It’s A Gift (1934) Director: Norman McLeod
★★★★☆
It’s A Gift is a lesser known short comedy classic starring W.C. Fields. It tells the story of a bumbling everyman struggling against his domestic circumstances -a nagging wife, disrespectful children, and a failing business. He is clumsy, crude, and all-around unlucky. He inherits some money, which he uses to buy an orange grove in California, and he sells his failing grocery store. When they arrive in California, they realize the orange grove is a nothing more than a dustbowl pile of weeds, and the house is a ramshackled shack. However, he quickly sells it to a group of men looking to purchase the property, which he sells for more than it was worth. In the end, he finally purchases his orange grove in California.
The film is amusing, though certainly not a classic. Several of the greatest scenes include: the disastrous sequence at his grocery store, his chaotic night attempting to sleep on the front porch, and a destructive picnic on private property during his road trip to California.
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Credits:
- Directed by: Norman Z. McLeod
- Written by: Jack Cunningham
- Based on: “The Comic Supplement,” a 1925 play by J.P. McEvoy, story by Charles Bogle (Fields)
- Produced by: William LeBaron
- Starring:
- W.C. Fields
- Baby LeRoy
- Cinematography: Henry Sharp
- Music by: John Leipold
- Distributed by: Paramount Pictures