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<font size="4"><br>W.C. Fields</font>
<font size="2"><i>The Bank Dick</i> & 6 Short Films
<br>video review by Gary Johnson</font>
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<P><i>The Bank Dick</i> is one of the all-time great American comedies. It features one of W.C. Fields' best performances. In general, his acting skills have been horribly underrated, but <i>The Bank Dick</i> largely succeeds because of Fields' blustery presence. There are no pie fights or car chases (until the final reel, that is). Instead, the emphasis is upon Fields as he goads his daughter's fiancé into embezzling bank funds to invest in a cockamamie scheme to purchase shares in a Nevada beefsteak mine; as he diverts a bank examiner into a local bar and arranges for the bartender to slip him a Mickey Finn; as he takes over as director on a movie being filmed in his hometown; etc. It's the force of Fields' personality that makes this movie succeed.
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