W.C. Fields’ character is pretty unlikable (a lush whos mean to his family and children, yet you’re supposed to LAUGH about it)and several times I thought I was going to turn it off unfinished. However, the chase scene at the end was fantastically funny and there were occasional glimmers where I found myself routing for Egbert Souse in spite of myself (NOTE: The characters’ name is a wordplay on Fields’ drunken persona. He has to keep reminding folks “there’s an accent grave over the ‘e’ ” so as to pronounce it “soo-zay”. I have to wonder if that in part inspired Mel Brooks to have Gene Wilder pronounce his name “Frahn-ken-steen”.)

It’s worth seeing once but I don’t care to make it a repeat and wouldn’t buy it…

After watching the movie we were talking about the film, and I said, “that was after the bank dick went into the Black Pussy.” I realize this is the only time in my whole life I’ll be able to say a sentence like that and it be entirely innocent. Also, it’s interesting to view a movie like this and notice how quaint some of the behaviors seem. Og and his fiance giving each other quick pecks and saying “shucks” just illustrates how much things have changed in the last fifty or so years.