Saturday, January 16, 2010

Capsule Review: The Bank Dick (1940)


I’m almost embarrassed to say that The Bank Dick is the first W.C. Fields film I’ve watched from start to finish. In fact, I was more familiar with the usual Fields impressions and quotes than his actual filmed work. At first, I had difficulty adjusting to his style of humor, which throws everything into the mix – sight gags, wordplay, slapstick – with the plot (about Fields' character Egbert Sousè accidentally stopping a bank robbery and becoming the bank's new security guard) only serving to tie brief sketches together.Fields plays both the tormented father - his family are wonderfully unpleasant - and the tormenter equally well, and the climactic car chase remains completely mindblowing. Terrific fun.

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