← Back to Reviews
in
It's a Gift (1934
Director: Norman McLeod
Writer: Jack Cunningham
Cast: W.C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Jean Rouverol
Genre: Comedy
Not a well known film...today W.C. Fields is like Rodney Dangerfield in that he...'gets no respect.' ...I've only seen one other Fields' movie and that's the riotously funny My Little Chickadee (1940) with Mae West. I like W.C. Fields but he wasn't at his best here. The first part of the film dragged and it seemed stilted and staged and I didn't find anything funny about it. Some of the actors most notably his daughter couldn't act and were flat in the delivery of their lines. Though she was pretty enough, so I forgave her
The wife was good!
I have to say the blind man gag was cringe worthy. Even back in 1934 that must have felt like an old, stale vaudevillian gag, not funny.....BUT the film did get funny and I did laugh once they headed out west to the orange orchard. The picnic scene on a rich man's estate was hilarious. I loved how they made a HUGE mess with their garbage. And the crackers falling on the little boys head was hilarious, even more so when they fell into his mouth. OK that was inspired comedy, but too bad most of the film felt like a cake walk.
It's a Gift (1934
Writer: Jack Cunningham
Cast: W.C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Jean Rouverol
Genre: Comedy
"A henpecked New Jersey grocer makes plans to move to California to grow oranges, despite the resistance of his overbearing wife."
Not a well known film...today W.C. Fields is like Rodney Dangerfield in that he...'gets no respect.' ...I've only seen one other Fields' movie and that's the riotously funny My Little Chickadee (1940) with Mae West. I like W.C. Fields but he wasn't at his best here. The first part of the film dragged and it seemed stilted and staged and I didn't find anything funny about it. Some of the actors most notably his daughter couldn't act and were flat in the delivery of their lines. Though she was pretty enough, so I forgave her
The wife was good! I have to say the blind man gag was cringe worthy. Even back in 1934 that must have felt like an old, stale vaudevillian gag, not funny.....BUT the film did get funny and I did laugh once they headed out west to the orange orchard. The picnic scene on a rich man's estate was hilarious. I loved how they made a HUGE mess with their garbage. And the crackers falling on the little boys head was hilarious, even more so when they fell into his mouth. OK that was inspired comedy, but too bad most of the film felt like a cake walk.