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The Bank Dick

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The Bank Dick
Theatrical release poster, Style C
Directed by
Screenplay by
Starring
CinematographyMilton R. Krasner
Edited byArthur Hilton
Music byCharles Previn
Production
company
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • November 29, 1940 (1940-11-29) (US)
[1]
Running time
73–74 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Bank Dick, released as The Bank Detective in the United Kingdom, is a 1940 American comedy film starring W. C. Fields. Set in Lompoc, California,[a] Fields plays Egbert Sousé, a drunk who accidentally thwarts a bank robbery and ends up a bank security guard as a result.

The film was written by Fields, using the alias Mahatma Kane Jeeves (derived from the Broadway drawing-room comedy cliché "My hat, my cane, Jeeves!"),[3] and directed by Edward F. Cline. The film also stars Una Merkel, Richard Purcell, Shemp Howard, Franklin Pangborn, Grady Sutton, Jessie Ralph and Cora Witherspoon.

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."[4][5]

Plot

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Hard-drinking, henpecked family man, Egbert Sousé has strained relations with his slattern wife and waspish mother-in-law over his drinking, smoking and habit of taking money from the piggy bank of his youngest daughter, Elsie Mae and replacing it with IOUs. Sousé prefers to spend his day reading detective stories and patronizing his favorite saloon, the Black Pussy Cat Café, run by Joe Guelpe. Sousé is on his way out when Elsie Mae bounces a ketchup bottle off of his head; Sousé attempts to hit her with a potted palm tree but is interrupted when his eldest daughter Myrtle introduces him to Og Oggilby, her fiancé, who is employed as a bank teller.

At the Black Pussy Cat Café, film producer Mackley Q Greene is vexed when A. Pismo Clam, the director of a film that is shooting in town, goes on a bender. When Sousé brags about having directed silent comedians, Greene offers the directing job to Sousé. Later, Sousé is mistakenly credited for catching Loudmouth McNasty one of two robbers who held up the bank where Og works. Mr. Skinner, the bank president, rewards Sousé by giving him a job as the bank's "special officer," a bank detective ("dick").

Back at the Black Pussy Cat Café, a swindler named J. Frothingham Waterbury cons Sousé into investing in a questionable mining operation. Sousé convinces Og to "borrow" (steal) $500 from the bank to buy the stock; expecting to receive his annual bonus in four days, Og intends to return the borrowed money, but bank examiner J. Pinkerton Snoopington arrives unexpectedly to immediately audit the bank. In an attempt to prevent Snoopington from examining the books, Sousé invites him to the Black Pussy Cat Café, where he has Joe slip him a mickey. Sousé helps the extremely ill Snoopington back to his hotel and telephones Dr. Stall, a quack, who examines Snoopington and advises three days of bed rest. Despite feeling deathly ill, Snoopington is determined to do his duty and he returns to the bank the following day to proceed with the audit. Og faints when he sees the examiner and Sousé again tries to delay the audit by breaking Snoopington's eyeglasses.

Waterbury the swindler reads in the newspaper that the mine has struck it rich. He returns to the bank and offers to buy back the "worthless" stock from Og. But Sousé also reads the same news story and slugs Waterbury, knocking him through a window. Og, now wealthy and no longer worried about the audit, agrees to split the money with Sousé; however, the escaped bank robber, Repulsive Rogan returns to rob the bank a second time. He takes Sousé hostage and escapes with the bank's money and Og's mining-company stock. Rogan forces Sousé to drive the getaway car and they lead the police, the bank president, Og and Greene on a frantic chase as the getaway car narrowly avoids several accidents and continually falls apart. Rogan attempts to jump from the disintegrating car but is knocked unconscious. Sousé once again receives the credit for catching the crook and receives a $5,000 reward for the capture of Rogan, $10,000 from producer Mackley Q. Greene for his screen story and a contract to direct a film based on it.

Now wealthy, Sousé lives in a mansion with his family who are now refined and well-spoken and treat him with respect; but each morning just before nine o'clock, Sousé still leaves the house to follow Joe Guelpe and spend the day at the Black Pussy Cat Café.

Cast

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Production

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Alternative titles for the film were The Bank Detective and The Great Man.[1] With the success of his two previous films, You Can't Cheat an Honest Man and My Little Chickadee, Fields was able to demand complete creative control.[6] He wrote the script under the pseudonym of Mahatma Kane Jeeves. Principal photography began in early September 1940.[1]

Reception

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Theatrical release poster, Style D

The Bank Dick received many favorable reviews. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote that "for anyone who simply likes to laugh at the reckless inanities of an inspired buffoon, we recommend The Bank Dick. It's great fun."[7] A reviewer for Variety wrote: "It's a crazy-quilt pattern aiming for laughs, and achieves the purpose adequately. Several times, Fields reaches into satirical pantomime reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin's best effort in that line during Mutual and Essanay days."[8]

Harrison's Reports called the film "[a] good program comedy. W.C. Fields is at his best and for that reason the picture should go over very well with his fans."[9] John Mosher of The New Yorker wrote that "there is often an incident or gesture reminiscent of the Mack Sennett comedies. At times, the movie even smacks of those old days so exactly that you almost believe it must be a revival of some classic. There's nothing antiquated about it, however, no stale, museum starchiness, and the scandalous Mr. Fields has to be forgiven his outrageous behavior, since he is so simply and honestly funny."[10] Film critic Leslie Halliwell deemed the film "[i]mperfect, but probably the best Fields vehicle there is"[8] and W.C. Fields biographer Robert Lewis Taylor called it "[o]ne of the great classics of American comedy."[11]

However, Otis Ferguson, a reviewer for the New Republic, wrote: "When [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."[8]

The film has a rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 21 reviews.[12] In a list submitted to Cinema magazine in 1963, noted director Stanley Kubrick named it his eighth-favorite film.[13]

One scene from the film, where Fields asks a bartender: "Was I in here last night and did I spend a twenty-dollar bill? and expressing relief that he did, because: "Oh, what a load that is off my mind. I thought I LOST it.", has become classic. The line is often quoted in context of the film.[14][15][16][17]

The film was released on DVD by The Criterion Collection but has since been out of print.[18]

References

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Informational notes

  1. ^ Residents of Lompoc were upset at the presentation of their town in the film, and by Fields' pronunciation of it as "Lom-pock" instead of the proper "Lom-poke".[2]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f The Bank Dick at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
  2. ^ Mankiewicz, Ben (January 2, 2018). Outro to the Turner Classic Movies presentation of The Bank Dick.
  3. ^ Curtis, James (2003). W. C. Fields: A Biography. New York: Knopf. p. 424. ISBN 978-0-375-40217-3.
  4. ^ Marx, Andy; Wharton, Dennis (December 3, 1992). "Diverse pix mix picked". Variety. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  5. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Film Registry, National Film Preservation Board. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  6. ^ Mankiewicz, Ben (January 2, 2018). Inro to the Turner Classic Movies presentation of The Bank Dick.
  7. ^ Crowther, Bosley (December 13, 1940). "W. C. Fields, the Great, Hits His Stride Again in 'The Bank Dick,' at the Palace". The New York Times. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
  8. ^ a b c Miller, Frank. "The Critics' Corner: The Bank Dick". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
  9. ^ "'The Bank Dick' with W.C. Fields". Harrison's Reports: 198. December 14, 1940.
  10. ^ Mosher, John (December 14, 1940). "The Current Cinema". The New Yorker. p. 122.
  11. ^ Taylor, Robert Lewis (1949). W.C. Fields: His Follies and Fortunes. Doubleday & Company. p. 332.
  12. ^ "The Bank Dick (1940)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
  13. ^ Wrigley, Nick. "Stanley Kubrick, cinephile". British Film Institute. Retrieved March 9, 2017.
  14. ^ "The Age of Comedy - The Bank Dick". theageofcomedy.laurelandhardycentral.com.
  15. ^ Ebert, Roger. "The Bank Dick movie review & film summary (1940) | Roger Ebert". www.rogerebert.com/.
  16. ^ "The Bank Dick Blu-ray Review • Home Theater Forum". 13 January 2022.
  17. ^ Chilton, Martin (November 29, 2015). "WC Fields: a master of comedy". The Telegraph – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  18. ^ "Out of Print - Criterion Collection". Retrieved July 4, 2022.
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