I'm back from a nice evening at the Motion Picture Academy and a program all about W.C. Fields. The Academy has been hosting what I hear is an extraordinary exhibit of Fields artifacts and memorabilia, most of which was donated by the late comedian's family. I haven't seen it yet and if I'm going to, I'm gonna have to hustle. Sunday is the final day to view it.
Last night, the auditorium was about 60% packed for an entry in a series they call The Jack Oakie Celebration of Comedy in Film, which spotlights great funny folks. Leonard Maltin hosted the program which consisted of a series of Fields trailers, a clip from his 1927 silent film Running Wild, a panel discussion with folks who'd either worked with Fields or studied him, and a Fields feature film. The members of the panel were Jane Withers (who appeared briefly with W.C. in It's a Gift), Delmar Watson (who had a small role in You Can't Cheat an Honest Man), Jean Rouverol Butler (who played Fields's daughter in It's a Gift), Hal Kanter (who wrote briefly for some of Fields's radio appearances), film historian Joe Adamson and Fields's grandson, Ronald Fields.
The overriding theme of the discussion was that W.C. was a much nicer human being — especially towards children — than some histories have made him out to be. Three people on the panel worked with him when they were much younger…although Watson admitted he had almost no contact with the man. All reported good experiences with the man, which was nice to hear, though hardly definitive. Interestingly, in a half hour discussion of what kind of person W.C. Fields was, there was no mention whatsoever of alcohol.
The feature shown was The Old-Fashioned Way, a film Fields made in 1934 and — I think — one of his weaker efforts. In it, he plays The Great McGonigle, the con-artist head of a theatrical troupe that likes to skip out of town without paying its boarding house fees. The storyline doesn't make a whole lot of sense but it was still a joy to watch Fields go through his paces and, near the end, to do his juggling act as a semi-grand finale. I had a fine time but I came away wishing they'd run It's a Gift or The Bank Dick or You Can't Cheat An Honest Man instead. One of the folks involved in planning the program told me they'd selected The Old-Fashioned Way because it isn't seen as often as the others. That's true…but you almost never get to see any W.C. Fields movie these days on a big screen with a large, responsive audience. Back in the late sixties/early seventies, there were such screenings around town and I enjoyed them very much. Tonight made me really miss those opportunities.