick" reveals our main character, Egbert Souse, as a man who wants nothing more than peace and quiet and maybe a bit of privacy. However, his nagging family, consisting of a wife, a mother-in-law, an teenage daughter and a young daughter, makes sure he doesn't get that. Egbert sees his way to the Black Pussy Cat Cafe every morning where he finds some solace and some booze to wash away his troubles. One morning, after knocking a few back at the saloon, Egbert inadvertently foils a bank robbery by running into the burglar. He, of course, takes all the credit for foiling the crime and is featured on the front page of the newspaper, an accolade that his family couldn't care less about. After foiling the crime and meeting with the manager of the bank that was nearly robbed, Lompoc State Bank, Egbert is offered the job of bank security or bank dick, by bank manager Mr. Skinner. Egbert takes the job, and in return Mr. Skinner agrees to take a portion of his wages to pay off the mortgage on the Souse family home.

After starting the job, there isn't much action, outside of a child playing with a toy pistol, which Egbert confuses as a real one and tries diligently to apprehend the youngster. Later on, Egbert meets up with a man who throws him a sales pitch for shares to the Beefsteak Mine. Egbert is swooned by the pitch man, and talks bank teller and his daughter's fiance, Og Oggilby, into borrowing five hundred dollars from the bank to buy shares to the Beefsteak Mine. Once Og agrees, later that day the bank examiner shows up wanting to examine the books and it's up to Egbert to throw him off track and keep Og out of trouble.

I have to say that my "W.C. Fields pick" would still have to be "It's a Gift", although I liked the flow of storytelling in "The Bank Dick" better. While "It's a Gift" is basically just seventy minutes of W.C. doing gag after gag, "The Bank Dick" has more of a story to it. The thing about W.C. Fields movies that are so enjoyable is that they're simple and when you're too tired to really give the movie the time that it deserves then these films are great, as they're short and funny and really let you kick back and enjoy some good film making, without investing a lot of mental energy. I honestly think that W.C. Fields is right up there in line with Buster Keaton, Charles Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and Laurel & Hardy as the funniest men I've discovered while working my way through the "1001" book. I love his brand of humor, his mutterings and bumblings and his slapstick gags. He's a true funny man and I really can't wait to move on from the pages of the "1001" and check out more W.C. Fields classics, as I'm sure they're all hilarious.

RATING: 7/10 Only a '7' simply because I liked "It's a Gift" more, but that's probably just because I saw it first and it's the film that made me fall in love with W.C.

NEXT UP: Citizen Kane...I'll give the supporters of 'Kane' and readers of my blog a proper forewarning...I've never liked this movie. We'll see what one more viewing can do for it.

July 8, 2010 12:34am