Details
Movie Description
The great W.C. Fields wrote and stars in this zany Universal comedy. He plays Egbert Sousé (pronounced "Soo-zay"), a genial, unemployed lush who endures a miserable family life until the day he accidentally trips up a bank robber and becomes the town hero. The bank manager rewards him with a detective job and Egbert takes advantage of this new situation by embezzling funds in order to buy stock in a beefsteak mine. All hell breaks loose when a determined bank examiner (Franklin Pangborn) shows up in town to go through the books, and the mayhem ends in a hilarious car chase. The film also features Shemp Howard as the local bartender, Una Merkel as Field's daughter, and Grady Sutton as her whining boyfriend. This was one of Field's last, and best comedies, directed in typically uninhibited fashion by Eddie Cline.
Synopsis
Pompous, hard-drinking layabout Egbert Sousé (W.C. Fields) becomes the town hero after he accidentally foils a bank robbery in this 1940 comedy gem from Universal. When his "heroism" is rewarded with a job as bank "dick" (slang at the time for detective), Egbert ends up embezzling money and then having to tangle with a suspicious bank examiner (Franklin Pangborn) as well as more crooks. This was one of Field's last comedies, and many consider it his greatest.
Film Notes
DVD Features
Region 1 Encoding
Keep Case
Theatrical release: November 29, 1940.
THE BANK DICK was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1992.
Screenwriter Mahatma Kane Jeeves was the pseudonym for star W.C. Fields. The name was reportedly derived from the stuffy English plays that Fields suffered through as a child. These plays invariably featured characters saying "M'hat, m'cane, Jeeves."
Director Eddie Cline has a long history of helming comic films. He began working in early silent comedies with Mack Sennett, and helped direct two of Buster Keaton's features, THE THREE AGES and SHERLOCK JR. Ralph Ceder is listed in the credits as collaborating director.
Industry Reviews
"...Probably Fields' best film..."
Chicago Sun-Times - Roger Ebert (12/10/2000)
4 stars out of 5 -- "Often hailed as WC Fields' finest, funniest comedy....The humor still works wonders..."
Total Film - Samuel Wigley (04/01/2008)
Quotations
"My Sunday school teacher...told me that he saw my father coming out of a saloon the other day and that Dad was smoking a pipe. I'll kill myself. I'll starve myself to death. It's the easiest way out. It's not so difficult to do. I tried it yesterday afternoon."--Myrtle (Una Merkel) to her mother
"These clothes are pretty dry. You oughtta sprinkle them with alcohol."--Egbert Sousé (W.C. Fields) to his bartender
"She's not gonna tell me I don't love her."--Egbert Sousé, after his wife has prevented him from smacking his daughter
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