It's a Gift

I'm not going to repeat the story here. The story line is serviceable, but not as important as the situations and the set pieces. Mundane things like light bulbs and back porches become magical in this movie, though exactly what kind of magic is open to debate.

But I will say that this is the best of W.C. Fields's films, and that's saying something (though I do like "Million Dollar Legs" an awful lot). And I'd put "It's a Gift" in the Top 10 list of the best sound comedies ever made, and maybe in the Top 5.

The production is about as tacky as Golden Age Paramount was capable of. Compared to the Marx Brother's "Duck Soup" which was made in the same place at almost the same time, it looks like home movies.

But "It's a Gift" is every bit as funny as "Duck Soup," if not more so, and has aged less than Paramount's high-style comedies with MacDonald and Chevalier (which are still wonderful but require more of an effort from modern audiences).

Whether you plug into Fields's comedy as a painful commentary on the human condition, or if you just want some belly laughs with no strings attached , this is the film to watch. And if it's the first time you're seeing it, I envy you.

And best regards from Carl LaFong.

"It's a Gift" is one of Fields' best! Though W.C Fields is rarely thought of as a physical comedian, his performance is as graceful and athletic as you're likely to see. Sharp, biting dialogue and timeless comedic elements (like the universally recognized nagging wife, pesky kids, delivery people, and, [horrors] even the "visually impaired") get the Fields treatment. Like most of Fields' work "It's a Gift" centers, not on the drinking that would become his caricature (though he does "tip a few" in the film), but on the "little guy." Fields is once again in the familiar role of "down-trodden little man" just trying to make it in an increasingly crazy and, sometimes, cruel world. "It's a Gift" is wonderful theatre; brilliantly executed by one of America's comic masters.

If you can spell Carl LaFong, you can spell laugh....that's capital "L', small "a", small "u", small "g", small "h"!!! And Carl LaFong is only one of many bits that will have you weeping with laughter. This is, without a doubt, the best of Fields and it is more than 70 years old!! Watch some of the old comedies of the early 30's and be bored to death; very few stand the test of time as this one does. The story is simple - man inherits money, buys his dream, the dream turns bad, and then turns good, end of story. Fields' movies don't need much story; only something to frame his talents and the talents of his supporting players who are all spot-on in this film. The picnic scene will have you rolling in the aisles (or off the couch), the aforementioned Carl LaFong scene (in fact, the whole porch scene) and "Sit down, Mr. Muckle,honey" is a riot. Almost every set piece in "It's a Gift" will evoke laughter and as usual, the names of the characters are pure Fields madness. I give this classic a 10 and recommend it to all those comedy buffs who think that all humor has to have sexual or political content to succeed.

I finally cracked the first WC Fields set that Universal put out a few years ago. I got the second set for Christmas and figured I should probably start watching the films.

I started with Its A Gift, the story of a put upon grocer in New Jersey who buys an orange farm and heads west. Of course everything goes wrong.

One of Field's classics, this is cinema of cruelty as the put upon Fields has to deal with a world that won't leave him in peace. His wife is a nag, his employee at the store is a moron, his customers-including Mr Muckle,the blind man- are self centered vortexes of destruction. Fields is not a bad guy he just has bad luck as everyone wants something from him. I hadn't seen the film in years and I never noticed how cruel it is. I laughed but I also felt really bad for Fields since he clearly deserved better than he got. Personally I'm mixed about its classic status. Yes Fields is wonderful and the set pieces from attempts to shave while his daughter invades the bathroom, to the day in the grocery store, to trying to sleep on his porch to everything that follows is pure comic genius. Its masterfully put together comedy in a way that very few people today understand, no one does set pieces like this any more its all throw away lines and two second gags.On the technical level it is a classic, but at the same time I didn't laugh enough to be a "classic". Perhaps its the fact fields' plight was also very sad at times. I don't know something kept it from crossing into classic status. Certainly this is a four star film, better than most modern comedies and it really should be seen and enjoyed but I don't if its a classic like some of Keaton, Chaplin or the Marx brothers films.

But I'm quibbling- no doubt the result of not seeing the film in too long a time. See this film for a really good laugh and to reacquaint yourself with a semi-forgotten master of comedy 7.5 out of 10

As was my habit as a teenager, I often would stay up late at night watching old movies (which were just about the only things broadcast after midnight back then). One night, I turned on the tube and a W. C. Fields movie had just started. It wasn't long before I found myself laughing. My father, for some reason unable to sleep, got up to join me. Soon he was laughing out loud too, and he wasn't one who laughed at just anything. When the scene came in which Fields tries to take a little nap alfresco--both of us began laughing uncontrollably. If someone could have seen us through a sound proof window, I'm sure they would have thought we were having seizures. NO scene in ANY of the great comedies exceeds this one in hilarity, and few even approach it. Not the seduction/dance scene in "Some Like It Hot," not the hitchhiking, not the "piggy-back" scenes from "It Happened One Night," not the "water-in-the-face" scene in "City Lights"--no scene from "Tootsie," no scene from "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," not any of the zany scenes from "The Court Jester," or "A Night At The Opera"--none of these beat Fields' pitiful attempt at catching a little shut-eye. And this is just one sequence in a film filled with wet-your-pants laughing.

W. C. Fields was one of the screen's greatest comedians. His bumbling, surly, dipsomaniac is a creation right up there with Chaplin's Little Tramp. As a gift from the gods of comedy, Fields was given an APPEARANCE of a bungler, but he was, in fact, physically adroit to a level most athletes could only dream of. Thus, he could get away with doing things SO bungling--like accidentally putting his hat on his walking stick (resting on his shoulder) instead of his head, and then not be able to find it, or trying to walk out the wrong side of the door--that if someone else tried them, they'd only look ridiculous. Fields makes you think these things could actually, comically, happen. He was truly a comedic genius.

One of cinema's greatest comedians, in one of cinema's funniest films: Do yourself a favor--wear a diaper and SEE THIS MOVIE!