IT CAME FROM THE BOTTOM SHELF!

“I’ve got my heart set on the thing. I’m goin’ through with it.” — Harold Bissonette (W.C. Fields) in It’s a Gift (1934)

Kino Lorber Studio Classics has given classic comedy lovers an early Christmas gift with the November 9th Blu-ray debuts of three hilarious movies by W.C. Fields — The Old Fashioned Way (1934), It’s a Gift (also 1934), and The Bank Dick (1940). If you’ve never seen a W.C. Fields film, or even if you are generally allergic to black & white movies, I highly recommend that you step out of your safety zone and give these comedies a try. William Claude Dukenfield, better known as W.C. Fields, popularized both cringe comedy and misanthropic humor, so his comedy feels particularly modern. His influence can be felt on the most intelligent and subversive film and television comedy that followed. Such properties as Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, Seinfeld, Groundhog Day, Ghost World, Sideways, Bad Santa, The Office, Curb your Enthusiasm, and Veep would be unthinkable had Fields not previously fought the censors and pushed the boundaries of politically incorrect comedy. The three titles being released on Blu-ray in November provide a perfect introduction to “the Great Man,” as Fields liked to be called. I hope you’ll pick up all three, but having previously reviewed, The Old Fashioned Way (1934), let’s move onto Fields’ most celebrated movie, It’s a Gift (1934).

Most people, if asked to conjure up an image of W.C. Fields, would picture him dressed in a top hat and checkered coat in the role of an itinerant con man. Although the Great Man’s huckster persona is ingrained in the public consciousness, over the course of his career, W.C. was just as likely to portray a hen-pecked family man beset by aggravations sufficient to send Job running for the liquor cabinet. Most of Fields’ best comedies fall into the latter category, including It’s a Gift, his only feature to crack the American Film Institute’s list of the “100 Funniest Films.”

Based on the back-to-back successes of You’re Telling Me (1934) and The Old Fashioned Way (also 1934), the bosses at Paramount were no longer concerned that W.C. could carry a film on his own. For his next starring vehicle, they gave the comedian near-full creative control, which resulted in what many consider his masterpiece, It’s a Gift. It’s a Gift was certainly the most Fieldsian feature that the comedian had made to date. The only films that could claim to display the the Great Man’s sensibility as greatly were the four short comedies that he had created for producer Mack Sennett from 1932-1933 (The Dentist, The Fatal Glass of Beer, The Pharmacist, and The Barber Shop). The Sennett shorts had been adaptations of stage sketches that Fields had performed numerous times in the Earl Carroll Vanities and the Ziegfeld Follies. For It’s a Gift, Fields replicated the same successful formula, recycling stage-tested material from the 1925 play The Comic Supplement, which Fields had co-written with J.P. McEvoy. W.C. had found ways to incorporate some of the Comic Supplement material in his previous silent films It’s the Old Army Game (1927) and The Potters (1927, now lost). However, unlike You’re Telling Me, It’s a Gift was not a direct remake of any of the Great Man’s silent films. Instead, it was a complete distillation of the comedian’s work to date, taking the best of his previously performed material and presenting it in it’s finest form. With creative control, W.C. Fields was finally able to present his comedy in the way he had always envisioned it.

In It’s a Gift, Fields stars as Harold Bissonette (pronounced Biss-o-nay), a small town grocer who dreams of escaping his daily annoyances–a nagging wife (played by Fields’ favorite female foil, former opera-star Kathleen Howard), ill-behaved kids (including two-year-old Baby LeRoy), a dimwitted employee (Fields’ friend and personal assistant Tammany Young) and demanding customers–to retire to a California orange grove. Before Harold can achieve his goal, he has to endure several painfully funny set pieces including a run in with the most detestable blind man ever depicted on celluloid (Charles Sellon) and the film’s comic highlight, in which Harold, driven outdoors by his wife’s nagging, tries to get some sleep on a porch swing.

For those uninitiated in the comedy of the Great Man, It’s a Gift is probably the best place to start. He made a couple of other “family man” comedies, Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935) and The Bank Dick (1940), which are equally rewarding and (some might say) even greater reflections of his comedic genius. However, It’s a Gift contains W.C. Fields two longest sustained laugh sequences — “the grocery store” and “the front porch” scene — and it pulls together most of the hallmarks of the Great Man’s humor in a tight, 68-minute package. Fields subversively pokes fun at small town mores, mocks family values, makes villains of a blind man and a toddler, and never loses the sympathies of the audience.

To call It’s a Gift a comic masterpiece is not hyperbole. It is quite simply one of the finest film comedies ever made. The Bank Dick (1940) may edge it out slightly, in my opinion, as the Great Man’s greatest; but It’s a Gift displays W.C. at the height of his powers, performing precision-timed material cribbed from his best-loved stage sketches. If the plot is a bit thin and the scenes don’t fully mesh, it matters not, because each individual sequence is amongst the funniest ever captured on film. This is pure, undiluted, 100 proof Fields.

USA/B&W-68m./Dir: Norman Z. McCleod/Wr: Jack Cunningham, based on “The Comic Supplement” by J.P. McEvoy and an original story by Charles Bogle (W.C. Fields)/Cast: W. C. Fields, Baby LeRoy, Kathleen Howard, Jean Rouverol, Julian Madison, Tommy Bupp, Tammany Young, Morgan Wallace, Charles Sellon, Josephine Whittell

For Fans of: If you like the work of other classic film comedians, such as the Marx Brothers or Abbott & Costello, you owe it to yourself to give “The Great Man” a try.  There’s no better place to start than It’s a Gift.

Video: As mentioned above, Kino Lorber Studio Classics will release The Old Fashioned Way, It’s a Gift, and The Bank Dick individually on Blu-ray on November 9th. According to the Kino Lorber website, It’s a Gift was transferred from a 4K scan performed by Universal in 2017. It is noticeably sharper than previous DVD releases, and the contrast is excellent. A few scratches appear here and there, but overall the presentation is pretty clean. Film grain has not been erased in the new scan. In fact, some may find the grain a little coarse, but from the correct viewing distance, the picture looks lovely. I doubt the film will ever look better on home video.

The disc’s sound is clear, without noticeable age-related hiss. Finally, the disc is rounded out by the following extras:

• A new audio commentary by film historian James L. Neibaur, Author of The W.C. Fields Films, which covers a lot of behind-the-scenes detail.
• Trailers for The Old Fashioned Way, You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man (1939), My Little Chickadee (1940), and The Bank Dick (1940)
• Optional English Subtitles

Streaming: At the time of this review, It’s a Gift was not streaming on any of the major subscription services.  It was also unavailable for purchase or rental through digital retailers.

More to Explore: If you like It’s a Gift, you’re sure to like Fields’ next “everyman” comedy, Man on the Flying Trapeze (1935), which also stars Kathleen Howard as his nagging wife. Kino Lorber has scheduled that classic for a Blu-ray release in 2022. You may also be interested in the earlier versions of the “porch swing” and “picnic” scene in the excellent, but rarely screened, silent feature, It’s the Old Army Game (1926). I’ve also included links to several other Fields comedies that have made their way to Blu-ray below.

Trivia: Fields borrowed the name Harold Bissonette from a fellow member of the Lakeside Country Club. However, the real man didn’t pronounce the name “Biss-o-nay.” That detail was pure W.C. Fields.

For More Info: The best (and most accurate) biography of the Great Man is W.C. Fields: A Biography by James Curtis.  I’d also recommend Field’s intended autobiography, W.C. Fields by Himself. If you prefer video documentaries, I’d also recommend W.C. Fields: Straight Up (1986).