You won't be disappointed!

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I found this film, also known as The Bank Detective, listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and I recognised the name of the leading legendary comedy actor, so I was looking forward to what it had to offer, directed by Edward F. Cline, who worked with Buster Keaton many times. Basically Egbert Sousé (W.C. Fields) is a hard-drinking family man, he spends a lot of time drinking, smoking and taking money from his young daughter's piggy bank, replacing it with I.O.U.s. Due to this, Sousé's relationships with his wife Agatha (Cora Witherspoon) and mother-in-law have become strained, and he cannot help but make a crack about the name Og Oggilby (Grady Sutton), fiancé of his older daughter. Sousé sets off for the day, and comes across a movie shoot, he talks his way into a temporary job, replacing the drunken director who does not show up. While on his lunch break, Sousé unknowingly thwarts an attempted bank robbery, one of the two men escapes, but Sousé is praised by the town as a hero, the grateful bank president gives him a job as a bank detective. Sousé convinces Og, who works at the bank, to steal 500 dollars to invest in a questionable mining company, Og hopes to return the money in four days, when he will get his annual bonus. But bank examiner J. Pinkerton Snoopington (Franklin Pangborn) plans an audit, Sousé tries to do something to stop this, but Snoopington is still determined to proceed with the audit. As Snoopington is about to discover the missing funds, the questionable mining company has actually struck it rich, Sousé and Og are now wealthy and don't have to worry about Snoopington. However, the escaped bank robber returns, with a new comrade, he robs the bank for a second time, and escapes with Sousé as a hostage, the robbers force him to drive their getaway car in a spectacular chase, during which the car slowly falls apart. In the end Sousé thwarts the second attempted robbery, and is rewarded again by the bank, now that they are rich, Sousé's family treat with more respect. Also starring Una Merkel as Myrtle Sousé, Evelyn Del Rio as Elsie Mae Adele Brunch Sousé, Jessie Ralph as Mrs. Hermisillo Brunch, Shemp Howard as Joe Guelpe, Richard 'Dick' Purcell as Mackley Q. Greene, Russell Hicks as J. Frothingham Waterbury and Pierre Watkin as Mr. Skinner. Fields became popular for his comic persona as a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist, he is certainly likable despite growling and grumbling a lot of the time, there were the odd bits of business related stuff I didn't get, but it is a simple story, with good slapstick jokes, and the final car chase is the highlight, all in all a worthwhile classic comedy. Good!

"The Bank Dick" is the most consistently funny comedy from W.C Fields. The routines and the dialogue are far above average, as is Fields himself. The plot concerns a small town loafer who first becomes a movie director during a film's shoot. Later on, he accidentally foils an attempted robbery at the local bank. For his reward, W.C Fields is employed as the bank's security guard. All kinds of comic mayhem ensure! Released in 1940, "The Bank Dick" was about the last film of any quality from W.C Fields. He only lived a few more years and his chronic drinking was getting the better of him. The laughs are pretty good here and Fields has dialogue that's worthy of his style.

This was a fairly enjoyable W. C. Fields film. While the plot, such as it is, meanders aimlessly, that wasn't really the point of films like this in those days. Back then, famous comedians played their persona, with plotting as a distant afterthought. The same holds largely true of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, The Marx Brothers, etc. Previous commenter "The_Film_Cricket" hit the nail on the head about the current popularity, or lack thereof, of Fields. His dipsomania, and his misanthropy are now totally politically incorrect. Erelong, he will likely be put down the memory hole, along with Amos & Andy, and "The Song of the South". But for now, we have his good, old-fashioned comedy.

W.C. Fields was invaluable as a comedian simply because he doesn't fit. Like Groucho or The Tramp or Mae West or Buster Keaton's stone face, Fields was such a strong personality that any situation or plot was simply an excuse to let him loose and see what kind of damage he could do.The first time that I saw Fields was in a bizarre 1933 short called The Fatal Glass of Beer. That was the one where he goes to the door of his snowbound cabin and proclaims "And it ain't a fit night out for man nor beast." Then is rewarded with a face-full of fake snow. That's also the one where he utters the immortal words "I think I'll go milk an Elk." From there, I set out to see everything of Fields that I could get my hands on. I have noticed an interesting thing: In nearly every film, in nearly every short film, he always plays the same character, the same irascible, mean-spirited little man who hates children and dogs and whose entire existence is the endless pursuit of the drink and the misadventure therein. The experience is something akin to hanging out with the bad kids at school, you can see them getting away with doing bad stuff but it is a fun journey even if you only sit on the sidelines.Of his features, The Bank Dick is my favorite. He wrote the screenplay himself but the credit went under his pseudonym Mahatma Kane Jeeves (say that name out loud slowly). Like most of the great comedians of the time, he was given control over his own project but still had to battle the Hays office over content. For instance, the Black Pussy Cat Cafe was written in the original script as The Black Pussy Cafe and Snack Bar. Joe Breen and the Hays office changed the name even though somehow the film's title remained.He plays henpecked Egbert Sousé, his usual lecherous drunk who accidentally foils a bank robbery and is offered a job as the bank's guard. A light bulb goes off in his brain to employ his good-for-nothing future son-in-law in an embezzlement scheme to siphon bank funds into a fly-by-night mining enterprise. From there, it is just one damn thing after another. The movie has no real structure and in any other comedy that would be a problem but for Fields it's just a series of set ups and comic pay-offs that have no real connection. Like The Marx Brothers, the plot is more or less an afterthought. The problem in describing Fields is that he can't really be described in words, he's an experience, not an explanation.The persona that Fields created has, today, fallen out of favor. After a brief revival in the 70s, the generation that followed has yet to discover him and I don't think they ever will. Today, in these politically correct times, Fields drunk act doesn't fit. We take alcoholism seriously and a man whose happy pursuit of the sauce frames his very existence doesn't seem in step with the times. But for me, I am bound to see comedy for what it is. If is makes me laugh, it's not my business whether it's politically correct or not. That's why Hollywood had such a problem with Fields, he didn't fit the good-natured mold they wanted to fashion for him.