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The Bank Dick, released as The Bank Detective in the United Kingdom, is a 1940 American comedy film starring W. C. Fields. Set in Lompoc, California, [a] Fields plays Egbert Sousé, a drunk who accidentally thwarts a bank robbery and ends up a bank security guard as a result.
The American screwball comedy film The Bank Dick (1940) is widely regarded as one of W.C. Fields’s best movies. The comedian also wrote the film’s script. Fields played Egbert Sousè, a henpecked drunkard who lands a job as a bank guard after unwittingly capturing a robber.
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- Production notes and credits
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The Bank Dick, American screwball comedy film, released in 1940, that is widely regarded as one of W.C. Fields’s best movies. The comedian also wrote the film’s script.
Fields played Egbert Sousè, a henpecked drunkard who lands a job as a bank guard after unwittingly capturing a robber. After hearing a con man’s sales pitch, he convinces his future son-in-law (played by Grady Sutton), who is also a bank employee, to embezzle money in order to invest in the scheme. However, bank auditor J. Pinkerton Snoopington (Franklin Pangborn) soon arrives, and Sousè becomes embroiled in a madcap scheme to prevent Snoopington from uncovering the missing money.
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•Studio: Universal Pictures
•Director: Edward F. Cline
•Writer: Mahatma Kane Jeeves (W.C. Fields)
•Music: Charles Previn
•W.C. Fields (Egbert Sousè)
•Cora Witherspoon (Agatha Sousè)
•Una Merkel (Myrtle Sousè)
•Franklin Pangborn (J. Pinkerton Snoopington)
- Lee Pfeiffer
Apr 7, 2017 · The Bank Dick is squarely in the latter camp. Fields is Egbert Sousè – “accent grave over the e”, rather than plain old Souse (drunkard). Somehow, without gainful employment, Egbert is surviving a semi-miserable family life somewhere in small-town 1940’s America.
Dec 1, 2015 · In the Bank Dick, written by Fields under the glorious nom de plume Mahatma Kane Jeeves, his character Egbert Sousè is at war with his wife, daughter and mother-in-law. With Fields, there is usually a subtle malice in play about family life, masked by mock affection: "Did you warble my little wren?"
- Pat Cashin
- Culture Editor
The Bank Dick. By Randy Skretvedt. Charlie Chaplin brought pathos to movie come-dy, playing the lovable Little Tramp. Harold Lloyd often played the browbeaten underdog who saved the day through pluck and determi-nation. Harry Langdon was the little man who was frightened by everything.
The Bank Dick, written by Fields under the nom de plume Mahatma Kane Jeeves, contains many of the same themes found in his short films: the hectoring family, small-town puritanism, irritating children, the love of drink and smoke.
