It's hard to rate an old movie like this because they don't make 'em like this anymore. And while Fields does a fine job, most of the rest of the acting is pretty bad; I did like the old blind guy, though.
For today's audiences, I'm afraid the rating is not so high as it would have been if I were watching this back in 1934. But then, it might have looked better in a big, dark movie theater with an audience and a bucket of popcorn on a Saturday afternoon, than alone on my laptop. It's easier to laugh when there are other people laughing around you. And in 1934, people needed all the excuses for laughter they could get.
There's not much of a script or plot here; It's a Gift probably has about the fewest words for a movie since the silent days. There aren't many of the trademark clever comebacks and double entendres from Fields.
What it does have is a long-suffering, hen pecked W.C. Fields. This time around he is the normal human being in the story, while everyone else around him is obnoxious. Normal? Any other (modern) normal person would slug this wife, or at least divorce her. I couldn't help but think about how divorce was nearly as illegal as abortion back then. Yet, Fields doesn't lose his temper.
And what makes It's a Gift funny, or at least interesting, is the way Fields conveys his suppressed desire to strangle everyone in his family wordlessly through what would today be called body language. He moves slowly, but every part of his motion conveys emotion. And you know what he's going through.
The scenes of suffering drag on and on, masochistically, and without any music soundtrack, such as Fields trying to shave with a cut throat razor while his daughter preens and gargles at the sink, or Fields trying to sleep on the porch, as a coconut slowly rattles and bangs down every step of the stairs. It is the very slowness of these scenes that makes them so deliciously tormenting. Fields is conveying humor by manipulating time, slowing it down to a painful crawl. I can't imagine anyone standing for that in a modern hyperkinetic movie, which is a shame.
Of all the W.C. Fields films, in this one his humor most resembles the slow and sad Buster Keaton. I could easily see Keaton playing this role. Too bad Keaton self-destructed with the advent of talkies, though he did eventually make a comeback around 1960 with an appearance on a time- travel episode of The Twilight Zone.
As to Fields, I do not think this is his funniest or most characteristic film. My favorite Fields movie, by far, is International House, which I've seen many times. Many of his funniest works are shorts. And some wonderful excerpts can be viewed on youtube, among them, Fields playing his unique style of ping pong.
And then there's David Copperfield (1935) with Fields playing Micawber. The great Charles Laughton turned down this role, saying he could not do it justice, and recommended Fields, instead.
It's astonishing to think that there are people who have never heard of W.C. Fields. But if this were his only movie, it would be understandable.
For today's audiences, I'm afraid the rating is not so high as it would have been if I were watching this back in 1934. But then, it might have looked better in a big, dark movie theater with an audience and a bucket of popcorn on a Saturday afternoon, than alone on my laptop. It's easier to laugh when there are other people laughing around you. And in 1934, people needed all the excuses for laughter they could get.
There's not much of a script or plot here; It's a Gift probably has about the fewest words for a movie since the silent days. There aren't many of the trademark clever comebacks and double entendres from Fields.
What it does have is a long-suffering, hen pecked W.C. Fields. This time around he is the normal human being in the story, while everyone else around him is obnoxious. Normal? Any other (modern) normal person would slug this wife, or at least divorce her. I couldn't help but think about how divorce was nearly as illegal as abortion back then. Yet, Fields doesn't lose his temper.
And what makes It's a Gift funny, or at least interesting, is the way Fields conveys his suppressed desire to strangle everyone in his family wordlessly through what would today be called body language. He moves slowly, but every part of his motion conveys emotion. And you know what he's going through.
The scenes of suffering drag on and on, masochistically, and without any music soundtrack, such as Fields trying to shave with a cut throat razor while his daughter preens and gargles at the sink, or Fields trying to sleep on the porch, as a coconut slowly rattles and bangs down every step of the stairs. It is the very slowness of these scenes that makes them so deliciously tormenting. Fields is conveying humor by manipulating time, slowing it down to a painful crawl. I can't imagine anyone standing for that in a modern hyperkinetic movie, which is a shame.
Of all the W.C. Fields films, in this one his humor most resembles the slow and sad Buster Keaton. I could easily see Keaton playing this role. Too bad Keaton self-destructed with the advent of talkies, though he did eventually make a comeback around 1960 with an appearance on a time- travel episode of The Twilight Zone.
As to Fields, I do not think this is his funniest or most characteristic film. My favorite Fields movie, by far, is International House, which I've seen many times. Many of his funniest works are shorts. And some wonderful excerpts can be viewed on youtube, among them, Fields playing his unique style of ping pong.
And then there's David Copperfield (1935) with Fields playing Micawber. The great Charles Laughton turned down this role, saying he could not do it justice, and recommended Fields, instead.
It's astonishing to think that there are people who have never heard of W.C. Fields. But if this were his only movie, it would be understandable.