RUNNING WILD

W. C. Fields, who was usually paired with hack comedy directors, got a first class comedy man for a pair of silents in Gregory La Cava, a drinking pal who’d go on to make MY MAN GODFREY/’36 and STAGE DOOR/’37. No such classics with Fields, but neatly turned minor silents SO’S YOUR OLD MAN/’26 (faithfully remade in sound as YOU’RE TELLING ME/’34) and this one (re-imagined into the superior MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE/’35*). It’s an early iteration of Fields the henpecked family man: gorgon of a wife, disrespectful oaf step-son, snarling pet mongrel, dead-end work environment and (in a touch of grace) sweetheart of a daughter. The slower first half sets up all his failures at home & work, then pivots via hypnotic suggestion (!) turning Fields into a veritable lion of a man, clawing back success & self-respect. Just okay early on, but the ‘running wild’ part is good fun, with Fields, an agile 47 at the time, nearly dynamic enough to make up for the missing growls, inflections and signature comic verbiage. Get it on KINO DVD, a fine 2K remastering of the Library of Congress print with Donald Sosin’s excellent piano score.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: *Almost painfully hilarious, TRAPEZE uses the same setup but runs new comic turns. With Grady Sutton in clover as the awful stepson.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/10/man-on-flying-trapeze-1935.html