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Cora Witherspoon, Dick Purcell, Grady Sutton

High on the list of W.C. Fields's achievements is this 74-minute feature from 1940, rich in his brilliantly rambling inspiration. Fields plays Egbert Sousé (pronounced Soo 'zay, of course), who...( read more  read more... ) manages to foil a bank robbery, tilt a glass in the Black Pussy Cafe, and marry his daughter to Og Oggilby (Grady Sutton) before the closing credits. Maintaining his usual and deliberate half-step behind the rest of the world, Fields's characteristic persona gets a truly worthy movie here that always seems, wonderfully, to be on the verge of racing ahead of him. --Tom Keogh

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77% liked it

1,919 ratings

Critics

100% liked it

21 critics

Unrated, 72 min.

Directed by: Cora Witherspoon, Dick Purcell, Eddie Cline, Edward Cline, Grady Sutton, Jessie Ralph, Shemp Howard, Una Merkel, W.C. Fields

Release Date: June 1, 1940

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DVD Release Date: August 22, 2000

Stats: 104 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (104)

  • flixsterman
    September 1, 2009
    flixsterman
    "Don't be a luddy-duddy! Don't be a mooncalf! Don't be a jabbernowl! You're not those, are you?"

    W.C. Fields at his comical best. *Watch for Shemp Howard (of Three Stooges fame) in a supporting role.
  • kenstachnik
    July 20, 2007
    kenstachnik
    My second Favorite Fields film
  • threefolddado
    March 28, 2008
    threefolddado
    Humor that holds it own even to this day.
  • cinnamontree
    February 2, 2009
    cinnamontree
    The car chase scene was the best, it just made me laugh so hard from start to finish.
  • thrusz
    July 26, 2008
    thrusz
    Unfortunately, W.C. Fields doesn't sell me as much as Harold Lloyd did. As bumpy as I thought Safety Last was in parts, I still saw it as a masterpiece. This movie was kind of crap and it is considered to be one of his better films.

    W.C. Fields just isn't that funny. ...( read more) I really, really wanted to like him. I mean, I love classic comedy and I thought that he would just be another obsession of mine fairly quickly. When I got the chance to sit down to the Criterion release of this movie, I thought that I was going to be in for a real treat. Unfortunately, this movie is really a hodgepodge of jokes that don't really make a lot of sense with each other. Really, puns and drunk jokes don't go that far if they don't serve a purpose. The biggest problem with my sense of humor on that note is that it doesn't really match up to the entire philosophy of W.C. Fields. His gimmick is the individual punchline while I don't mind waiting for the big picture to be really fantastic.

    What I'm talking about is the general structure of the film. The movie starts off with Fields becoming a film director because he bumps into a dude. That aspect of being a film director is not only completely outlandish, but doesn't really come back in any really significant fashion and is just used to tell a dumb joke. The way it comes back in any sense is the fact that he gets an outrageous paycheck for never actually completing work. It's these moments where the film simply accepts itself as a comedy and moves on that really bother me. Perhaps it's from the fact that my favorite comedic stylings (outside of a lot of other early comedies) come from the extremely tightly-knit Arrested Development, but this movie just seems sloppy much of the time. I can just seeing an exhausted Fields begging for a print saying "It's good enough."

    I'm not saying the entire movie is without humor. The end sight gags are really priceless. That chase finally abandons the boozehound character and just has witticism after witticism while a car is falling apart. That stuff is finally great. I imagine that most of the moive was made based after this great idea of a car chase where the car is falling apart mid-chase. That stuff is great. There's also a handful of great lines that bring you out of the stupor that is the most convoluted plot on the planet that make the movie somewhat enterataining. Like I show above, the movie does have two-and-a-half stars. By no means is it horrible, but it is really rough and almost not worth the effort to get to the good parts that you have to go through with the bad parts.

    I really hate to harp on the man because he got enough grief when he was alive, but the entire character that he as created is fairly counterproductive to the film. It's funny that W.C. Fields impersonators are always slightly off with their impressions because you can actually mostly understand what they are saying. Remember, this is a remastered Criterion disc. The audio is as good as it is going to get unless Criterion decides to rerelease this movie. There were times that I had to rewind the film just so I could hear the already forced punchline.

    The best stuff in here is the visual stuff. There's a lot of really well choreographed slapstick that is worth watching, but I personally believe that W.C. Fields is not all he's cracked up to be. This movie is more tedious than funny, but I wouldn't nix this movie altogether.
  • jazzmonk
    May 1, 2008
    jazzmonk
    I know I've seen it but it's been too long. I love W. C. Fields most of the time.
  • paeanhera
    February 15, 2008
    paeanhera
    The cantakerous W. C. Fields at his best. "Go away boy; you bother me."
  • sinjinsb
    August 13, 2007
    sinjinsb
    An enjoyable little tale of W.C. Fields playing a colorful Bank Dick. One interesting note, this movie is set and was filmed in Lompoc, California...where I lived from 1980-1988. It's pronounced "Lom-Poke", but in this movie (and many others) they pronounce it "Lom-Pock". At leas...( read more)t while I lived there, once a year they'd celebrate W.C. Field Days...mostly because there's not much else to do there. One other actor to note in this movie, Shemp Howard (of Three Stooges fame) plays the bartender at the Black Pussy Cat Cafe. Just a simple little comedy with W.C. Fields entertaining with his trademark style.

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Critic Reviews

February 13, 2001
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Probably Fields' best film. full review

View more The Bank Dick reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • theimmortallurker
    February 18, 2007
    theimmortallurker
    I'm sorry to see so many people with a "Not Interested" vote. This movie is not my favorite W. C. Fields, but it should be viewed by folks at least once. Well, I hope they will reconsider. I have a couple good Fields clips in the video section of my profile, check them out.
  • etfca
    February 5, 2007
    etfca
    Seen it at least twenty times since I was about 10 years old. Maybe you have to be brought up on old comedy to acquire a taste for it. Just thinking about Field’s puts a smile to my face.
  • dontdropthesoap84
    February 3, 2007
    dontdropthesoap84
    Why is this rated so low? It's absolutely hilarious!
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The Bank Dick Trivia

  • In fun with dick and jane who robs the bank when dick and jane are in the bank?  Answer »
  • Which comedian said these line: "Once during Prohibition,I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water." "I gargle with whisky several times a day and haven't had a cold in years." He starred in My Little Chickadee,The Bank Dick,and Never Give a Sucker a Break.  Answer »
  • True or false: In the film "Fun With Dick and Jane"-The form at the Grand Cayman Bank is referred to as a CRM-114. This is the same identification given to items in many Stanley Kubrick movies.   Answer »
  • What was the British title for the WC Fields classic "The Bank Dick"?   Answer »
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