WC Fields Collection

Star Review

WC Fields isn’t the only alcoholic misanthrope who became a movie star but he was the only one who never bothered to hide it. Hell, he built a career butchering sacred cows (‘any man who hates children and dogs can’t be all bad’) and drinking heavily (‘who took the cork out of my lunch?’). The fact he was a supremely gifted comedian certainly helped too.

He came to Hollywood via the same route as Chaplin and the Marx brothers: learning his trade in front of an audience who’d let him know when he did something wrong. Although he made a couple of silent pictures, it wasn’t until sound hit that he became bankable. In the middle of the depression, a movie star who didn’t tell you to put on a happy face was as rare as it was refreshing. This sour cynicism still strikes a chord with modern viewers.

There are 17 Fields films here, including It’s a Gift and The Bank Dick. For fans of the Great Man – and cynics everywhere – it’s essential.

James Oliver on 24th December 2007

View all 33 of James Oliver’s reviews

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Film Description

WC Fields was one of the great comic personas of American cinema. Lugubrious, misanthropic and larger-than life, he turned buffoonery into an art form. With his unique gift for physical comedy and deadpan timing, he produced a series of films that spanned the silent and 'talkie' era.

This collection comprises 17 of Field's best films: Big Broadcast Of 1938; The Bank Dick; You Can't Cheat an Honest Man; My Little Chickadee; Man on the Flying Trapeze; The Old Fashioned Way; You're Telling Me!; Six of a Kind; International House; Million Dollar Legs; If I Had A Million; Mississippi; Poppy; Never Give a Sucker an Even Break; It's A Gift; Tillie and Gus.

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DVD Extras

• 10 discs

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Cast

WC Fields

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