Product Description

Legendary actor and entertainer W.C. Fields is an American comedy treasure - a headliner who always left audiences laughing for more of his sharp-tongued one-liners, slapstick shenanigans and notoriously caustic wit. Now you can catch more of his unique comedic style in five of his most uproarious films: You're Telling Me!, The Old Fashioned Way, Man on the Flying Trapeze, Poppy and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break. Loaded with classic comedy routines, the W.C. Fields Comedy Collection: Volume Two is more of Fields at his finest, proving that the master of the one-liner can still keep fans laughing out loud!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7815 in DVD
• Brand: Universal Studios
• Released on: 2007-03-20
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, Dolby, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 5
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 351 minutes

Amazon.com
It's a sobering thought that iconoclastic clowns such as W.C. Fields have fallen off the pop-culture radar (as evidenced by the fact that the studio felt compelled to insert the word comedy into the title of this collection). With his penchant for smoke and drink and dim view of such institutions as marriage and small-town America, Fields is just the jolting rebuke for these PC times. This bracing boxed set contains five potent films that are 100-proof Fields with a bonus documentary chaser. Two films capture Fields at his disreputable best. In The Old Fashioned Way (1934), Fields stars as the Great McGonigle, who heads a ragtag traveling repertory troupe that is always just one step ahead of the sheriff. Fields displays his mad juggling skills as well as his antipathy toward children in the classic scene with Baby LeRoy, which climaxes with McGonigle giving the bratty tot a swift kick in the diapers (try getting away with that today). In Poppy (1936), Fields reprises his famed stage role as con man supreme Professor McGargle, who joins a traveling circus and schemes to pass off his daughter as the heir to a fortune. Two other films present Fields as the Rodney Dangerfield of his day, getting absolutely no respect from shrewish wives, monstrous in-laws, and others who bedevil his so-called life, like the succession of four policemen in The Man on the Flying Trapeze, who near simultaneously issue him traffic tickets as Fields tries to attend a wrestling match. You're Telling Me (1934) reveals a somewhat softer side of Fields, who portrays a failed inventor driven to the brink of suicide.

This set also contains the essential Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), in which Fields, as himself, attempts to sell an "impossible, inconceivable, incomprehensible" screenplay to the studio. Fields films are more deliberately paced than the Marx Brothers' manic romps, all the better to savor Fields' way with words ("what fulgent sunshine," "this mundane sphere"). To quote Slim Pickens in Blazing Saddles, he uses his tongue prettier than a $2, um, woman of ill-repute. This set's bonus is a 1965 television special that, despite its sweetened soundtrack and lame antics by hosts Wayne and Schuster, offers a cornucopia of classic clips and some genuine insights into Fields' comedy. A toast in anticipation of a Volume Three: May the next round contain Million Dollar Legs and Mississippi. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

YES YES YES!!!! Finally!
It's been a long wait for the second installment in the Field's collections but FINALLY we have another, the choices are superb,excellent and I'm like a kid in a candy shop just waiting for the release!

Man On The Flying Trapeze, Old Fashioned Way and Poppy have never been officially released in any format before so this is just GREAT! All of these movies are superb, this is a MUST BUY for anyone with an interest in old classics (as was the first Field's collection). Some folks questioned the contents of the first collection. I personally liked the choices and now this second collection starts to fill things out very nicely.

Now comes the problem...we absolutely need a third collection, chances are if it happens it would be the last, so how to fill that out? PLEASE don't repeat what's available already, 6 Of a Kind, The Big Broadcast of 1938 and David Copperfield ARE avalable on DVD.

What we desperately need is Mississippi, Tillie And Gus, Her Majesty Love, Million Dollar Legs. I also think Tales Of Manhattan should be included as the VHS is now out of print and Fields part in there is superb. Also, If I Had a Million would be nice.

What else besides those becomes problematic. perhaps a 4th collection of silents, The Old Army Game, Sally Of The Sawdust(uncut)& Running Wild.

Then there's the remaining bit parts movies, I don't think we'll see these in a Fields collection so you hardcore fans will have to watch and see if they come out alone. Alice In Wonderland(1933)(never released), Song Of The Open Road(never released), Sensations Of 1945(available on VHS), Follow The Boys(available on VHS).

Strong sales of this may help a 3rd collection to happen, so buy 1 for yourself, and a few as gifts!

The Great Man Returns...
The Great Man is back with Volume Two of the fantastic W.C. Fields Comedy Collection. Titles included are:


THE MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE (1935) -

Ambrose Wolfinger wants the afternoon off (his first in twenty-five years) to go to a wrestling match. He tells his boss that he must attend his mother-in-law's funeral. The afternoon is no joy. He tries to please a policeman, assist a chauffeur, chase a tire, and ends up getting hit by the body of a wrestler thrown from the ring. A series of mishaps leads his boss to send floral tributes to the house and notify the papers of the death (due to poisoned liquor). His shrewish wife, judgmental mother-in-law, and good-for-nothing brother-in-law add to his burdens. In the end he enjoys their fawning loyalty, a raise in pay, and his first vacation.



NEVER GIVE A SUCKER AN EVEN BREAK (1941) -

Fields wants to sell a film story to Esoteric Studios. On the way he gets insulted by little boys, beat up for ogling a woman, and abused by a waitress. He becomes his niece's guardian when her mother is killed in a trapeze fall during the making of a circus movie. He and his niece, who he finds at a shooting gallery, fly to Mexico to sell wooden nutmegs in a Russian colony. Trying to catch his bottle as it falls from the plane, he lands on a mountain peak where lives the man- eating Mrs. Hemogloben. When he gets to the Russian colony he finds Leon Errol (father of the insulting boys and owner of the shooting gallery) already selling wooden nutmegs. He decides to woo the wealthy Mrs. Hemogloben but when he gets there Errol has preceded him. The Mexican adventure is the story that Esoteric Studios would not buy.



YOU'RE TELLING ME (1934) -

Sam Bisbee is an inventor whose works (e.g., a keyhole finder for drunks) have brought him only poverty. His daughter is in love with the son of the town snob. Events conspire to ruin his bullet-proof tire just as success seems near. Another of his inventions prohibits him from committing suicide, so Sam decides to go on living..



THE OLD FASHIONED WAY (1934) -

The Great McGonigle's traveling theatrical troupe are staying at a boarding house. They are preparing to put on a production of "The Drunkard" (and do so during this movie). Cleopatra Pepperday puts up money for the show provided she can have a part ("Here comes the prince!"). Little Albert Wendelschaffer torments McGonigle all through lunch ("How can you hurt a watch by dipping it in molasses?"). In spite of being pursued by several sheriffs, McGonigle is able to keep going and see his daughter Betty happily married.



POPPY (1936) -

Poppy, daughter of carnival medicine salesman Professor McGargle, falls in love with the Mayor's son. Countess Maggie Tubbs DePuizzi is claimant to the Putnam estates, but McGargle and lawyer Wiffen plot to make Poppy claim the fortune. Wiffen and the Countess double-cross the Professor, but kindly Sarah Tucker notices a resemble between Poppy and the deceased Mrs. Putnam. It turns out that McGargle adopted the girl, she is the rightful heir, the purported Countess is only a showgirl, and every one has a happy ending.

This set is shaping up to be every bit as fine as first one released in 2004. Not expecting it to be heavily laden with extras, this is Universal we're dealing with. Likely to be superb prints but even Volume One only had trailers and a documentary.

There is joy in Mudville! More of The Great Man, W.C.Fields, is coming!
It's about time these films are available on DVD. They are long overdue!

"The Old Fashioned Way" is as good a picture of the bygone days of Vaudeville as exists anywhere, to say nothing of being the only available footage of the great man's cigar box juggling routine. "Poppy" is a comedy milestone with Fields portraying Larson E. Whipsnade, the quintessential carny. The ping pong scene is timeless! "Never Give a Sucker An Even break" is packed with laughs and a great example of how Field's mind went beyond the ordinary bounds of comedies of his era to open the door for later films like "Being John Malkovitch". "You're telling me" has many memorable scenes bringing us to the main event: "Man On The Flying Trapeze". This is quite frankly the most underrated film of his career. I'll never forget The synopsized New York Times review of this film that appeared in the TV pages when I was a kid: "A man besieged and a man to remember!" The older I get the more I relate to Ambrose Woolfinger! The parking ticket scene is the definition of perfect. It still brings tears to my eyes. When he takes a swing at his mother in law, Mrs. Nestlerode, it's not for the faint of heart. A person could literally die laughing! As fate would have it, I happened to watch that film tonight, before I made my weekly check of websites to see if any more Fields was on the way and Lo and Behold I learned that March 20th 2007 is to be a day of celebration.

For far too long, much of Field's greatest work has been conspicuous in it's absence from the marketplace. It's nice to know more of these gems are finally on the way! Now, if we live long enough, we may yet see "Missisippi", "Tillie and Gus", "If I had a Million", "Million Dollar legs", The Old Army Game and "Six Of a Kind" (Though available on Burns & Allen Collections) & "The Big Broadcast of 1938" (Bob Hope Collection) as well as Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch", "Sensations" & other missing Fields films, available on future DVD collections as well.

Saving the world will take more than reversing global warming. It will take reversing mediocrity In art as well as politics! A good start is making available entertainment where wit, physical dexterity and clever use of language rules, as opposed to the overhyped tripe Hollywood routinely serves up to a mass audience it perceives, perhaps correctly, (Though I choose not to believe it), as being thick, uneducated and disinterested in anything filmed in glorious Black and White!

I say: "A thing worth having is worth waiting for! Hope springs eternal! Build it and they will come!"
These films are national treasures. Watch often, laugh hard and live longer!

Sincerely, Henry Gross