Product Description

W.C. Fields is an American original, the curmudgeonly master of wit and good, mean fun. In this collection of madcap classics, the famously top-hatted Fields unleashes his unique comic zing, proving himself the king of the one-liner. This special DVD collection includes The Bank Dick, My Little Chickadee, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man, It's a Gift and International House. The W.C. Fields Comedy Collection is Fields at his finest, and a must-have for anyone who loves to laugh!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3609 in DVD
• Brand: Universal
• Released on: 2004-11-09
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 373 minutes

Amazon.com
For anyone who loves classic comedy, the W.C. Fields Comedy Collection is absolutely essential. Film for film, this may be the best DVD showcase ever devoted to a single comedian, including all five of Fields's acknowledged classics in a sturdy, beautifully designed library-quality slipcase. One could easily lament the relative lack of bonus features (it would have been nice to have some vintage Fields radio shows and newsreel footage), but the inclusion of A&E's 1994 Biography documentary W.C. Fields: Behind the Laughter is sufficiently informative about Fields's life, career, irascible personality, and tragic alcoholism. That's all that's really needed when the films themselves are so timelessly entertaining, and they're all remarkably pristine in sound and image quality. The best way to appreciate Fields's evolving screen persona is to view these films in chronological order: In International House (1933), Fields was merely one of many Paramount stars of screen and radio (including Rudy Vallee, Burns & Allen, Bela Lugosi, Sterling Holloway, and manic bandleader Cab Calloway), but he handily steals the show, invading a Shanghai hotel in his airplane/helicopter and delivering the classic line (to Franklin Pangborn), "Don't let the posy fool ya!" It's one of Paramount's best all-star revues.

It's a Gift (1934) is a remake of Fields's 1926 silent It's the Old Army Game, and was the first sound feature devoted to Fields's inimitable talent. As beleaguered husband and would-be orange farmer, Fields revives vintage routines from Vaudeville and Broadway, and his first encounter with Baby LeRoy is comedy gold. You Can't Cheat an Honest Man (1939) features Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy and Fields's classic, still-hilarious ping-pong routine, while 1940's My Little Chickadee matches Fields (as "Guthbert J. Twillie") with Mae West, whose unforgettable on-screen banter with Fields shows no sign of their notorious off-screen animosity. In his raucous masterpiece The Bank Dick (also 1940), Fields is "Egbert Souse," lowly bank guard, unlikely hero, and manic driver in perhaps the greatest slapstick car-chase scene ever filmed. Despite the regrettable absence of Fields's final starring feature Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, this classy five-disc set is a veritable cornucopia of comedy, offering ample proof of Fields's comic genius through classic one-liners, physical routines, memorable costars, and perfect bits of business that never grow old. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Sooooo Close!
I have been waiting years for "It's a Gift" to make it onto DVD, and it would appear that my wish will finally come true with the release of this set. I will undoubtedly buy the collection, but I already have the Criterion version of "The Bank Dick" (and also their great release of the collection of 6 short films), and "Chickadee" and "Honest Man", while crowd-pleasers, never made it onto my list of must-see Fields films. I, like many others, am baffled by the choice of "International House" for inclusion, as Fields probably only spends about 1/30th of the time on screen, but if owning it is the price I must pay to see a great copy of "It's a Gift", then so be it!

I also hope that enough people buy this to prompt additional releases of some of the other pure Fields vehicles like "Man on the Flying Trapeze", "The Old Fashioned Way", "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break", and "Poppy". (Now that would make for a nice boxed-set!)

For me, Fields's comedy is still remarkably fresh, usually bitingly funny, always a treat for the ears, and sometimes even touching. 10 quick quotes from "Bank Dick" and "It's a Gift":
1) "Caught him on the first bounce!" (After gently bringing the ailing bank examiner through the hotel lobby up to his room, running back downstairs to the lobby out the front door, and again walking the bank examiner back through the hotel lobby)
2) Egbert: "Was I in here last night, and did I spend a twenty-dollar bill?" Bartender: "Why yes!" Egbert: "What a load that is off my mind! I thought I'd lost it!"
3) "See you got that door closed again" (Mr. Muckle the blind man after sticking his cane through Bissonette's glass door)
4) "Capital L, small a, capital F, small o, small n, small g; LaFong; Carl LaFong"
5) "I'll be sober tomorrow; you'll be crazy the rest of your life"
6) "You'd like to have a nose like that full of nickels, wouldn't you?" (Mother, to a young brat pointing at Fields's prominent proboscis)
7) "The resale value of this car is going to be nil after this ride."
8) "I'm very fond of children. Girl children, around eighteen, twenty"
9) Mrs. Sousé: "Don't you dare strike that child!" Egbert Sousé: "She's not gonna tell ME I don't love her."
10) Customer: "What do you have in the way of steaks"? Sousé: "Not a thing, I can get right to 'em".

"It's a Gift" and "The Bank Dick" are great mainly because of Fields, but they have great supporting casts (the great Franklin Pangborn as Bank Examiner J. Pinkerton Snoopington; Kathleen Howard as Amelia Bissonette; Tammany Young as the store clerk in "Gift"; Shemp Howard as bartender Joe Guelpe; Grady Sutton as Og Oggilby; Una Merkel as Egbert's mother-in-law; and Russell Hicks as the lugubrious J. Frothingham Waterbury.

"Chickadee" is famous for the pairing of Fields and Mae West, but it always irked me that (no offense to you Mae fans out there) valuable screen time was taken away from Fields so that we could see the venerable Ms. West show off her ample assets. "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man" is much closer to my heart, especially for the banter between Fields and Charlie McCarthy and some of the circus scenes, but overall my preference is for all Fields, all the time. (OK, I'll admit that a little Mortimer Snerd is never a bad thing).

In a perfect world, we would be able to pick and choose which W.C. Fields DVD to watch on any given day. Since they are so few and far between, I have to laud the upcoming release of these films, regardless of whether all 5 really show of the Great Man's talents to their best. And who knows, maybe if there is enough interest, the other great Fields films will hit the market soon. Anyway, the few minutes of Fields in "International House" is much much better than 2+ hours of the latest action adventure extravaganza taking up screen space at the gigaplex.

"As my dear old grandfather Litvak said (just before they swung the trap), he said 'You can't cheat an honest man. Never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump.'"

YES, YES, YES!! About time!
Well THANK YOU UNIVERSAL!!! It's about time!!! W.C. Fields is one of THE greatest comedians EVER, yet his catalog has been grossly overlooked. I can be certain with Universal issuing these the quality will be top notch. Criterion had already issued The Bank Dick, so I'm not sure why it's on here too, but I won't complain as the other 4 are certainly worth the price of admission!

Now, PLEASE continue to release the many other Fields movies that are out there. I'm really hoping this is only 1 of several volumes that will be issued.

Any and all Fields fans should buy this, buy another 1 or 2 for gifts to family and friends, the better this release does the better chances of more to follow!

And if you haven't seen Fields ever??? You have to buy this, this man is one of THE building blocks of all modern comedy!

MUST SEE CLASSIC CINEMA! Fields slow burn style of comedy is a drastic opposite to today's modern, cheap, "fast food" style of comedy. Today's comedy is a quick laugh and it's over, never as funny the second time around, but with Fields, each viewing makes you laugh more as you start to relate pesonally to W.C. and all his trials and tribulations of life that he interweaves into his comedy.

On a personal level Fields as a comedian sneaks into your heart and mind causing you to develop a rapport with him and the daily events of life that shape and mold all of us to a certain extent. Fields, in his never ending struggle for control of those daily events brings about some of the most classic comedy ever to be captured on film. This my friends is THE golden age of comedy captured for all to enjoy, do not miss it.
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FINAL FOLLOWUP:
I've watched all the discs now and quality is as good as it's going to get, very, very good. The packaging is very nicely done too.

As far as the choice of movies included... Well it's too bad they put the Bank Dick in taking a spot away from another possible inclusion, seeing a high quality Criterion Collection version is already available. International House is a scream, I've always liked it, not so sure it is a "fit" in a Fields collection however, but his material is very good in the movie. Perhaps 3 more collections can come out making enough room in each of the collections for movies like this where Fields only had a part in them.

Someone mentioned Six Of A Kind, IT IS available on DVD as part of the Burns Allen collection, as well as The Big Broadcast, Sally Of The Sawdust, and 6 shorts Fileds on Criterion Collection which is superb quality.

NOW, it is a must that all fans e-mail Universal and ask for MORE releases!!!!!!!! Here's what we need in no particular order.

1.Mississippi
2.Man On The Flying Trapeze
3.You're Telling Me
4.The Old Fashioned Way
5.Poppy
6.Tillie And Gus
7.Never Give a Sucker An Even Break
8.If I Had A Million
9.Tales Of Manhattan
10.Her Majesty Love
11.Song Of The Open Road
12.Sensations of 1945
13.Alice In Wonderland
14.It's The Old Army Game
15.Follow The Boys
16.Running Wild
17.Million Dollar Legs

It can be seen that there is enough material for 3 more collections. PLEASE UNIVERSAL!!!!!!!

A Real Treasure Trove of Comedy
Universal released this set in conjunction with a Marx Brothers collection. It is to my surprise that the W.C. Fields set is the more satisfying of the two. Fields was a true original. Nobody in film history has matched his whimsically soused and often caustic approach to comedy. To reiterate what an earlier reviewer stated I hope somebody packages some of Fields other work but this is an excellent primer for someone unfamiliar with his work. The extras in this package are slight; a few trailers and a not bad "Biography" segment.
International House: Essentially a review featuring the "stars" of the day. The connecting plot is an early demonstration of televison at a hotel in China. Fields is the obvious stand-out but Burns and Allen have some amusing routines and Cab Calloway's abbreviated performance of "Reefer Man" is of interest. Not a classic, but deserves to be seen at least once. Four stars.
It's a Gift: This is one of the funniest films of all-time. The story concerns Fields' grocer who has dreams of owning an orange grove and has to deal with his overbearing family. One uproarious set-piece here follows another. Five stars.
You Can't Cheat an Honest Man: This time Fields plays a slick circus owner one step ahead of the law. Fields' shtick here is good for awhile but starts to wear thin as the movie progresses. The film is saved somewhat by the routines of Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Four stars.
My Little Chickadee: The weak link in the set. Fields and co-star Mae West have zero chemistry in this western comedy. It seems like the two of them are acting at cross purposes in two different movies. Two stars.
The Bank Dick: Back in classic territory. Here, Fields seems a little dissipated but his timing is still impeccable. Basically, his character is a ne'er do-well bank guard who through circumstance, guile, and sheer luck manages to come out
on top. Like "It's a Gift", this film contains one hilarious set-piece after another. Five stars.