The Bank Dick
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The Bank Dick is a 1940 comedy film in which W. C. Fields plays a character who trips a bank robber and ends up a security guard as a result. The film was written by Fields, using the alias Mahatma Kane Jeeves ("My hat, my cane, Jeeves!"), and directed by Eddie Cline. In addition to bank and family scenes, it features Fields pretending to be a film director and ends in a chaotic car chase. Stooge Shemp Howard plays a bartender.
The Bank Dick was Fields' last major role and is considered a classic as Fields works in his trademarked drunken henpecked husband, shrewish wife, and savage children with aplomb. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Quotation
- "Take off your hat in the presence of a gentleman." -- Fields to a capped bottle of whiskey.