JohnHowardReid Despite the fact that it's rather peculiar in its construction, this is one of Fields' best comedies. Unfortunately, it runs out of steam about halfway through. And it's not as if the story runs out of plot. On the contrary, it suddenly gains one-and this is just the trouble. In fact, the more formless the movie is, the funnier it seems. Opening with an agreeable domestic hassle that introduces the characters, the screenplay quickly proceeds into the celebrated shop scene which everyone ranks as one of the most hilarious in Fields' entire repertoire. The whole scene is beautifully timed and acted by Fields, Charles Sellon, Tammany Young and Morgan Wallace. Fields' bustling bits of business and his facial expressions are truly inspired. Now I wonder why that particular scene has never been imitated and appropriated by lesser comedians? Answer: It's a real no-no, censorship wise. A man who is almost totally deaf and blind is made the butt of some astoundingly hair-raising sight gags and a couple of delicious verbal thrusts. And then it's topped by the truly extraordinary sequence co-ordinated by Johnny Sinclair in which the blind man innocently walks across the street, unknowingly exposing himself against every imaginable vehicular obstacle. The following episode in which Fields attempts to sleep on the verandah, is almost as funny. To my mind, however, it's allowed to run just a trifle too long-even though brought to an abrupt and hilarious conclusion! The next sequences, like the invasion of the private picnic ground, are not a quarter as amusing. And alas, by the time the plot reaches California, it has run out of steam. Nonetheless, it's still a great Fields outing. As noted, our comedian always enjoys excellent support, including some timely interventions from Kathleen Howard as his nagging wife. The screenplay makes two or three perfunctory attempts to work up a bit of romantic interest involving Jean Rouverol and Julian Madison, but this will worry no-one. It's a Gift is virtually one hundred proof Fields.AVAILABLE on DVD through Universal. Quality rating: Ten out of ten.

gavin6942 A henpecked New Jersey grocer (W. C. Fields) makes plans to move to California to grow oranges, despite the resistance of his overbearing wife.The film contains certain routines, having been honed, that Fields had developed 1915-1925. Fields often tried to recapture on film original sketches that had been the basis of his stage success. Thus 'The Picnic', 'A Joy Ride' and most famously, 'The Back Porch', all become segments of "It's a Gift".Lesser known than some of Fields' later works such as "The Bank Dick", the film is perhaps the best example of the recurring theme of the Everyman battling against his domestic entrapment. Historians and critics have often cited its numerous memorable comic moments. It is one of several Paramount Pictures in which Fields contended with child actor Baby LeRoy.While much of the film is humorous and you can really feel for Fields, the key moment of the film has to be the blind man in the store, while a second customer keeps yelling bout his kumquats. It as the only part I literally laughed out loud and more than once. I had no idea that "kumquat" was such a funny word.

mike48128 In this movie, poor Harold Bissonette (W.C. Fields) is a henpecked husband married to Amelia, with his pretty daughter Jean, her boyfriend, and his bratty son Norman, who always causes trouble. Harold's rich relative dies and leaves him about $4,000. He buys, sight unseen, an Orange Ranch in California. First he has to endure the worst day possible at his New Jersey grocery store: The blind man (Mr.Muckle) breaks his store's glass door and a stacked pile of light bulbs. He puts on a fur coat to cut some beefsteak inside the meat locker. Baby LeRoy wreaks the store and spills a keg of molasses on the floor ("Stickiest stuff I've ever seen") But first: the kumquat customer never gets his fruit. Blind and deaf Mr. Muckle, leaves the store after dodging several cars, a fire truck and an ambulance while crossing the street. Also contains the famous "Are you Carl LaFong?" scene as he tries to sleep on the back porch to get away from his wife's incessant nagging, a noisy milkmen, an annoying insurance salesman, a "possessed" coconut, Baby LeRoy (throwing grapes on Fields), and a collapsing porch swing! All this and more makes it quite impossible for him to sleep! He buys a totally beat up touring car and travels 3,000 miles from New Jersey to California and has a few more minor mis-adventures along the way. (At a "tourist camp campfire" and at a picnic where he gets "rained out" by sprinklers while trespassing on private property. When they all finally get to the "orange ranch" it is dried up and falling apart but he manages to sell it to a man that needs the land to build a race track grandstand! So, he "wins out" after all: over $44,000 in cash, an orange "grove" and a beautiful ranch. He shares an orange (from his gin and orange) with his only other true friend-in-the-world, his faithful dog. A great film, but I like several other Fields films better!

Neil Doyle There are so many funny sequences in IT'S A GIFT that it's no wonder W.C. FIELDS became a legend among screen comics with his gift for physical comedy.KATHERINE HOWARD as his nagging wife with a penchant for non-stop talking, is a great foil for his brand of comedy. And the bathroom scene at the start, is a standout of comic timing by all concerned, as Fields attempts to shave by a mirror over the sink as all sorts of interferences from his family leads to hilarious hi-jinks.CHARLES SELLON does a wacky and wonderful job as the blind man who almost single-handedly destroys Fields' grocery store. And once Fields and his family get on the road to California to buy an orange grove, the sight gags continue in fast and furious fashion.On the negative side, BABY SANDY has so little to do that you have to wonder why he became so popular at the time. Undoubtedly one of Fields' best films of the '30s, a bundle of laughs from start to finish.