Even though Fields would go on to only do 2 more films, in many ways this film is his most satisfying effort of them all. He ghost wrote the script at Mahatma Kane Jeeves & the script is excellent. The sequences are all a perfect length & funny. The humor is Fields subtle quality & funny.
Fields often imagined himself as an accidental hero. In this film, his character Egbert Souse is exactly that. He plays the harried middle aged parent who battles his kids & his battle axed wife. He dreams of get rich quick schemes. One day on a park bench he is reading his paper when he accidentally foils a bank robbery.
From there, the comic possibilities multiply. His reward for foiling the robbery is a job as a bank guard. There he works with his future son-in-law. He gets his son-in-law into an unknowing stock scheme in Beef Stake mines using the banks money illegally.
Then when the bank examiner shows up, he connives with The Black Pussy Cafe owner (ably played by Shemp Howard) to delay the examiner. The stocks turns out to be a gold mine & the con man wants to buy it back. The future son-in-law is about to dump the stock back to the con man who sold it to him for little money because he needs to head off the bank examiner.
Fields finds out about the gold mine & stops him just in time. Then Fields gets involved with yet another bank robbery & him, the robber, the cash & the stock go on a wild car chase with the police. Fields actually borrowed parts of the chase from Harold Lloyds "Girl Shy" but then improved upon it.
After the chase, Fields daughter marries the now son-in-law from the bank & they move into a huge mansion on the Beef Stake mine money. Fields does a classic comic blackout to end the film.
The casting for this film all works very well & Fields material & comic timing are great. Even his advanced age stunts are well done. A fine film which still stands the test of time & made a lot of money for Universal when it was in theaters.
Fields often imagined himself as an accidental hero. In this film, his character Egbert Souse is exactly that. He plays the harried middle aged parent who battles his kids & his battle axed wife. He dreams of get rich quick schemes. One day on a park bench he is reading his paper when he accidentally foils a bank robbery.
From there, the comic possibilities multiply. His reward for foiling the robbery is a job as a bank guard. There he works with his future son-in-law. He gets his son-in-law into an unknowing stock scheme in Beef Stake mines using the banks money illegally.
Then when the bank examiner shows up, he connives with The Black Pussy Cafe owner (ably played by Shemp Howard) to delay the examiner. The stocks turns out to be a gold mine & the con man wants to buy it back. The future son-in-law is about to dump the stock back to the con man who sold it to him for little money because he needs to head off the bank examiner.
Fields finds out about the gold mine & stops him just in time. Then Fields gets involved with yet another bank robbery & him, the robber, the cash & the stock go on a wild car chase with the police. Fields actually borrowed parts of the chase from Harold Lloyds "Girl Shy" but then improved upon it.
After the chase, Fields daughter marries the now son-in-law from the bank & they move into a huge mansion on the Beef Stake mine money. Fields does a classic comic blackout to end the film.
The casting for this film all works very well & Fields material & comic timing are great. Even his advanced age stunts are well done. A fine film which still stands the test of time & made a lot of money for Universal when it was in theaters.