W.C. Fields Comedy Collection (The Bank Dick / My Little Chickadee / You Can't Cheat an Honest Man / It's a Gift / International House)
by Edward F. Cline
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Cora Witherspoon, Evelyn Del Rio, Jessie Ralph, Una Merkel, W.C. FieldsDirector: Edward F. Cline
Brand: Universal
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Box set, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 373 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-11-09
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of W.C. Fields Comedy Collection (The Bank Dick / My Little Chickadee / You Can't Cheat an Honest Man / It's a Gift / International House)
Movie Review: The Funniest Movie "It's a Gift" W.C. Fields, et al.
Summary: 5 Stars
The Funniest Movie Ever Made "It's a Gift" W.C. Fields, et al.
This is without the slightest doubt the funniest movie ever made. Every time I've watched it, which is about 8-10 times, I end up on the floor, barely able to breathe, and I don't drink, nor do I have any pulmonary problems. The scene with the coconut bouncing down the stairs in a perfectly timed rhythm is one of the funniest (I don't know how they did it), and one of my other favorite scenes involves the insurance peddler looking for Karl Lafong, not to mention the scene in which the man wants to buy cumquats, and Fields asks "How many quats?" There are too many funny bits in this film to mention, which means you may very well laugh yourself to death. There are lesser fates.
Fields, who wrote the script under the pseudonym of Charles Bogle (he has a genius for comic names almost equaling Dickens), plays greengrocer Harold Bissonette (pronounced Bissonay!), long-suffering henpecked husband and father. His wife nags him, his daughter treats him like a bathroom fixture to be moved out of the way, and his son, who nearly kills his father by leaving a stray roller skate lying around has the cheek to ask "What's the matter, Pop? Don't you love me anymore?" I leave it to you to imagine the reaction of the man who once said that one should never share a stage with children or animals. In this movie, there are two children, but no animals. What this poor man heroically deals with is quite enough for anyone's endurance, so when he decides to sell his business and move to a California "orange ranch" or grove, we've long since been on his side, cheering him along. Even the cumquat man says "More power to you" as the long-suffering Harold tries to crank start his Model A.
A masterpiece of comic timing, both in script and in acting and directing, "It's a Gift" is a gift to us all. Show it to your children, and it'll make better people of them. Perhaps not, but you can try, and by trying, you'll be enjoying the funniest movie of all time. In these trying times, the gift of laughter is the best of all, and that's the best reason to get this DVD as soon as possible. It's now part of a multi disc set of many other Fields masterpieces.
More W.C. Fields Comedy Collection (The Bank Dick / My Little Chickadee / You Can't Cheat an Honest Man / It's a Gift / International House) reviews:
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Summary of W.C. Fields Comedy Collection (The Bank Dick / My Little Chickadee / You Can't Cheat an Honest Man / It's a Gift / International House)
W.C. Fields is an American original, the curmudgeonly master of wit and good, mean fun. In this collection of madcap classics, the famously top-hatted Fields unleashes his unique comic zing, proving himself the king of the one-liner. This special DVD collection includes The Bank Dick, My Little Chickadee, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, It's a Gift and International House. The W.C. Fields Comedy Collection is Fields at his finest, and a must-have for anyone who loves to laugh!For anyone who loves classic comedy, the W.C. Fields Comedy Collection is absolutely essential. Film for film, this may be the best DVD showcase ever devoted to a single comedian, including all five of Fields's acknowledged classics in a sturdy, beautifully designed library-quality slipcase. One could easily lament the relative lack of bonus features (it would have been nice to have some vintage Fields radio shows and newsreel footage), but the inclusion of A&E's 1994 Biography documentary W.C. Fields: Behind the Laughter is sufficiently informative about Fields's life, career, irascible personality, and tragic alcoholism. That's all that's really needed when the films themselves are so timelessly entertaining, and they're all remarkably pristine in sound and image quality. The best way to appreciate Fields's evolving screen persona is to view these films in chronological order: In International House (1933), Fields was merely one of many Paramount stars of screen and radio (including Rudy Vallee, Burns & Allen, Bela Lugosi, Sterling Holloway, and manic bandleader Cab Calloway), but he handily steals the show, invading a Shanghai hotel in his airplane/helicopter and delivering the classic line (to Franklin Pangborn), "Don't let the posy fool ya!" It's one of Paramount's best all-star revues.
It's a Gift (1934) is a remake of Fields's 1926 silent It's the Old Army Game, and was the first sound feature devoted to Fields's inimitable talent. As beleaguered husband and would-be orange farmer, Fields revives vintage routines from Vaudeville and Broadway, and his first encounter with Baby LeRoy is comedy gold. You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) features Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and Fields's classic, still-hilarious ping-pong routine, while 1940's My Little Chickadee matches Fields (as "Guthbert J. Twillie") with Mae West, whose unforgettable on-screen banter with Fields shows no sign of their notorious off-screen animosity. In his raucous masterpiece The Bank Dick (also 1940), Fields is "Egbert Souse," lowly bank guard, unlikely hero, and manic driver in perhaps the greatest slapstick car-chase scene ever filmed. Despite the regrettable absence of Fields's final starring feature Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, this classy five-disc set is a veritable cornucopia of comedy, offering ample proof of Fields's comic genius through classic one-liners, physical routines, memorable costars, and perfect bits of business that never grow old. --Jeff Shannon
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