It's a Gift
Encyclopedia
It's a Gift is a 1934
comedy film
starring W. C. Fields
, considered by film historians to be one of Fields' best and funniest films.
It concerns the trials and tribulations of a grocery store owner as he battles a shrewish wife, an incompetent assistant, and assorted annoying children, customers, and salesmen.
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
.
), self-involved daughter Mildred (Jean Rouverol
) and bothersome son Norman (Tommy Bupp). The information about the orange grove is confirmed: his barren plot contains only a tumbledown shack and a tumbleweed.
However, just when Harold is about to lose all hope, his luck takes a dramatic turn: a neighbor informs him that a developer is desperate to acquire his land in order to build a grandstand for a race track. Finally standing up for himself, and to his nagging wife, Harold holds out for a large sum of money (including a commission for the friendly neighbor), as well as a demand that the developer buy him an orange grove like the one in the brochure he has been carrying throughout the film. The film ends with Harold sitting at an outdoor breakfast table squeezing orange juice into a glass, while his happy family takes off for a ride in their new car. The now-contented Harold pours a flask of booze into the small amount of orange juice in the glass.
) from turning his store into a disaster area; attempts to share a bathroom mirror with his self-centered, high-pitched gargling daughter; has a destructive picnic on private property; and in the film's lengthy centerpiece, is driven to sleep on the porch by his haranguing wife, and is kept awake all night by neighbors, salesmen, and assorted noises and calamities.
A well-known, and often somewhat misquoted Fields comment occurs at the climax of the film, as Harold is haggling with the developer, who angrily claims that Harold is drunk. Harold responds, "Yeah, and you're crazy; and I'll be sober tomorrow and ... you'll be crazy for the rest of your life!"
The windfall for Fields' character and the resultant happy ending of this film echo the climax of his earlier 1934 release, You're Telling Me!
.
and Spencer Charters
, Dell Henderson
, Jerry Mandy
, James Burke
, Edith Kingdon
and Billy Engle
recognition
In 2010, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
by the Library of Congress
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
1934 in film
-Events:*January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.*February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
starring W. C. Fields
W. C. Fields
William Claude Dukenfield , better known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer...
, considered by film historians to be one of Fields' best and funniest films.
It concerns the trials and tribulations of a grocery store owner as he battles a shrewish wife, an incompetent assistant, and assorted annoying children, customers, and salesmen.
Lesser known than some of Fields' later works such as The Bank Dick
The Bank Dick
The Bank Dick is a 1940 comedy film. W. C. Fields plays a character named Egbert Sousé who trips a bank robber and ends up a security guard as a result...
, the film is perhaps the best example of the recurring theme of the Everyman
Everyman
In literature and drama, the term everyman has come to mean an ordinary individual, with whom the audience or reader is supposed to be able to identify easily, and who is often placed in extraordinary circumstances...
battling against his domestic entrapment. Historians and critics have often cited its numerous memorable comic moments. It is one of several Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
in which Fields contended with child actor Baby LeRoy
Baby LeRoy
Baby LeRoy was a child actor who appeared in films in the 1930s.Born Ronald Le Roy Overacker in Los Angeles, California, Baby LeRoy's career began when he was less than a year old, co-starring with Maurice Chevalier in A Bedtime Story, and ended with a cameo role as himself in Cinema Circus...
.
Plot summary
After he inherits some money, Harold Bissonette ("pronounced bis-on-ay") decides to give up the grocery business, move to California and run an orange grove. Despite his family's objections and the news that the land he bought is worthless, Bissonette packs up and drives out to California with his nagging wife Amelia (Kathleen HowardKathleen Howard
Kathleen Howard was a Canadian-born opera singer , magazine editor and US film character actress from the mid-1930s through the 1940s. She spent her childhood in Buffalo, NY and is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery there.She created the role of Zita in Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi at the...
), self-involved daughter Mildred (Jean Rouverol
Jean Rouverol
Jean Rouverol is an American author, actress and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s.-Biography:...
) and bothersome son Norman (Tommy Bupp). The information about the orange grove is confirmed: his barren plot contains only a tumbledown shack and a tumbleweed.
However, just when Harold is about to lose all hope, his luck takes a dramatic turn: a neighbor informs him that a developer is desperate to acquire his land in order to build a grandstand for a race track. Finally standing up for himself, and to his nagging wife, Harold holds out for a large sum of money (including a commission for the friendly neighbor), as well as a demand that the developer buy him an orange grove like the one in the brochure he has been carrying throughout the film. The film ends with Harold sitting at an outdoor breakfast table squeezing orange juice into a glass, while his happy family takes off for a ride in their new car. The now-contented Harold pours a flask of booze into the small amount of orange juice in the glass.
Production notes
The plot is almost secondary to the series of routines which make up the film. Over the course of the picture, Harold fails to prevent a blind customer (and Baby LeRoyBaby LeRoy
Baby LeRoy was a child actor who appeared in films in the 1930s.Born Ronald Le Roy Overacker in Los Angeles, California, Baby LeRoy's career began when he was less than a year old, co-starring with Maurice Chevalier in A Bedtime Story, and ended with a cameo role as himself in Cinema Circus...
) from turning his store into a disaster area; attempts to share a bathroom mirror with his self-centered, high-pitched gargling daughter; has a destructive picnic on private property; and in the film's lengthy centerpiece, is driven to sleep on the porch by his haranguing wife, and is kept awake all night by neighbors, salesmen, and assorted noises and calamities.
A well-known, and often somewhat misquoted Fields comment occurs at the climax of the film, as Harold is haggling with the developer, who angrily claims that Harold is drunk. Harold responds, "Yeah, and you're crazy; and I'll be sober tomorrow and ... you'll be crazy for the rest of your life!"
The windfall for Fields' character and the resultant happy ending of this film echo the climax of his earlier 1934 release, You're Telling Me!
You're Telling Me!
You’re Telling Me! is a 1934 comedy film released by Paramount Pictures, and starring W. C. Fields; this film is a remake of his earlier silent film So's Your Old Man , and both films are adapted from the story Mr. Bisbee’s Princess by Julian Leonard Street.-Synopsis:Sam Bisbee is an optometrist...
.
Cast
- W.C. Fields as Harold Bissonette
- Jean RouverolJean RouverolJean Rouverol is an American author, actress and screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s.-Biography:...
as Mildred Bissonette - Julian Madison as John Durston
- Kathleen HowardKathleen HowardKathleen Howard was a Canadian-born opera singer , magazine editor and US film character actress from the mid-1930s through the 1940s. She spent her childhood in Buffalo, NY and is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery there.She created the role of Zita in Giacomo Puccini's Gianni Schicchi at the...
as Amelia Bissonette - Tom Bupp as Norman Bissonette
- Tammany YoungTammany YoungTammany Young was an American stage and film actor, who appeared with W.C. Fields in seven films.-Early life:...
as Everett Ricks - Baby LeRoyBaby LeRoyBaby LeRoy was a child actor who appeared in films in the 1930s.Born Ronald Le Roy Overacker in Los Angeles, California, Baby LeRoy's career began when he was less than a year old, co-starring with Maurice Chevalier in A Bedtime Story, and ended with a cameo role as himself in Cinema Circus...
as Baby Dunk - Morgan WallaceMorgan WallaceMorgan Wallace , was an American actor. He appeared in 28 films between 1914 and 1946, including It's a Gift and My Little Chickadee starring W.C. Fields and Mae West....
as Jasper Fitchmueller - Charles SellonCharles SellonCharles Sellon was an American stage and film actor. He appeared in 108 films and stage acts between 1901 and 1935. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts and died in La Crescenta, California. His grave is located in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.-Selected filmography:-External links:...
as Mr. Muckle - Josephine Whittell as Mrs. Dunk
- Diana LewisDiana LewisDiana "Mousie" Lewis was an American film actress and a MGM contract star.Born in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Lewis began her film career in All the King's Horses and worked steadily over the next few years, usually in minor roles...
as Miss Dunk
and Spencer Charters
Spencer Charters
Spencer Charters was an American film actor. He appeared in over 220 films between 1920 and 1943.He was born in Duncannon, Pennsylvania, and died in Hollywood, California by suicide, from a mix of sleeping pills and carbon monoxide poisoning.His first stage work soon after leaving school was a...
, Dell Henderson
Dell Henderson
George Delbert Henderson was a Canadian actor, director and writer in films from the early silent days.-Biography:Henderson was a frequent associate of film pioneer D.W. Griffith and, on a less prolific basis, Mack Sennett...
, Jerry Mandy
Jerry Mandy
Jerry Mandy was an American film actor. He appeared in 114 films between 1923 and 1945.He was born in Utica, New York and died in Hollywood, California from a heart attack.-Selected filmography:* Thundering Fleas...
, James Burke
James Burke (actor)
James Burke was an American actor born in New York City. He made his stage debut in New York around 1912 and went to Hollywood in 1933. He made over 200 film appearances during his career, which ranged from 1932 to 1964...
, Edith Kingdon
Edith Kingdon
Edith M. Kingdon was a U.S. actress. She was married to George Jay Gould I.-Birth:She was born in 1864 and educated in England. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. C. D. Kingdon, formerly of Toronto, Ontario. She worked a stage actress until her marriage, in the eighties, to George J...
and Billy Engle
Billy Engle
Billy Engle was an Austrian-born American film actor. He appeared in 169 films between 1917 and 1957.He was born in Austria and died in Hollywood, California, from a heart attack.-Selected filmography:...
Reception
American Film InstituteAmerican Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
recognition
- 2000: AFI's 100 Years... 100 LaughsAFI's 100 Years... 100 LaughsPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs is a list of the top 100 funniest movies in American cinema. A wide variety of comedies were nominated for the distinction that included slapstick comedy, screwball comedy, romantic comedy, satire, black comedy, musical comedy, comedy of...
#58
In 2010, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".