The Bank Dick (1940)
★★★½ — The Bank Dick (1940)
There's a moment in The Bank Dick where W.C. Fields mutters something barely audible under his breath, half to himself and half to nobody, and it's funnier than most comedians manage with a full punchline and a drum roll. That's the thing about Fields: he makes effortlessness look like an art form, and this 1940 Universal picture is probably the purest distillation of everything that made him one of Hollywood's most singular comic talents.
He plays Egbert Sousé (pronounced "Sousay," he'll have you know, with the indignation of a man who has corrected this a thousand times and enjoyed it every single time) and the character is, to put it plainly, a disaster. Unemployed, perpetually half-cut, despised by most of his own family, and utterly without shame. He stumbles into accidentally foiling a bank robbery and, rather than accept the modest pat on the back it earns him, immediately sets about wringing every possible personal advantage from the situation. He's lazy, scheming, and magnificently self-serving, and yet somehow you're rooting for him, because his haplessness is so complete and so cheerful that it wraps back around to being endearing.
The plot is, frankly, nonsense. There's a bank robbery, a phony film director, a nervous bank teller talked into making a very questionable investment decision, and a car chase that escalates in the most gloriously stupid fashion imaginable. But none of that is really the point. The plot is scaffolding, something to hang the gags on while Fields does what Fields does: the muttered asides, the double-takes, the running battles with inanimate objects that seem to take his rudeness personally. His timing is immaculate. The pauses alone could teach a comedy workshop.
The supporting cast keeps pace beautifully. The bartender at the Black Pussy Cat Cafe (yes, really) is a particular highlight, all wide-eyed chaos, and the bank staff manage to be both straight men and participants in the absurdity simultaneously. The wife and in-laws exist primarily to project withering contempt at Egbert from every angle, which is exactly what the film needs. Even the minor characters feel lived-in rather than sketched.
I'll be honest: some of the jokes creak. A handful of gags are rooted firmly in 1940s sensibilities and haven't made the journey entirely intact. And visually, this is very much a film of its era: static camera setups, stagey blocking, the sense that someone's occasionally remembered they're making a film and not recording a stage performance. If you need kinetic modern pacing, you're going to struggle. But Fields' comic instincts cut through all of that. The limitations of the form barely touch him. If you've seen It's a Gift, you'll recognise the DNA immediately: the same anti-authoritarian streak, the same weaponised incompetence, the same refusal to let dignity get in the way of a good laugh. I'd say It's a Gift edges it for sheer sustained brilliance, but The Bank Dick runs it close, and the car chase finale gives it a manic energy the earlier film doesn't quite match.
What the film does best, and what's aged most gracefully, is its fundamental attitude. Egbert Sousé is not a hero who rises to the occasion. He's a man who falls sideways into a situation, lands on something valuable entirely by accident, and then immediately tries to exploit it for a quiet life and a free drink. There's something almost philosophical about that. The world rewards him not for virtue or effort but for being present and shameless at the right moment. Honestly, relatable.
Three and a half stars. Not polished, not perfect, and occasionally showing its age. But sharp, subversive, and consistently funny, which is three things a lot of modern comedies can't claim. W.C. Fields was one of a kind, and this is a very good place to find out why.
Rating: ★★★½ | Year: 1940 | Watched: 2026-04-17
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Related on Movies With Macca
More with W.C. Fields: It's a Gift (1934)
More from the 1940s: Louisiana Story (1948) · The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) · Men Without Wings (1946) · The Seventh Victim (1943)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
