W.C. Fields: An Appreciation

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By Mike Durrett


Dateline: January 29, 2000

A note from Ted Wioncek, President of the W. C. Fields Fan Club, reminds us that today is the 120th birthday of this unparalleled comedian.

What a remarkable talent. One hour of random W. C. Fields' body language is funnier than Adam Sandler's entire career.

If you've never seen Fields' films, you owe it to yourself to locate them, especially the classic string the comedy legend wrote (often under pseudonyms such as Charles Bogle, Mahatma Kane Jeeves, and Otis Cribblecoblis) and starred in at Paramount and Universal during the '30s and early '40s. He was both of and ahead of his time.

My top W.C. Fields comedy movies picks include "It's a Gift," "The Old Fashioned Way," "Man on the Flying Trapeze," "You Can't Cheat an Honest Man," "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break," "My Little Chickadee," and the brilliant "The Bank Dick," which is, for my money, considering its place in cinematic evolution (1940) and adjusting for inflation, the funniest movie ever made. It is dense in comedy concepts, satirical touches, verbal wit, juggled vocabulary and fun with phonics, relentless slapstick, extraordinary casting, censorship-toppling innuendo, and a loveable anti-hero centerpiece. Nothing quite challenged its surefire pace and riches (excepting several zany Marx Bros. vehicles) until the modern day laugh compactor genre found in "Airplane!" and the "Naked Gun" series.

As all true W. C. Fields fans will recognize and agree, we'd "like to have a nose full of nickels like that," however we'd snort away our good fortune in exchange for another mirthful frisking from "The Bank Dick."

Happy Birthday, Great Man. Please accept one of our beautiful 1940 "Springtime in Lompoc" calendars and a hearty handclasp.