The Bank Dick (DVD, 2000, Criterion Collection)

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Description

The great W.C. Fields wrote and stars in this zany Universal comedy. He plays Egbert Sousé (pronounced "Soo-zay"), a genial, unemployed lush who endures a miserable family life until the day he accidentally trips up a bank robber and becomes the town hero. The bank manager rewards him with a detective job and Egbert takes advantage of this new situation by embezzling funds in order to buy stock in a beefsteak mine. All hell breaks loose when a determined bank examiner (Franklin Pangborn) shows up in town to go through the books, and the mayhem ends in a hilarious car chase. The film also features Shemp Howard as the local bartender, Una Merkel as Field's daughter, and Grady Sutton as her whining boyfriend. This was one of Field's last, and best comedies, directed in typically uninhibited fashion by Eddie Cline.