Rent W.C. Fields: Tillie and Gus / If I Had a Million (1933)

On both films (mild spoiler). - W.C. Fields: Tillie and Gus / If I Had a Million review by Steve

IF I HAD A MILLION

This is one of those 1930s anthologies developed as a showcase for a studio's roster of talent; in this case Paramount.  It is more auspicious than most. Their biggest star of the period- Gary Cooper- makes an appearance as an army halfwit. And among seven (!) decent directors, the great Ernst Lubitsch contributes a short sketch with Charles Laughton as a wage slave who blows a raspberry at his boss...

The concept is that a dying tycoon (Richard Bennett) elects to give away his fortune to random members of the public rather than his deadbeat relatives or disengaged employees. Hence Laughton's rebuke of his manager. The responses are usually comical, but also take the story into the gas chamber. And there's some precode naughtiness.

In one of the more satisfying strands, George Raft can't even give his cheque away for a dollar while he is hunted down by the law. However like most of these Paramount anthologies, they are watched now for the appearance of WC Fields. Here as a motorist who spends the dough on dozens of cars to take revenge on the 'road-hogs' who are the principal cause of his misery.

It's the first of a few delightful double acts with Alison Skipworth, as his old vaudeville buddy. By the final episode in which the multi-millionaire gives his legacy to a threadbare home for elderly widows, which is more of a prison, it becomes obvious we are watching a proto-New Deal picture. The old man is sick because of his miserly lifestyle. When he gives his money away, he becomes well! Go on, try it!

TILLIE AND GUS 

Knockabout rustic comedy which is elevated by the star quality of WC Fields. This isn't his script, but he obviously improvised all over it. His sweet young niece has been gypped out of her legacy by a crooked lawyer, so the legendary curmudgeon leaves his gambling racket in Alaska to save the ferry service, which is the last of her inheritance.

The story ends with a steamboat race and much slapstick besides. Fields performs his familiar misogynistic rascal, introduced while being run out of town. And this is noteworthy for a couple of sidekicks. It's his debut with Baby LeRoy, a one year old who was on a contract at Paramount! Of course, this allows Fields to register his infamous animosity towards children.

And he repeats his relishable alliance with Alison Skipworth, as his wife. She's sort of a female version of Fields, but with a deeper veneer of fake gentility. And she's excellent. Of course, Julie Bishop and Philip Trent are utterly anonymous as the swindled girl and her husband, but that's often the way with romantic leads.

In vaudeville, it's the grotesques who are the stars; the scurvy villain (Clarence Wilson) and the dubious, but good hearted misfits. It's not as great as the vehicles Fields developed for himself, but among the pick of those he was parachuted into. It's still precode, but his act has been cleaned up... Well, he's not a drunkard. This could easily have been shown uncut to an audience of church-goers in Kalamazoo.