The Bank Dick
Encyclopedia
The Bank Dick is a 1940 comedy film
. W. C. Fields
plays a character named Egbert Sousé who trips a bank robber and ends up a security guard
as a result. The character is a drunk who must repeatedly remind people in exasperation that his name is pronounced "Sousé – accent grave [sic] over the 'e'!", because people keep calling him "Souse" (slang for drunkard). In addition to bank and family scenes, it features Fields pretending to be a film director and ends in a chaotic car chase. The Bank Dick is considered a classic of his work, incorporating his usual persona as a drunken henpecked husband with a shrewish wife, disapproving mother-in-law, and savage children.
The film was written by Fields, using the alias Mahatma Kane Jeeves (derived from the Broadway drawing-room comedy cliche, "My hat, my cane, Jeeves
!"), and directed by Edward F. Cline
. Shemp Howard, one of the Three Stooges
, plays a bartender.
In 1992, The Bank Dick was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
by the Library of Congress
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In talking Og into embezzling from the bank and encountering resistance, Egbert says: "Don't be a luddy duddy, Don't be a moon calf. Don't be a jabbernowl. You're not those, are you?" (Fields, whose ear for the preposterous-sounding phrase, word or name was unparalleled, claimed to have found the words in a dictionary.)
The film contains some elements of Fields' "everyman" films from the early 1930s, in which he plays the verbally-abused spouse who attains financial security and finally the respect of his nagging family. In this film, he parodies that character to some degree, as much of the criticism is deserved. Early in the film, as the family is bad-mouthing Egbert (for example, taking money from the younger daughter's piggybank and leaving IOU's), a humorously-orchestrated version of "No Place Like Home" plays in the underscore. At the end, with the family now wealthy and playing the parts of exaggerated polite-society characters, "No Place Like Home"" plays again, in a more sincere-sounding melody.
The fake-French pronunciation of his name, established in the film's very first scene, echoes the running joke in It's a Gift
, in which Fields and his wife were constantly telling people to pronounce the family name, Bisonette, as "bi-son-AY".
On his way out the door for the last time in the picture, the butler hands Egbert his hat and cane (living up to Fields' writing pseudonym), and Egbert executes two of his time-honored "juggling" bits: bouncing the cane on the floor and catching it on the rebound; then putting his top hat on and catching it on the tip of the cane instead. As he strolls down the sidewalk, he hears someone whistling "Listen to the Mocking Bird." It turns out to be Joe the bartender (Shemp), and Egbert changes direction and walks quickly toward his pal as the song finishes in the underscore (coincidentally, the song was at one time a recurring theme song for The Three Stooges, a comedy team that Shemp Howard later joined).
said "probably the best Fields vehicle there is" and W.C. Fields Biographer Robert Lewis Taylor
called it "One of the great classics of American comedy". Otis Ferguson, however, wasn't so keen on it. He said "When the man (W.C. Fields) is funny he is terrific... but the story is makeshift, the other characters are stock types, the only pace discernible is the distance between drinks or the rhythm of the fleeting seconds it takes Fields to size up trouble and duck the hell out."
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
. W. C. Fields
W. C. Fields
William Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...
plays a character named Egbert Sousé who trips a bank robber and ends up a security guard
Security guard
A security guard is a person who is paid to protect property, assets, or people. Security guards are usually privately and formally employed personnel...
as a result. The character is a drunk who must repeatedly remind people in exasperation that his name is pronounced "Sousé – accent grave [sic] over the 'e'!", because people keep calling him "Souse" (slang for drunkard). In addition to bank and family scenes, it features Fields pretending to be a film director and ends in a chaotic car chase. The Bank Dick is considered a classic of his work, incorporating his usual persona as a drunken henpecked husband with a shrewish wife, disapproving mother-in-law, and savage children.
The film was written by Fields, using the alias Mahatma Kane Jeeves (derived from the Broadway drawing-room comedy cliche, "My hat, my cane, Jeeves
Jeeves
Reginald Jeeves is a fictional character in the short stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse, being the valet of Bertie Wooster . Created in 1915, Jeeves would continue to appear in Wodehouse's works until his final, completed, novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974, making him Wodehouse's most famous...
!"), and directed by Edward F. Cline
Edward F. Cline
Edward Francis Cline was a screenwriter, actor, writer and director. He was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin and died in Hollywood.-Career:...
. Shemp Howard, one of the Three Stooges
Three Stooges
The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. In films, the Stooges were commonly known by their first names: "Moe, Larry, and Curly" and "Moe,...
, plays a bartender.
In 1992, The Bank Dick was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Cast
- W. C. FieldsW. C. FieldsWilliam Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...
as Egbert Sousé - Cora WitherspoonCora WitherspoonCora Witherspoon was an American actress who played supporting roles in films from the 1930s until the 1950s....
as Agatha Sousé - Una MerkelUna MerkelUna Merkel was an American Tony Award-winning stage and film actress.-Life and career:Una Merkel was born in Covington, Kentucky, and grew up in Philadelphia and New York City. She bore a resemblance to actress Lillian Gish and began her career as a stand-in for Gish, most notably in the 1928...
as Myrtle Sousé - Evelyn Del Rio as Elsie Mae Adele Brunch Sousé
- Jessie RalphJessie RalphJessie Ralph was an American stage and screen actress, best known for her matronly roles in many classic motion pictures....
as Mrs. Hermisillo Brunch - Franklin PangbornFranklin PangbornFranklin Pangborn was an American comedic character actor. Pangborn was famous for small, but memorable roles, with a comic flair. He appeared in many Preston Sturges movies as well as the W.C. Fields films International House, The Bank Dick, and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break...
as J. Pinkerton Snoopington - Shemp Howard as Joe Guelpe
- Dick PurcellDick PurcellDick Purcell was an American actor best known for playing Marvel Comics' Captain America in the 1943 film serial, co-starring with Lorna Gray and Lionel Atwill...
as Mackley Q. Greene - Grady SuttonGrady SuttonGrady Harwell Sutton was an American film and television actor from the 1920s to the 1970s.-Biography:Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Sutton was raised in Florida where he attended St. Petersburg High School. He began his career during the silent film era and made the transition to sound films...
as Og Oggilby - Russell Hicks as J. Frothingham Waterbury
- Pierre WatkinPierre WatkinPierre Watkin was an American actor. He was a character actor in many films, serials and TV series from the 1930s through the 1950s, especially westerns...
as Mr. Skinner - Al Hill as Filthy McNasty
- George Moran as Cozy Cochran
- Bill Wolfe as Otis
- Jack NortonJack NortonJack Norton , was a mustachio'd American stage and film character actor who appeared in 184 films between 1934 and 1948, often playing drunks, although in real life he was a teetotaler.-Career:...
as A. Pismo Clam - Pat West as Assistant Director
- Reed HadleyReed HadleyReed Hadley was an American movie, television and radio actor.Reed Hadley was born Reed Herring in Petrolia in Clay County near Wichita Falls, Texas, to Bert Herring, an oil well driller, and his wife Minnie. Hadley had one sister, Bess Brenner. He was reared in Buffalo, New York...
as Francois - Heather Wilde as Miss Plupp
- Harlan Briggs as Doctor Stall
- Bill Alston as Mr. Cheek
Highlights
Fields by now was considerably heavier than in his henpecked-husband pictures of just five or six years earlier, and his voice suggests that he may have been suffering from a cold during the film's production. Nonetheless, the film contains some well-known scenes and dialogue:- The family frequently mentions Egbert's smoking while upstairs in his room, a fact which he tries to hide. In one scene, Egbert comes downstairs and when his family mentions his smoking, he uses a quick movement of his lips to "fold" the still-burning cigarette into his mouth so that he can walk out unmolested.
- A couple of times in the "Black Pussy Cat Cafe", the town saloon, Egbert says to a capped bottle of whiskey, "Take off your hat in the presence of a gentleman."
- Egbert entertains a group of children by taking a drag from a cigarette, placing it in his ear, and exhaling multiple puffs of smoke, making it seem as though he is using his ear to inhale the smoke. He cautions them that smoking is an adult activity, and adds, "I didn't take up smoking until I was nine."
- Egbert: "Was I in here last night, and did I spend a 20 dollar bill?"
- Joe the bartender (Shemp): "Yeah!"
- Egbert: "Oh, boy, is that a load off my mind. (chuckles) I thought I'd lost it!"
- Upon being introduced to his daughter's beau, Og Oggilby (Grady SuttonGrady SuttonGrady Harwell Sutton was an American film and television actor from the 1920s to the 1970s.-Biography:Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Sutton was raised in Florida where he attended St. Petersburg High School. He began his career during the silent film era and made the transition to sound films...
), a functionary at the local bank, Egbert remarks, "Og Oggilby...sounds like a bubble in a bathtub." - In order to divert Pinkerton J. Snoopington the bank examiner (Franklin PangbornFranklin PangbornFranklin Pangborn was an American comedic character actor. Pangborn was famous for small, but memorable roles, with a comic flair. He appeared in many Preston Sturges movies as well as the W.C. Fields films International House, The Bank Dick, and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break...
) from discovering Og's embezzlement of bank funds, Egbert takes him to the bar and surreptiously asks Joe if "Michael FinnMickey Finn (drugs)A Mickey Finn, is a slang term for a drink laced with a drug given to someone without his knowledge in order to incapacitate him...
" has been in the bar yet today, a signal that Joe is to drug the bank examiner's drink. - When Snoopington is too ill to proceed with the audit, Egbert escorts him back to his room on the second floor of the "New Old Lompoc House" hotel. Moments later Egbert comes running down the stairs and dashes out the door, returning with Snoopington, who is apparently not that much worse for having fallen out the window of his room.
- Egbert repeats (and mangles) a con-artist's sales pitch for the 'Beefsteak Mine' thus: "Ten cents a share. Telephone sold for five cents a share. How would you like something better for ten cents a share? If five will get you ten, ten will get you twenty. Beautiful home in the country, upstairs and down. Beer flowing through the estate over your grandmother's paisley shawl." By the end of the film, it turns out to be a sound investment after all, his family adores him, he lives a life of luxury and everyone lives happily ever afterHappy endingA happy ending is an ending of the plot of a work of fiction in which almost everything turns out for the best for the protagonists, their sidekicks, and almost everyone except the villains....
.
- Upon being introduced to his daughter's beau, Og Oggilby (Grady Sutton
In talking Og into embezzling from the bank and encountering resistance, Egbert says: "Don't be a luddy duddy, Don't be a moon calf. Don't be a jabbernowl. You're not those, are you?" (Fields, whose ear for the preposterous-sounding phrase, word or name was unparalleled, claimed to have found the words in a dictionary.)
The film contains some elements of Fields' "everyman" films from the early 1930s, in which he plays the verbally-abused spouse who attains financial security and finally the respect of his nagging family. In this film, he parodies that character to some degree, as much of the criticism is deserved. Early in the film, as the family is bad-mouthing Egbert (for example, taking money from the younger daughter's piggybank and leaving IOU's), a humorously-orchestrated version of "No Place Like Home" plays in the underscore. At the end, with the family now wealthy and playing the parts of exaggerated polite-society characters, "No Place Like Home"" plays again, in a more sincere-sounding melody.
The fake-French pronunciation of his name, established in the film's very first scene, echoes the running joke in It's a Gift
It's a Gift
It's a Gift is a 1934 comedy film starring W. C. Fields, considered by film historians to be one of Fields' best and funniest films.It concerns the trials and tribulations of a grocery store owner as he battles a shrewish wife, an incompetent assistant, and assorted annoying children, customers,...
, in which Fields and his wife were constantly telling people to pronounce the family name, Bisonette, as "bi-son-AY".
On his way out the door for the last time in the picture, the butler hands Egbert his hat and cane (living up to Fields' writing pseudonym), and Egbert executes two of his time-honored "juggling" bits: bouncing the cane on the floor and catching it on the rebound; then putting his top hat on and catching it on the tip of the cane instead. As he strolls down the sidewalk, he hears someone whistling "Listen to the Mocking Bird." It turns out to be Joe the bartender (Shemp), and Egbert changes direction and walks quickly toward his pal as the song finishes in the underscore (coincidentally, the song was at one time a recurring theme song for The Three Stooges, a comedy team that Shemp Howard later joined).
Reviews
The movie has many favorable reviews of it. Respected film critic Leslie HalliwellLeslie Halliwell
Robert James Leslie Halliwell was a British film encyclopaedist and television impresario who in 1965 compiled The Filmgoer's Companion, the first one-volume encyclopaedia devoted to all aspects of the cinema. He followed it a dozen years later with Halliwell's Film Guide, another monumental work...
said "probably the best Fields vehicle there is" and W.C. Fields Biographer Robert Lewis Taylor
Robert Lewis Taylor
Robert Lewis Taylor was an American author and winner of the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.Taylor was born in Carbondale, Illinois and attended Southern Illinois University, which now houses his papers, for one year. He graduated from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor...
called it "One of the great classics of American comedy". Otis Ferguson, however, wasn't so keen on it. He said "When the man (W.C. Fields) is funny he is terrific... but the story is makeshift, the other characters are stock types, the only pace discernible is the distance between drinks or the rhythm of the fleeting seconds it takes Fields to size up trouble and duck the hell out."