Went Olde Worlde last night with The Miracle of Morgan's Creek - a 'screwball comedy' (a phrase admittedly to chill the blood) from 1943, and The Bank Dick, simply because a poster of WC Fields appeared in another movie I watched and I thought it had been awhile...
Morgan's turned out to be a blast - a ridiculous plot, centring on a handful of excellent characters, excellently played, a terrific script that never let up for an instant, delivering many belly laughs. Just a real good feelgood movie. As for The Bank Dick, you can see why Fields gets the reverence he does. The film as a whole is lumpy - quite long periods where nothing much happens and the jokes are thin on the ground, but studded with moments and scenes of utter brilliance, with physical pratfalls and one-liners that exploit Fields's misogynistic persona to superb effect. Early scenes with 'family life' where the family snarl and bicker and dig at each other viciously are a genuine delight. Nothing better in that line has ever been produced. Overall, a triumph. And Fields is, it proves, a genius.
