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| Dvdivas
was founded by John Gabbard in 2000. It's purpose has been and
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the latest dvds and movie reviews. It will continue to be your
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““W.C.
Fields Comedy Collection "
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Reviewed
by: |
Wayne A. Klein |
| Genre: |
Comedy |
| Video: |
1.33:1 Full
Screen Black and White |
| Audio: |
Dolby Digital
2.0 |
| Languages |
English
|
| Subtitles |
English,
French, Spanish |
| Length |
Approximately
450 minutes |
| Rating |
NR |
| Release Date |
11/9/04 |
| Studio |
Universal
Home Video |
| Commentary:
|
None |
| Documentaries:
|
“Behind the
Laughter: W. C. Fields” from A&E Biography |
| Featurettes:
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None |
| Filmography/Biography:
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None |
|
Interviews: |
None |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
None |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
None |
| Music
Video: |
None |
| Other:
|
None |
| Cast
and Crew: |
W. C. Fields,
Cora Witherspoon, Una Merkel, Mae West, Joseph Calleia, Dick
Foran, Margaret Hamilton, Rudy Valee, Sterling Holloway, Edgar
Bergan, Bela Lugosi, Cab Calloway, Rose Marie |
| Written
By: |
W. C. Fields,
Jack Cunningham, Mae West, Neil Brant, Walter DeLeon |
| Produced
By: |
William LeBaron,
Lester Cowan |
| Directed
By: |
Edward Clyne,
Norman Z. McLeod, George Marshall, A. Edward Sutherland |
| Music:
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Frank Skinner |
| The
Review: |
Everett: “You’re drunk!” Harold
(W.C. Fields) “And you’re crazy. But I’ll be sober tomorrow
and you’ll be crazy the rest of your life.” Ah what a charmer
W. C. Fields could be. This collection has some of the best
films Fields made and puts them all in one place. Fields’
career in film was uneven at best. His best films were made
allowed him to stretch his wit and insult everything in sight.
The weaker ones (such as all-star “International House”) just
don’t have enough of each. Despite the fact that this is missing
“Never Give a Sucker an Even Break”, this is a very good boxed
set of Fields’ best films (“International House” excepted).
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| Image
and Sound: |
The picture
quality varies quite a bit but, on the whole, the films look
good. The negatives disintegrated long ago (all these films
were shot on nitrate stock) so we’re stuck with third or in
some cases fourth generation prints standing in for the original
camera negative. Could they be better? Certainly but Universal
has done a pretty decent job of cleaning most of these old classics
up. The sound on the early films wouldn’t pass muster even in
the 1950’s but, again, Universal has used a digital filter to
clean up the sound a bit and eliminate a great portion of the
hiss. |
| The
Extras: |
“The Marx
Brothers Silver Screen Collection”, this collection is very
light on the extras. There’s an “A&E Biography” on Fields
included (which is more than can be said for the Marx Brothers
set Universal released at the same time), but that’s pretty
much it in the way of meaningful extras. It’s a very good
biography of Fields although much more could have been done.
Fields made a number of appearances on radio shows from the
same time frame (frequently with his foil Charlie McCarthy)
and these would have made nice bonuses in this package. Although
it’s not an extra, the box design is quite handsome. A pity
not as much care went into the extras and commentary tracks.
---
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| Commentary:
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There’s no
commentary track and that’s tragic. Like “The Marx Brothers
Silver Screen Collection” this boxed set shows signs that it
was pretty much slapped together without much attempt at research.
The glaring lack of a commentary track on any of these films
(heck, even Universal’s classic monsters collection had at least
one commentary track for each boxed set) indicates that not
much time was put into pulling this set together. |
| Final
Words: |
A solid
collection of classic Fields films, this is the best single
collection to get “The Bank Dick”, “My Little Chickadee”, “It’s
a Gift” and “You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man”. Fields’ appearance
in “International House” should probably have been clipped out
and edited into a featurette about his many screen appearances.
While the picture quality varies quite a bit, the set is well
priced and it’s a pretty good place to get these essential films.
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