Bank Dick, The (1940)

Universal Pictures

Director: Edward F. Cline

Starring: W. C. Fields

Honors:

National Film Registry

Hollywood’s favorite souse, or Sousé as it properly pronounced in this picture, returns in an adventure of danger, dumb luck, and comedy. W.C. Fields with his famous liquid diet finds himself a hero in a town where he is made into an authority figure with his own usually comedic results. Hailed as one of the star’s finest examples of his humor, the silly, simple comedy The Bank Dick would, surprisingly, be considered one of the best films of all time.

The Bank Dick is a comedy about a man which through coincidental circumstances of stopping a bank robber is appointed the security guard of the bank, a job he is far from qualified for. W.C. Fields portrays his usual caricature of a man with an overbearing wife, ungrateful children, and an even more insufferable mother-in-law, which usually leads him to his only sanctuary in the contents of bottles, commonly at his favorite bar. His name is Egbert Sousé, a fact he must continue to remind people who usually mispronounce “souse,” the slang for a drunkard. When he happens to trip an escaping bank robber the bank hails him a hero and appoints Sousé their new security guard.

Egbert spends most of his time at the bank, that is when he is not trying to get a drink, attempting to distract the superintendent (played by Franklin Pangborn) from doing his work which would reveal temporary discrepancy in the books made by teller Og Oggilby (Grady Sutton). In the climax of the picture the robbers return for another attempted robbery and a big car chase occurs, but Sousé is there once again when the robbers fail. In the end Egbert makes great deal of money on an investment opportunity that he juggles as good or bad throughout the picture, but even though he lives in wealth he remains the same jovial man, finding his joys where he always had.

The picture contains all the usual W.C. Fields pieces from the family that abuses him, his infamous love for alcohol, and comedic ciaos that surrounds him. What makes that picture seem a bit more special than his previous works is the added car chase, and actual structured story which is an improvement from Fields’ typical assemblage of jokes. However, there is the usual structure of rarely being a moment where Fields is not on screen, since Fields was commonly assembled his pictures to be completely Fields-centric.

After working together on the Mae West- W.C. Fields crossover picture My Little Chickadee, director Edward F. Cline returns to work for Fields. Cline, whose credits go back to silent days at the Mack Sennett Studios and many collaborations with the best comedic minds such as Fatty Arbuckle and Buster Keaton, had learn to work with Fields, or better yet allow Fields to ad-lib, as was the case most of the time. The two learned to work together because that had similar minds in comedy which manifests itself in this film filled with some of Fields’ best humor.

The film gives the appearance of being a finer, and more drawn out plot, something Fields had trouble with before resulting in short feature films that felt more like episodic one or two reel comedies pieced together. Here the narrative carries throughout. There is however an exception of the earlier scenes where Fields becomes a film director for a day, which plays no relevance for the rest of the picture. The director scenes could be cut off and made into a short, but I am assuming it was needed to make the movie 72 minutes long, long enough to really consider it a feature film.

As mentioned, the picture is very Fields-centric, but does contain a better mix of ancillary characters and actors. Perhaps the most important to the plot being Grady Sutton who plays the meek bank teller that wants to marry Sousé’s daughter, but feels inadequate with his so little money. This character gets into some financial trouble which leads to Sousé doing all he can to distract the bank’s superintendent to check the books, played by character actor Franklin Pangborn. Una Merkel, once considered a rising starlet, now at age 36 plays the small role of Myrtle, Sousé’s daughter and object of affection for Sutton’s character.

In a surprising prolonged cameo role through the film is one of the former Three Stooges in Shemp Howard who plays Joe, the owner/operator of Sousé’s favorite establishment, the local bar. This was the during the period after Shemp had left the Stooges in the ealy 1930s due to contract issues with their agent, as he attempted to find better work both in New York and now in Hollywood most commonly seen in supporting roles before rejoining the Stooges in 1946 to replace Curly after his stroke. Much of the remaining cast of The Bank Dick consisted of small character actors, more often seen in uncredited roles or poorly produced B-pictures.

The Bank Dick would be considered one of the finest examples of W.C. Fields’ materiel in a feature length film. Most of Fields’ work in the past had been in short one or two reel pictures, which made him initially popular. Producing a large number of laughs and the higher than usual production quality to this meek comedy The Bank Dick would become commonplace as being listed as one of best comedies of all time. The film had its fair share of harsh critics, but over time many cinema fanatics have named The Bank Dick on their lists of favorite films.

In 1992 the feature was added to the National Film Registry for its significance to American cinema. For many who seek out a W.C. Fields picture to showcase examples of the comedian’s best works The Bank Dick is perhaps the finest example of his humor mixed with quality filmmaking and can be considered part of the curriculum in this humble viewer’s study of cinematic comedy for those who wish to study the art.