Rent W.C. Fields: The Bank Dick / Follow the Boys (1944)

Review of The Bank Dick. - W.C. Fields: The Bank Dick / Follow the Boys review by Steve

WC Fields' last classic is a return to the format of his best comedies of the early thirties; a series of sketches loosely tied to a single theme. Here Fields is Egbert Sousé (pronounced Sous-ay) a docile underdog who is an outcast in his own family. He keeps getting offered jobs, initially as the director of a film, and then as a bank detective.

Naturally Fields plays his famous persona, an old fashioned man traumatised by domesticity and the cynicism of contemporary life. He wrote the script which is fertile with his wild, Fieldsian flights of language: 'Don't be a luddy-duddy! Don't be a mooncalf! Don't be a jabbernowl!'

It's among the eight comedies which Fields made as a writer-actor which are the core of his appeal as an auteur. This isn't quite the equal of the great man's early talkies. And there is a brief, insulting role for a black actor. Arguably everyone is a distorted caricature in this world, but, it's still deplorable.

There are plenty of decent gags and an enjoyable silent film style car chase. Fields was getting old and heavier. This doesn't enhance the poignancy of the role like it does with many of the great comedians. Fields' character always was tragicomic; a little man in a small town who suffers a life of injustice and humiliation on behalf of us all.