preppy-3 W.C. Fields plays a henpecked husband who's a police officer in a bank. That's about it for plot! What happens is a string of disjointed and increasingly stupid escapades with Fields becoming a director and a hero for catching bank robbers.I've never seen a Fields film but heard that this one was one of the best. I tuned in and HATED it! I didn't laugh or even smile once! This is one of those early movies where alcoholism is treated as a big joke and violence is supposed to be side-splitting. Fields mumbles most of his lines which ends up making his jokes either inaudible or lifeless. At the end it seems the filmmakers gave up and just threw in a WILD car chase which goes on forever and also isn't funny. I realize Fields is considered a genius and his movies classics but this one totally escapes me.

Robert J. Maxwell I probably enjoy this at least as much as any of W. C. Fields' other flicks but I think it helps a lot to be in the proper mood. As an actor, Fields was sui generis. His gags, his gestures, his characters were all his own. He was even able to inject a bit of the Philadelphia vaudevillian into his Mister Macawber. It's hardly possible to imagine his playing a straight part or sharing the screen with an equal, as Bob Hope did with Bing Crosby. There was nobody like him.Therefore, whether or not you appreciate his comedy is going to depend almost entirely on your ability to appreciate the on-screen persona of W. C. Fields.You have to be in the proper mood to appreciate his bits of business. (The stories themselves are of practically no consequence.) You must ask yourself serious questions, such as: "When the ex-juggler tried to put his hat on and sets it on top of his upraised cane instead, is that funny?" Are vile and politically incorrect habits like smoking and drinking amusing in themselves? Does it deserve a chuckle when a man's family hates him so much that they insult him in the third person when he's present? How about a man shuffling down the street of an indifferent town and muttering to himself about life's tribulations? I usually find his movies full of stretches of rough road -- a plump man with a turnip for a nose who shows a startle reaction to every unexpected sound or sight. But there are some good gags sprinkled along the dusty miles. "Allow me to offer you a firm handshake," says the bank president, barely touching Fields' fingers with his own. And Fields in the Black Pussy Cat Cafe interrupting an intense conversation to turn to the bartender with a curious squint to ask, "By the way, did I spend a twenty dollar bill here last night? I did? Whew, what a load off my mind. I thought I'd lost it." Or shepherding the dreaded bank examiner into the saloon, intending to incapacitate him before he can get to the books, and then slyly inquiring of the bar tender, "Has, er, Michael Finn been here today?" (Boys and girl, a "mickey finn" was slang for an alcoholic drink into which so-called knock-out drops had been placed, probably chloral hydrate.) If you see nothing funny in Fields passing his family at the breakfast table, swimming through a sea of humiliating derogations, and getting beaned by an object thrown by his young daughter just as he's walking out the door -- well, that's not too funny. But how about if the family continues with their aspersions for a bit more, until we cut to the still-open door and see Fields struggling to carry a potted plant the size of a garbage can inside in order to smash it over his little girls' head?

Frances Farmer I had no particularly high expectations for "The Bank Dick" but since it is reputed to be one of W.C. Fields' best movies I thought I'd take a flier on it. Not the worst movie I've ever seen but far from the best. The real problem is the acting is very mediocre. All the types are there... the shrewish wife, the nasty mother in law, the super-bratty offspring, con men, drunkards, etc. but they just don't pull their weight. Most of the lines aren't all that funny to begin with but they could succeed much better with superior delivery.As I think about it, comedies don't seem to age nearly as well on the whole as dramas. That must have to do partly with comedies being much more culturally/contextually dependent for their success with audiences. Perhaps whatever W.C. was trying to poke fun at or deflate is so irrelevant in 2011 that this dated movie just isn't worth the bother any longer.

MartinHafer Apart from IT'S A GIFT, this is among W. C. Fields' greatest films--with tons of laughs. He plays Egbert Sousé (pronounced 'soo-zay', not 'souse'--a great play on words) and the film is filled with more Fields bizarre names than usual. My favorite is the bank examiner, 'J. Pinkerton Snoopington' but 'Filthy McNasty' and 'Og Oggilby' are also dandy! Plus the script credit which goes to 'Mahatma Kane Jeeves' (a pseudonym for Fields himself)). But there is far more to the film than just silly names. Like almost all of Fields' films, it's about a likable small-time blow-hard who somehow makes it big by the end of the film. In this film, Fields accidentally foils a bank robbery and is rewarded with a job working in the bank. Later, he once again saves the day and is the town hero. In between he manages to make a mess of things, but in Fields fashion, it all manages to work itself out as well.What helps this film is that in addition to an excellent Fields performance is some excellent support from the likes of Grady Sutton, Shemp Howard, Franklin Pangborn and Una Merkel and they're all in top form. Overall, the film shows that you can take a very simple plot and just let Fields act--that's really all you need for an excellent comedy. The only negative is the rear projection used during the police chase--it was very obviously fake--too fake to be funny.