Max’s Drive-In Movie – It’s A Gift

So roll down the window at Max’s Drive-In, grab some popcorn, and toast the man who proved that laughter isn’t always about joy; sometimes, it’s about pain and survival. This was the first W.C. Fields movie I ever watched, years ago, and I wasn’t disappointed. It contains no sentimentality…just one man’s pursuit of peace. In this case, an orange grove he has his eyes on. When people think of W.C. Fields, this is probably not the movie they usually think of first, but to me…it’s brilliant!

Sometimes, you don’t need romance or a difficult plot. It’s WC Fields trying to get a few minutes of peace and quiet. It’s a Gift is one of those hidden little gems, a film that’s basically one long bad day stretched from start to finish.

This film takes place in the middle of the Depression, when a grouchy grocer named Harold Bissonette (that’s “Biss-uh-NAY,” thank you very much) dreamed of escaping his nagging wife, children, and blind customers by buying himself an orange grove in California. Not a mansion, just fruit trees and some peace. But in Fields’ universe, that doesn’t happen. His wife nags, his customers interrupt his naps, and his children treat him like a piece of furniture. It’s a Gift may be ninety years old, but it still feels right.

He plays the definition of the henpecked husband, muttering under his breath. The movie is like a string of brilliant sketches stitched together by pure exasperation. That would be my definition of it. The “porch sleep scene,” where Fields tries to take a nap on his back porch as milkmen, salesmen, and children launch an invasion. The rhythm, the timing, was pure gold.

Then there’s the grocery store scene, the poor man behind the counter trying to deal with the infuriating Mr. Muckle. He is the blind and almost deaf man who wrecks everything he touches. It’s slapstick with a slight mean streak, but Fields plays it straight, and it worked. 

This was in the middle of Hollywood’s “screwball comedy” decade, when the big studios were giving audiences zany escapism to forget the Depression. Fields, though, offered something a little more grounded and darker. He wasn’t Cary Grant tripping over furniture in a tux; he was a tired grocer stepping on a roller skate at 6 a.m. 

Critics in 1934 didn’t quite know what to do with him. Some thought he was too grumpy. But audiences loved it. The film became one of Paramount’s biggest comedies that year. It’s now considered one of Fields’ great films, alongside The Bank Dick and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.

The infamous Mr Muckle

The Front Porch Scene

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

33 thoughts on “Max’s Drive-In Movie – It’s A Gift”

  1. Pingback: Max’s Drive-In Movie – It’s A Gift – MobsterTiger

  3. While I watched many old black and white pictures while growing up in Germany, I don’t recall watching “It’s a Gift.” based on the clips, it does look quite entertaining. It really was such a different era for movies when it was about the acting and the plot first and foremost, not about gory violence and special effects!

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  5. The first poster on the wall for me was Fields. He was great. I have since seen the depth of my appreciation of comedy grow, but it started with Fields.

    One thing I didn’t know until this blog is that Baby LeRoy got billing on the poster. Look at that poster. The director is mentioned in tiny print under Baby LeRoy. One of the great gags is highlighted in playing with the tag California or bust. Classic stuff.

    There are reasons why Fields is a king in comedy, and you point them out brilliantly in your writing. The timing. Fields’ sense of timing is classic. You, as a musician, write up the rhythms he uses and makes perfect. Excellent perception.

    It is too bad that Fields is not better appreciated in today’s world. Understandable, but a pity. His language is not for today. I learned some of his catch phrases, as well as a poor mimic of his wonderful sneering delivery. But I can’t use his line about what’s in the woodpile. And I refuse to say “Get away from me, boy,” even as a joke, because the recipient wouldn’t recognize it.

    Cruel streak? Absolutely. I got one. I ain’t proud of it, but I got one and Fields made me accept its humanity.

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    1. I use Grouchos lines a lot in life…especially at work….like I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member…. and the others.
      Yea Groucho seems to be remembered more and I don’t know why. WC Fields should be…I’m a smart ass so I do like all of those quotes.

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  6. I’ll take a look…..I’ve been recently beed digging through the Marx Brothers and am trying to get my kids to understand the genious of Groucho….hasn’t been going so well so far.

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    2. Appreciating smart ass comedy, such as Groucho, has a lot to do with the mental age of the appreciator. I don’t know how old your kids are, but I can image a ten year old wouldn’t find Groucho as funny as the same person five or ten years later.

      I feel the same about slapstick, but in reverse. I don’t think the Three Stooges are funny. I think I once did when I was a child.

      On the other hand, the kid that might currently be too young for Groucho might delight in watching Chico play piano. They might not get the Why A Duck bit but Chico’s grace and humor at the keyboard is timeless and delightful.

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    1. Oh he has had some great movies…he was in Vaudeville as well and that is why so many of those comedians of that time were so damn good…they had the training in front of an audience…now it’s comedy clubs…but they are not the same.

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      1. His physical coordination matched his verbal utterings. He’s tops with me. I was involved in a golf tourney last year and we used a pic of Fields playing a ball oft a guys but while smoking a cigarette as first prize. Everything the guys does is funny and he knew it. Not everyone’s cup of tea.

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  13. Max keeps referencing that Fields was a vaudevillian. What he isn’t saying is that Fields, as well as the beloved Marx Brothers, worked their vaudeville pieces into their movies.

    I remember, many years ago, the Variety Arts Center here in Los Angeles had a vaudethon. I don’t know when it started, we went Saturday evening. My wife and I had dinner at the Pantry then walked across the street to the Variety Arts Center (you’ve seen pictures of the building with the mock of the Queen Mary on the roof). We entered the theatre around 8. We were going to leave around 10 but it was just too entertaining. We finally did get up to leave around midnight, only to run into a good friend of ours and we stayed another few hours. Vaudeville was great.

    Of course, uhm, vaudeville was WAY before my time. 🙂

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  14. The little mannerisms he used are great. I just realized that I have used something I learned from Fields all my life. He has a way of moving his fingers. It is a great comedic move. I have used that touch for years and years. I just did it a moment ago and the person who was coming around the corner where I was headed laughed at it. Fields, for sure.

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  16. My father’s mom and step dad lived about 2 hours away, driving time. When he took us there, long before cassettes and the like, he listened to the radio. It was a wonderful education for me. Such great stuff where one could close one’s eyes and picture the magic that was being made strictly with words and sounds. Mel Blanc was a god in our house!!!

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