The Bank Dick (1940)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Edward F. Cline

Writer:

W.C. Fields (writer)

Release Date:

29 November 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Was His Face Red . . . And His Nose, Too ! when the bandits took the money . . . and the SAFE !

Plot:

Henpecked Egbert Sousè has comic adventures as a substitute film director and unlikely bank guard.

Plot Keywords:

Bank | Stock | Exaggeration | Dysfunctional Family | Grandmother

Awards:

1 win

Cast

W.C. Fields	...	Egbert Sousè
Cora Witherspoon	...	Agatha Sousè
Una Merkel	...	Myrtle Sousè
Evelyn Del Rio	...	Elsie Mae Adele Brunch Sousè
Jessie Ralph	...	Mrs. Hermisillo Brunch
Franklin Pangborn	...	J. Pinkerton Snoopington
Shemp Howard	...	Joe Guelpe, Bartender
Dick Purcell	...	Mackley Q. Greene, Movie Location Scout (as Richard Purcell)
Grady Sutton	...	Og Oggilby
Russell Hicks	...	J. Frothingham Waterbury
Pierre Watkin	...	Mr. Skinner, Bank President
Al Hill	...	Filthy McNasty
George Moran	...	Cozy Cochran
Bill Wolfe	...	Otis
Jack Norton	...	A. Pismo Clam, Movie Director

Also Known As:

The Bank Detective (UK)
The Great Man (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

72 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved

Filming Locations:

Lompoc, California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

Universal's censors initially objected to W.C. Fields' script and demanded many changes. Director Edward F. Cline suggested that Fields should go ahead and film it their way, and that the front office wouldn't notice the difference. They didn't.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Wires are visible when the workmen are thrown from the ditch they are digging by the police motorcycle.

Quotes:

Egbert Sousé: My uncle, a balloon ascensionist, Effingham Hoofnagle, took a chance. He was three miles and a half up in the air. He jumped out of the basket of the balloon and took a chance of alighting on a load of hay.
Og Oggilby: Golly! Did he make it?
Egbert Sousé: Uh... no. He didn't. Had he been a younger man, he probably would have made it. That's the point. Don't wait too long in life.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Sopranos: 46 Long (#1.2)" (1999)

Soundtrack:

Home Sweet Home

joyful comedy, asides, and the pleasures of smoking and drinking....

a source of strange joy, even in its quiet and failed moments. great moments mostly mumbled and underplayed so that the film seems so humble and so unaggressive, unlike most comedies now which would wring your neck if they could...Fields' before-its-time irony and self-consciousness about moviemaking is revealed in a throwaway line during the car chase at the end...in the midst of all the obviously speeded-up film and projection effects, Egbert Souse deadpans "you're going to make me have an accident....." I'm almost ready to move into Lompoc, with its Spanish-Americo chili parlor, and, I hope, "rivers of beer flowing over your grandmother's paisley shawl...." and, apparently, absinthe is still available....