Good movie but grossly overrated

A lot of fun.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

What makes W.C. Fields' comedy so good is the use of his body. Watch him walk in It's a Gift: he uses strategically placed steps and movements. And hear how his voice modulates from authoritative to submissive, sometimes within the same line of dialogue. But what gives his comedy and the film such relevance is the value that is placed on the relationship of Fields' character with the surrounding members of his immediate family and community. There are some tender moments with his daughter; with the blind man at the store; and later on the road, with his wife. I think Fields understood the nature of human relationships, and that is what takes priority in this movie. Sure, life is not perfect. There are many foibles to be sure. But it's a gift.

I profess this film to be the very first W.C. Fields film that I have ever viewed in it's entirety.The verdict? While I don't view W.C. Fields to be among the funniest comedians I have ever seen,his work in this film left an overall good impression on me.The film contains a good mixture of sight gags and one liners,and I found all of them to be the comedy equivalent of home runs,or at the least,triples.About the only thing I didn't laugh at in this film was Mr. Fields' interaction with the children.Overall I find the film to be a winner,and would view again should I come across it on television and were finding myself in need of laughs.

One needs only to mention the porch-sequence, or the frustrating business with Mr. Muckle. Of all the films W.C. Fields appeared in, IT'S A GIFT may stand as the most consistently funny of them, or for that matter the most beloved. This praise might puzzle the casual by-passer; it's rather depressing, isn't it, the sight of an exhausted man simply nodding to his wife's frustrated remark "I've given you the best years of my life!" Well, generally speaking, perhaps. However, W.C. Fields was hardly a "general" comedian; one of his trademarks was to pull great comedy out of dysfunctional family life. Furthermore, the atmosphere he'd evoke through this cynical comedy of his would often appear close to resembling real life, so much so that the attempts would have fallen flat had they been treated by other hands. Fields is cast as the grocery-store owner Harold Bissonette (pronounced Bisson-AY when his wife's around), a sort of everyman whose big dream is to settle down in California and grow oranges. His dominant wife's skepticism notwithstanding, Harold buys an orange ranch with the few bucks the family has left. Inevitably, things turn out not quite as expected…By the time IT'S A GIFT was released towards the end of 1934, W.C. Fields had only recently become a name to behold among the movie-going public, at least whereas his work in sound films is concerned. The comedian had, however, been a well known stage presence for years, not only in vaudeville but also on Broadway. It was thus quite inevitable that Fields throughout his career as a movie star would often turn to his theatrical roots in order to get inspired; as such, IT'S A GIFT is only one of numerous examples. Based on a play written by Fields and J.P. McEvoy, the story had in fact made it onto the screen nearly a decade before, as the silent film THE OLD ARMY GAME. Although the original film also featured Fields as the struggling grocery-store owner, it didn't work that well out the first time around. One reason to its failure is often cited to be the absence of sound. Indeed, the brilliance of the famous sequence with Fields trying to get a few hours of sleep on the porch owes some debt to the use of sound effects, such as the terrorizing clunks of a coco-nut going down several stairs. However, of equal significance, I think, is the focus on character consistency which is far more present in IT'S A GIFT than its silent proceeder. The fact that Fields obviously took his character more into consideration in this later film may be one of the major reasons why it stands so well to this day, still forcing us helpless viewers to laugh our heads off at something which, esthetically speaking, looks pretty damn old. It's hilarious in itself that helpless Fields is forced to treat Mr. Muckle in kind manner while an impatient costumer roars for kumquats, and I defy anyone not to howl with laughter when a certain "Carl LaFong!" is mentioned. But what makes these sequences into a coherent entirety is the fact that we truly care about Fields. We may laugh harder and harder for each time his situation turns worse, but never without a tiny undercurrent hope for him to succeed the next time around.IT'S A GIFT was well-received upon its initial release, and marked a further step for Fields' approaching status as a household name. More than seventy-five years later, the comedy holds up possibly even better, as Fields' contemporary audiences had no way of telling how much ahead of his time the comedian actually was. He's able to make the phrase "I hate you--GET OUT!" sidesplitting. Enough said, but PLEASE open the door for Mr. Muckle!!

116: It's a Gift (1934) - released 11/17/1934, viewed 9/6/08.BIRTHS: Carl Sagan, Charles Manson.KEVIN: There are probably earlier films of W.C. Fields we could've started with, but we were just too damn lazy to add them to the list. So we first meet the plump, red-nosed, curmudgeonly underdog at age 53 in his purported masterpiece, 'It's a Gift.' As an actual movie, the film is put together pretty poorly. Comic vignettes are strung together loosely, transitions are almost nonexistent, and the lack of music is far too noticeable. But the comic vignettes themselves, containing some of Field's best gags, are always hilarious. It's rare to see a comic actor in this period playing a family man. Of course, it would be hard to imagine a guy of Field's age and complexion as a romantic lead like his other comic contemporaries. Field's bumbling grocer is tormented by his shrewish wife, annoying kids, and every person he meets in a series of gags that seem more based on the actual experiences of a veteran family man, rather than spilling out of the gag-writers' factory. There are times where Fields' bad luck and getting blamed for every stupid thing that happens (even stuff that's obviously not his fault) strains belief, even in the midst of a comedy. Anyway, this is definitely a must see, but I'm sure it would play far better if watched by a large company of viewers than by any individual.DOUG: Welcome to the world of W.C. Fields, where all the women are nagging shrews, all the children are unwieldy brats, and the hero is a clumsy, boorish, impatient and obstinate old man. Most of the comedians of the era have protagonists that are everymen and/or cartoon characters, getting into extraordinary situations through mostly no fault of their own and showing some pluckiness as they overcome adversity. Fields, however, seems to wind up in situations, mostly his fault, that he could get out of if he possessed even the slightest bit of finesse. Case in point: the film's first sustained gag sequence, in which Fields foolishly lets his daughter into the bathroom so she can do her hair while he's in the middle of shaving, leaving him to struggle to find a steady reflection to finish his job instead of just, you know, ASKING HER to hang back for a couple of minutes. This continues throughout the movie, which is little more than a collection of episodes showing Fields constantly besotted by forces determined to drive him mad. He tries in vain to escape his awful wife by sleeping on the porch amid a parade of noise; he attempts to run his grocery store while handling a grouchy customer, a neighbor's demon child, a ballistic blind man, and a half-wit assistant he should have fired long ago; and he drives his rickety old car into a private estate for a picnic, promising that the KEEP OUT sign is just to scare the hobos away. A unique brand of comedy to be sure, one that I'm surprised got past the Hays Code in any measure, so definitely recommended.Last film: The Gay Divorcée (1934). Next film: Imitation of Life (1934).