The Bank Dick
| The Bank Dick | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Edward F. Cline |
| Written by |
Mahatma Kane Jeeves (W. C. Fields) |
| Starring | W. C. Fields |
| Music by | Charles Previn |
| Cinematography | Milton R. Krasner |
| Edited by | Arthur Hilton |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 72 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Bank Dick (released as The Bank Detective in the United Kingdom) is a 1940 comedy film. Set in Lompoc, California, W. C. Fields plays a character named Egbert Sousé who trips a bank robber and ends up a security guard as a result. The character is a drunk who must repeatedly remind people in exasperation that his name is pronounced "Sousé – accent grave [sic] over the 'e'!", because people keep calling him "Souse" (slang for drunkard). In addition to bank and family scenes, it features Fields pretending to be a film director and ends in a chaotic car chase. The Bank Dick is considered a classic of his work, incorporating his usual persona as a drunken henpecked husband with a shrewish wife, disapproving mother-in-law, and savage children.
The film was written by Fields, using the alias Mahatma Kane Jeeves (derived from the Broadway drawing-room comedy cliche, "My hat, my cane, Jeeves!"[1]), and directed by Edward F. Cline. Shemp Howard, one of the Three Stooges, plays a bartender.
In 1992, The Bank Dick was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Cast
- W. C. Fields as Egbert Sousé
- Cora Witherspoon as Agatha Sousé
- Una Merkel as Myrtle Sousé
- Evelyn Del Rio as Elsie Mae Adele Brunch Sousé
- Jessie Ralph as Mrs. Hermisillo Brunch
- Grady Sutton as Og Oggilby
- Franklin Pangborn as J. Pinkerton Snoopington
- Shemp Howard as Joe Guelpe
- Dick Purcell as Mackley Q. Greene
- Russell Hicks as J. Frothingham Waterbury
- Pierre Watkin as Mr. Skinner
- Jack Norton as A. Pismo Clam
- Al Hill as Filthy McNasty
- George Moran as Cozy Cochran
- Bill Wolfe as Otis
- Pat West as Assistant Director
- Reed Hadley as Francois
- Heather Wilde as Miss Plupp
- Harlan Briggs as Doctor Stall
- Bill Alston as Mr. Cheek
Additional crew
- Art direction by Jack Otterson
Reviews
The movie has received many favorable reviews. Respected film critic Leslie Halliwell deemed it, "probably the best Fields vehicle there is", and W.C. Fields biographer Robert Lewis Taylor called it, "One of the great classics of American comedy".
Otis Ferguson, however, wasn't so keen on it. He said, "When the man (W.C. Fields) is funny he is terrific... but the story is makeshift, the other characters are stock types, the only pace discernible is the distance between drinks or the rhythm of the fleeting seconds it takes Fields to size up trouble and duck the hell out." The film currently has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 100%.
It is number 8 of Stanley Kubrick's ten most favourite films.[2]
References
- ↑ James Curtis, W.C. Fields: A Biography (2003) Alfred A. Knopf. p. 424. ISBN 0-375-40217-9.
- ↑ http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/polls-surveys/stanley-kubrick-cinephile
External links
- The Bank Dick at the Internet Movie Database
- The Bank Dick at the TCM Movie Database
- The Bank Dick at AllMovie
- Review of The Bank Dick at TVGuide.com
- Criterion Collection essay by Dennis Perrin
- Roger Ebert "Great Movies" essay on the film