Long before the portrayal of dysfunctional
families became one of the main stays of television comedy, W.C. Fields
raised (or lowered) it to an art form all his own. One of the icons of
American screen comedy culture, his bête noire antics made him simultaneously
the most despised and loved screen comic of his era. He remains, after
falling in and out of favor again and again, the timeless victim and/or
hostile prime-mover of domestic tragedy. Caught in the mundanity of ordinary
life, Field's frustrated character belligerently endures (sometimes with
the help of a drink or two) hateful wives and children, obnoxious neighbors
and simple-minded fools with a cynical scorn at once hilariously incorrect
and touchingly, self-destructingly sad. Fields made his film debut in
1915 after rising to stardom on the vaudeville stage as, among other things
an "eccentric juggler." Over the next 50 years he made 40 shorts
and features, all of them refinements of a basic style and character,
earning the infamous salute: "Any man who hates dogs and babies can't
be all bad."
We are pleased to present a selection of some of his classic works and
welcome Fields scholar James Curtis to the Film Center to introduce IT'S
A GIFT on April 24. Author of "James Whale: A New World of Gods and
Monsters" and "Between Flops: A Biography of Preston Sturges,"
Curtis' newly published book, "W.C. Fields: A Biography," provides
a fascinating, deeply researched portrait of this extraordinary screen
personna, the darkly driven man who created it, and his relevance to our
times.
THU 8 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
IT'S A GIFT
US 1934
DIRECTOR NORMAN Z. MCLEOD Considered by many to be Fields' masterpiece, IT'S A GIFT, a remake of his earlier silent film, IT'S THE OLD ARMY GAME, draws a hilarious portrait of the horrors of small town life. Fields plays a henpecked husband and store owner who discovers that he has been left a huge inheritance by his uncle. He and his wife set out to claim their fortune and buy a California orange grove by mail. Along the way, Fields' run-ins with an assortment of irritating characters, including the infamous infant Baby Le Roy, provide a steady stream of classic comic episodes. (67 mins.)
PRECEDED BY:
THE POOL SHARK
USA 1915
DIRECTOR: EDWIN MIDDLETON In his first film (which he later claimed took just four hours to shoot) Fields puts his legendary vaudevillian pool game routine on screen. (10 mins.)
THE GOLF SPECIALIST
USA 1930
DIRECTOR: LOUIS BROCK Updating his popular vaudeville routine, THE GOLF SPECIALIST proves that Fields is anything but, as he stalls endlessly on the green to avoid having to hit the ball and show what a terrible golfer he is. (22 mins.)
Tonight's program will be introduced by James Curtis, who will sign copies of his new book "W.C. Fields: A Biography" after the screening.
APRIL 26
SAT 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
THE MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE
US 1935
DIRECTOR: CLYDE BRUCKMAN Bank clerk Ambrose Wolfinger (Fields) takes his
first afternoon off in 25 years to attend a wrestling match and becomes
disasterously involved with a tyrannical traffic cop (he gets four tickets
in a row!), a truculent chauffeur, and a chase after a runaway tire. Once
again skewering the nightmare of small-town life, Field's takes ruthless
aim at the family ties that bind. (65 mins.)
WITH
THE OLD FASHIONED WAY
US 1934
DIRECTOR: WILLIAM BEAUDINE Set at the end of the 19th century, THE OLD
FASHIONED WAY is Fields' salute to the gaslight era and the vaudeville
life, which gives him the opportunity to perform some of his classic juggling
routines. Fields is the Great McGonigle, leader of a traveling theater
troupe. The road brings an assortment of troubles and problematic people,
including Baby Le Roy who throws his watch into a jar of molasses. (74
mins.)
APRIL 30
WED 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
THE BANK DICK
USA 1940
DIRECTOR EDWARD F. CLINE Henpecked family man Egbert Sousé (Fields)
is recruited to replace a drunken film director, then is credited with
the capture of a bank robber through a series of accidents, and is rewarded
with the offer to become a bank guard. While working there, he persuades
his daughter's fiancé, a bank teller, to embezzle money to buy
phoney stocks, then must keep the bank examiner occupied for four days
to cover it all up. "Respectable people had best avoid this comedy;
if they see it, they may catch a spitball in the eye. Fields snarls out
his contempt for abstinence, truth, honest endeavor, and human offspring.
No maiden escapes his lewd suggestions; no shrew escapes his foul derision.
This unregenerate individualist shakes the whole barrelful of middle class
virtues, and says, 'Look, this barrel's full of stinking fish.'"-Pauline
Kael. (72 mins.)
WITH
THE DENTIST
US 1932
DIRECTOR: LESLIE PIERCE Fields performs his famous vaudeville golfing
routine before getting back to the office to attend to the dental requirements
of two female patients in a hysterically funny sequence. (20 mins.)
MAY 1
THU 7 P.M.
WHITSELL AUDITORIUM
NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK
USA 1941
DIRECTOR EDWARD F. CLINE Fields' last starring role in a feature film
is a tour de force of meta-humor which opens with Fields observing a billboard
for THE BANK DICK, supposedly written by the character he plays. He is
on his way to sell a script to the fictional company Esoteric Studios,
but is sidetracked by a series of increasingly implausible events that
poke fun at Fields' own career. First he becomes his acrobatic niece's
guardian after her mother dies in a circus accident. Then, on the flight
to Mexico where he plans to earn a living for them selling wooden nutmegs,
he drops his bottle of whiskey out of the plane and jumps after it, landing
on a mountain inhabited by a girl who has never seen a man before. From
there he makes his way to a hash-house in time to insult the waitress
("I did not say this meat was tough. I just said I didn't see the
horse that usually stands outside"), and finally returns to his job
at Esoteric Studios. (71 mins.)
WITH
THE FATAL GLASS OF BEER
US 1933
DIRECTOR: CLYDE BRUCKMAN One of the great stoned comedies of all time,
a semi-surreal burlesque featuring Fields as a snowed-in Yukon hunter,
singing the song of the fatal glass of beer, and the prodigal son who
was lured by temptation in the big city! (19 mins.)