User reviews

W. C. Fields specialized in two kinds of characters, tricksters and henpecked husbands. "It's A Gift" works as a showcase of Fields in the latter department.

Fields is Harold Bissonette, pronounced "bis-son-ay," a store clerk who dreams of an orange grove to call his own. His nagging wife Amelia (Kathleen Howard) just can't wait to tick off all the ways Harold ticks her off in as loud a voice as possible. Harold puts up with this as he plots to buy his orange grove despite her persistent objections.

"What did I say last?" she demands at the end of one tirade.

"Yes, yes, every word of it," a distracted Harold meekly replies.

If you are a die-hard W. C. fan, it's not hard to recommend "It's A Gift." It's a series of quintessential setpieces of Fieldsian slow burns and double-speak. There's not much to be said for the plot, as you shouldn't have to pay more attention to it than Fields and his team of writers did. The point is to get Fields in various messes, and this "It's A Gift" does with brisk efficiency.

Plenty of famous bits make their way on screen. The infamous Carl LaFong is name-dropped and name-spelled for eternity, and there's of course the biggest cinematic nod in the direction of the kumquat industry, though unlike Mr. LaFong they get the name spelled wrong. Everyone remembers that scene where Harold tries to whack his son ("Well, he's not going to tell me I don't love him!") and when he comes up with a Churchillian reply when accused of being drunk.

The question of enjoying "It's A Gift" boils down to how much you embrace "aggravation comedy," where the humor is built into annoying situations made more so through sheer repetition. I can only take so much of Harold dodging customers in his store, or wrestling with a deck chair. A long sequence showcases Harold trying to sleep on a porch while a milkman, a coconut, a salesman, and a squeaky clothesline all conspire against him. I can't help but chuckle a few times, but am always happy when the scene ends.

Harold is a fascinating character, a beaten man who is the author of his own destruction. He bought an orange ranch even after knowing it was a lemon, lets a blind man smash everything in his store, and of course married Amelia. But he's still Fields, and manages to work his way through his self-created turmoil to a surprisingly upbeat, if left-field, conclusion.

That's my favorite part of the film, but you can't say enough for the able support of Kathleen Howard. Her Amelia is a wonderful shrew, kind of likable in her querulous way. She nags Harold even in her sleep, and her line readings are deliriously skewed in the way they seem to fall heavy on nearly every other syllable. "Don't be kicking Norman's skates around!" she huffs after Harold does a header slipping on one of his son's roller-skates, as if Harold did it just to annoy her. Considering this is Fields, maybe he did.

Director Norman Z. McLeod isn't much talked about even among film students, though he may be the only man who directed major vehicles for Fields, the Marx Brothers, Harold Lloyd, and Danny Kaye. He knew how to work with comedy stars, and here keeps Fields at the center of the action.

Watching "It's A Gift" can be hard on the nerves, but it's also a treat for the funny bone with a good heart discernible amid the mayhem.

Fields' characters are so tragic, you have to laugh. Here is a man with a nagging wife, annoying kids, and lost dreams. I also can't help but think after watching W.C.'s movie that Merrie Melodies cartoons were stealing from him, or vice versa. However, if you're looking for a Fields film to watch I suggest the Bank Dick. If you fall in love with him, watch them all. With Fields, the statement holds "once you've seen one you've seen em all." However, you can't get too much of a good thing. 8/10

A New Jersey store owner receives an inheritance that allows him to pursue his dream of owning an orange grove in California. Enjoyable comedy has Fields in top form as a henpecked husband, with Howard well cast as his nagging wife. Highlights include early scenes of Fields getting ready to go work while dealing with his crazy family and a later scene where he is catering to a blind customer in his store. While not always laugh out loud funny, this is one of those films that one watches with a smile on his face throughout. Fields doesn't go for overly broad comedy, instead staying within character as a simple man reaching for his dreams.

"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.

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!

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

Though I wasn't very impressed with THE BANK DICK, I enjoyed IT'S A GIFT all the way through! This is a tight, regularly amusing comedy where poor old WC Fields must contend with a smart-alecky son and his ever-nagging ball and chain of a wife. Talk about not getting any respect! But he has higher hopes of better things to come, seeking out a dream we all hope will come true for him ... that is if he can manage to avoid one obstacle after another. Choice moments involve Fields trying unsuccessfully to get a good night's sleep amidst all sorts of distractions, and his obnoxious customers driving him crazy in the grocery store where he works.

*** out of ****

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.

I profess this film to be the very first W.C. Fields film that I have ever viewed in it's entirety.The verdict? While I don't view W.C. Fields to be among the funniest comedians I have ever seen,his work in this film left an overall good impression on me.The film contains a good mixture of sight gags and one liners,and I found all of them to be the comedy equivalent of home runs,or at the least,triples.About the only thing I didn't laugh at in this film was Mr. Fields' interaction with the children.Overall I find the film to be a winner,and would view again should I come across it on television and were finding myself in need of laughs.

This was torture, absolute torture! The jokes are not funny, you pretty much hate the entire cast especially the kid, the voice of the wife everything, its so stupid and BORING!

I honestly do not know how I survived this film, I like classic films, but this was just absolutely freaking bad. I stopped the film after 50 minutes otherwise I would have committed suicide. The rest of the film I watched stuffing junk food in my mouth to at least enjoy something for 18 minutes. The movie itself its not long, but if I apply Einstein's theory of relativity those 68 minutes will seem like a freaking year.

DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE, IT'S NOT WORTH THE TIME NOR THE MONEY!

If W.C. Fields is the funniest comedian in sound films, and perfectly hilarious in starring vehicles (Bank Dick) and guest shots (International House), why is this one is his best? Because Fields' antagonists are, for once, as grand as The Great Man himself. Aside from an evil blind man, and a cheerfully homicidal baby (ever reliable Baby Leroy), there is the ultimate Spouse from Hell. Former Vogue editor turned actress Kathleen Howard is pure outraged selfishness (Fields' mirror image) as the wife; her declamatory style of acting would be at home in a John Waters epic. She is divine, and so is the film.

There are so many funny sequences in IT'S A GIFT that it's no wonder W.C. FIELDS became a legend among screen comics with his gift for physical comedy.

KATHERINE HOWARD as his nagging wife with a penchant for non-stop talking, is a great foil for his brand of comedy. And the bathroom scene at the start, is a standout of comic timing by all concerned, as Fields attempts to shave by a mirror over the sink as all sorts of interferences from his family leads to hilarious hi-jinks.

CHARLES SELLON does a wacky and wonderful job as the blind man who almost single-handedly destroys Fields' grocery store. And once Fields and his family get on the road to California to buy an orange grove, the sight gags continue in fast and furious fashion.

On the negative side, BABY SANDY has so little to do that you have to wonder why he became so popular at the time.

Undoubtedly one of Fields' best films of the '30s, a bundle of laughs from start to finish.

It's hard to rate an old movie like this because they don't make 'em like this anymore. And while Fields does a fine job, most of the rest of the acting is pretty bad; I did like the old blind guy, though.

For today's audiences, I'm afraid the rating is not so high as it would have been if I were watching this back in 1934. But then, it might have looked better in a big, dark movie theater with an audience and a bucket of popcorn on a Saturday afternoon, than alone on my laptop. It's easier to laugh when there are other people laughing around you. And in 1934, people needed all the excuses for laughter they could get.

There's not much of a script or plot here; It's a Gift probably has about the fewest words for a movie since the silent days. There aren't many of the trademark clever comebacks and double entendres from Fields.

What it does have is a long-suffering, hen pecked W.C. Fields. This time around he is the normal human being in the story, while everyone else around him is obnoxious. Normal? Any other (modern) normal person would slug this wife, or at least divorce her. I couldn't help but think about how divorce was nearly as illegal as abortion back then. Yet, Fields doesn't lose his temper.

And what makes It's a Gift funny, or at least interesting, is the way Fields conveys his suppressed desire to strangle everyone in his family wordlessly through what would today be called body language. He moves slowly, but every part of his motion conveys emotion. And you know what he's going through.

The scenes of suffering drag on and on, masochistically, and without any music soundtrack, such as Fields trying to shave with a cut throat razor while his daughter preens and gargles at the sink, or Fields trying to sleep on the porch, as a coconut slowly rattles and bangs down every step of the stairs. It is the very slowness of these scenes that makes them so deliciously tormenting. Fields is conveying humor by manipulating time, slowing it down to a painful crawl. I can't imagine anyone standing for that in a modern hyperkinetic movie, which is a shame.

Of all the W.C. Fields films, in this one his humor most resembles the slow and sad Buster Keaton. I could easily see Keaton playing this role. Too bad Keaton self-destructed with the advent of talkies, though he did eventually make a comeback around 1960 with an appearance on a time- travel episode of The Twilight Zone.

As to Fields, I do not think this is his funniest or most characteristic film. My favorite Fields movie, by far, is International House, which I've seen many times. Many of his funniest works are shorts. And some wonderful excerpts can be viewed on youtube, among them, Fields playing his unique style of ping pong.

And then there's David Copperfield (1935) with Fields playing Micawber. The great Charles Laughton turned down this role, saying he could not do it justice, and recommended Fields, instead.

It's astonishing to think that there are people who have never heard of W.C. Fields. But if this were his only movie, it would be understandable.

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.

IT'S A GIFT is generally cited as W.C. Fields' best comedy. For me, it is a nonstop funfest. Unlike some comedies which think they need to have love interest to be popular, Fields makes us laught at him for 73 minutes non-stop. A true genius. This work is not typical of its time, however. In a time when most film comedies were either witty romantic, Lubitsch-esque films, or wild madcap Marx Bros.-style films, IT'S A GIFT stands alone as a piece of physical sight-gag humor. However, there are no impossible sight-gags, little actual slapstick, but enough laughs for five films. This goes on par with DUCK SOUP, TROUBLE IN PARADISE, MODERN TIMES, and A NIGHT AT THE OPERA as one of the finest comedy films of all time.

Interestingly enough, IT'S A GIFT was recently voted to be one of the top 100 funniest films ever made by the American Film Institute. However, a film like this doesn't need any awards to prove its greatness. Regardless of the critics, IT'S A GIFT will surely remain a genuine masterpiece of cinema and of W.C. Fields in particular.

A henpecked New Jersey grocer (W. C. Fields) makes plans to move to California to grow oranges, despite the resistance of his overbearing wife.

The film contains certain routines, having been honed, that Fields had developed 1915-1925. Fields often tried to recapture on film original sketches that had been the basis of his stage success. Thus 'The Picnic', 'A Joy Ride' and most famously, 'The Back Porch', all become segments of "It's a Gift".

Lesser known than some of Fields' later works such as "The Bank Dick", the film is perhaps the best example of the recurring theme of the Everyman battling against his domestic entrapment. Historians and critics have often cited its numerous memorable comic moments. It is one of several Paramount Pictures in which Fields contended with child actor Baby LeRoy.

While much of the film is humorous and you can really feel for Fields, the key moment of the film has to be the blind man in the store, while a second customer keeps yelling bout his kumquats. It as the only part I literally laughed out loud and more than once. I had no idea that "kumquat" was such a funny word.

W.C. Fields was simply the most talented comedian who ever lived, and "It's a Gift" (1934) is his most accessible feature. It's a loose remake of the 1926 silent "It's the Old Army Game" which stared Fields and Louise Brooks; and which Fields wrote. Like most silent features, the scene transitions are very abrupt, with titles used in place scripted transitional elements.

For "It's a Gift", Director Norman McLeod elected to stay true to the original and keep the flavor of its sudden transitions. Although the technique is jarring to modern viewers it works to the film's comic advantage by speeding up the pace of the film, as it moves from set piece to set piece with virtually no filler. You get everything that would have had any entertainment value in a 90-minute feature compressed into a 73-minute picture. Imagine a four-act play with one-second breaks between each act.

Act I takes place in the in the apartment home of the Bissonette family; consisting of put upon everyman husband/father Harold (Fields), his shrewish wife Amelia (Kathleen Howard), overwrought teenage daughter Jean (Jean Rouverol), and roller skating 9-year old son Norman (Tom Bupp). The most famous bit is Fields trying to finish shaving after his daughter has eased him away from the bathroom mirror.

Harold is the proprietor of a small grocery store and Act II takes place inside the store. The most famous bit concerns blind Mr. Muckle (Charles Sellon) whose flailing cane causes a staggering amount of damage.

Act III finds Harold back home trying to set some sleep. The best bit involves a series of trivial interruptions as everyone from the milk man to an insurance salesman manage to disturb him the moment it appears he is finally going to get some rest.

Act IV is the family's move to California by automobile to start a new life on an orange ranch Harold has purchased with his inheritance.

It's pretty much constant laughs, all the more remarkable because Fields stays in character for the entire duration. Harold Bissonette is his most sympathetic character, just an average guy badgered and hounded to the point of exasperation. Unlike his other features there are no cheap laughs from drinking or from leering at young women. The comedy derives entirely from Fields (and Howard who gets a laugh with every single line), it a nightmare realistic enough to make you squirm.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

As close to a perfect film as have ever been made. Running a fat free 62 minutes, not a second is wasted. Several of the ten minute scenes were released by Castle films as mini-masterpieces. Each of them can stand alone but are greater as part of the whole. W.C. Fields wrote one of his funniest, and easily most sympathetic role as the loving husband and father who dreams of escaping his life as a Eastern shopkeeper and traveling to sunny California where he can own an orange grove. He wrote wonderful supporting roles including the blind man, Mr. Muckle, and the irritating man looking for Carl LaFong. He stoicly suffers the barbs of his wife, the indifference of his children, the incompetence of his hired help and the wrath of his customers. When he reaches California and when his dreams appeared dashed, he triumphs at last. The everyman rewarded after suffering the slings and errors of outrageous fortune. It belongs with Homer, with Shakespeare, with Mark Twain. It is perfection.

Working my way through 1001 movies to see before you die and It's a Gift was my next entry. Having been a huge fan of early comedy work I was looking forward to this. Not even ten minutes into the film I regret everything. There is virtually no plot and never ending lame jokes that are clearly trying to emulate what came before but never being anywhere near. The prattfalls of Laurel and Hardy, the stunts if Buster Keaton and the pure nonsense of The Marx Brothers. But it doesn't hit. It's like a cheap imitation.

Then there are the characters. The irritating kid who needs to shut up. The annoying wife who's voice will drive you insane, the repetition of words over and over as if hearing cumquat a million times is hilarious. I wanted to push my fingers into my eyes. Comedy is meant to make you laugh, not want to end it all.

I think only in The Bank Dick was W.C. Fields more henpecked than he is in It's A Gift. He also has a perfect foil for his brand of humor in Kathleen Howard as his wife in the second of three films she did with the man from Philadelphia.

In this film more than most of Fields's films I think the real secret of his comedy comes out. I can't think of a single funny line from It's A Gift worth remembering. But what does stick with you are all the gestures and expressions with his body and face that Fields gives us to show the hellhole of his married state.

Kathleen Howard in fact doesn't let the poor guy get a word in edgewise. What a motormouth that woman had, constantly finding fault and running him down from the first to the last minute of the movie. Right at the beginning of the film the poor guy can't even have the bathroom to himself as kids and wife just barge in on him with their problems and complaints.

In that scene where Fields is trying to shave, to later on when he goes out on the porch hammock to get some peace and quiet, it's nothing in what he says, but in all the reaction shots where the comedy comes from. Even in the famous scene at the general store with the blind man Mr. Muckle. The comedy is all in Fields's reactions to Muckle running amuck. Trying not to say anything to observe political correctness. Remember Muckle is also identified as the house detective in the hotel across the street.

Kathleen Howard serves as Fields's greatest foil, no wonder he did three films with her. Note how Hyacinth like she is in insisting that her name Bissonette be pronounced Bissonay.

Still Fields pursues the American dream and when Uncle Bean dies and wills him some California property, he loads up the truck and moves to, well not Beverly Hills, but close enough so he can get an orange grove and grow them. It comes about in an interesting way that you have to see the film for.

It's A Gift is one of the finest efforts of America's most beloved misanthropes.

It's A Gift (1934) : Brief Review -

A laughing tonic gifted by W C Fields and McLeod. Surely in Top 5 Comedies of Fields. It's a Gift is a genuine Laugh Riot made from reliable situations that we hardly see in intentional comedies. A henpecked New Jersey grocer makes plans to move to California to grow oranges, despite the resistance of his overbearing wife. Fields plays the hilarious grocer but surprisingly more hilarious character is played by Kathleen Howard as his wife. If that's not enough then there is another additional cameo of the child actor Tommy Bupp who strikes from the very first scene and then doesn't stop till the end whenever he appears on screen. The story begins in domestic atmosphere with uttermost believable situations which could happen with any of us if wanted. This is all about creating friendly atmosphere away from the cinematic liberty and once it is set, there is no escape for next 60 minutes. It's a freaking silly, crazy and laugh out loud kind of comedy where the intentional force doesn't spoil anything. From the dialogues to situations everything seems perfectly rehearsed. Above all, it has long scenes set in one situation which carries a lot of humour and sensibility hence making it much more enjoyable that what it looks. That scene when Fields tries to sleep but gets disturbed again and again, one resistance after another was such an amazing scene. Acting wise, Fields and Howard both rule the entire film supported well by small small roles of other cast members. Screenplay is engaging, short and quick so you don't even realise when an hour is past and the show is over. Director McLeod Knows exactly what to do with Comedy films and he had done in the past so. He handles It's A Gift with proper vision and successfully makes a terrific Entertainer. A must see for Fields's Fans.

RATING - 7/10*

By - #samthebestest

In "It's A Gift", W.C. Fields delivers enjoyable silliness as only he could do it. It's quite a showcase for his brand of humor, and this movie has it all, from sight gags to dry wit to hilarious predicaments to a put-upon hero. There have been few comedians like Fields who could get so much mileage out of simple ideas, or who could make outrageous ideas work so well.

The plot ostensibly concerns store owner Harold Bissonette (Fields), who dreams of owning an orange ranch in California, but very little actually happens in terms of a story - the emphasis is on the trials of daily life that Harold must endure. The movie is a series of comic set pieces in which Fields takes a simple situation and turns it into a stream of gags and laughs. His ability to find endless sources of humor in the most mundane of settings is an impressive contrast with the labored and often inappropriate efforts of so many of today's comic actors.

In this one, Fields also manages to create a pleasant atmosphere that, despite all the disorder in Harold's life, makes you feel at home with the characters. Many of the scenes also give one of the other cast members a chance for some good moments, and Kathleen Howard helps out a lot, too, as Harold's nagging wife. There's nothing to take seriously here, but if you're in the mood not to take anything seriously, this is a very enjoyable way to spend an hour or so.