WC Fields collection- 15

If I Had A Million (1932 - B/W) -  Gary Cooper, George  Raft and Charles Laughton costar. Like a   lot of Fields, bits pop up in other films. Fields only pops up briefly. Fairly ordinary story about 30s lads. By the end, it is about old ladies dancing to a Felix the Cat band. "Maggie" appears on the  soundtrack, so I couldn't stop thinking of Foster and Allen.

Tillie and Gus (1934 - B/W) - Some cartoonish stuff involving babies, ducks and dynamite  enlivens a typical comedy of the era.

It's A Gift (1934 - B/W) - Lotsa cumquat jokes.

Six of a Kind (1934 - B/W) - Typical proto-sitcom 'jinks. Took  me a while to realise  the bland-looking  younger bloke was George Burns.   Ditto  the aw-droppingly odd faux-"Oriental" variety show of International House (1932)

The Old Fashioned Way  (1934 - B/W) - Western comedy again. Didn't really catch my attention,  but it was by William Beaudine. 19th Century   Americana doesn't grab me.

Poppy (1934 -  B/W) -  It has a talking dog, so it's not that bad.

You're Telling Me (1934 - B/W) -Weird  seeing Buster Crabbe in a fairly ordinary comedy.

Man  on  the Flying Trapeze (1934 - B/W) - Not circus capers as the title hints at.


Million Dollar Legs (1932 - B/W) - Sound comedy still finding feet. Basically a vaudeville revue.

The   Bank Dick (1935 - B/W) - Basically  a 50s suburban sitcom 20 years early.

Mississippi (1935 - B/W) - Wearing Bing Crosby-WC Fields-Joan Bennett Southern boating melodramedy.

The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938 -B/W) - Typical vaudeville enlivened by a fun animation sequence and a neat modelwork sequence of a futuristic liner. Bob Hope's first film.

My Little Chickadee (1940 - B/W) - "Ethiopian in the fuel supply?" Western comedies baffle me.

Follow  The Boys (1944 - B/W) - Peculiar vaudeville/drama hybrid morale booster. It  is odd to see young, slim Orson Welles doing magic. Plus everyone  from Nigel Bruce and Maria Montez to the Andrews Sisters. And even  more listed as performing in units (Allen Jenkins and Neil Hamilton - Officer Dibble and Commissioner Gordon!)

For  me, You Can't Cheat An Honest Man is the highlight, because of Edgar Bergen. I like weird comedy, but not weird for weird's sake. It has to be daft and weird.
I watched Never Give A Sucker An Even Break, and that was the second most interesting.