W.C. Fields and International House

My wife Elisabeth is the curator in our home of all things I refer to (sometimes derogatorily) as "old timey":  The Beau Hunks, Betty Boop cartoons, bluegrass music, The Marx Brothers, vintage children's books, the Carter Family, and all films pre-1950.  Not that I don't sometimes take to these things as well, but I go reluctantly, as my aesthetic nerve center draws me elsewhere by nature.  I am often, however, pleasantly surprised after an initial pooh-poohing.

Her latest addition to our collection of things from the "bygone era" is the W.C. Fields Comedy Collection - a 5-disc DVD set that's rapidly winning me over.  First, we watched The Bank Dick (1940), Fields' much-heralded surreal comedy about a hapless, boozing idiot who falls into, out of, and back into good luck.  I suddenly realized where the template for bizarre, free-associated stream of comedy like The Simpsons might have come from.  "Has, uh, Michael Finn been in here today?" Fields asks the bartender, a signal to slip a mickey to Snoopington, the bank inspector.

I wasn't, however, prepared for International House (1933), a wild cinema burlesque of bits, sight gags, risqué jokes and bare skin.  International House is a hotel comedy set in "Wu-Hu, China" -  a precursor to films like California Suite, where big names in idiosyncratic roles hold together a film that's actually about almost nothing. 

A certain Doctor Wong (played by a very un-Chinese Edmund Breese), has invented a cumbersome device called the Radioscope, which displays visual transmissions from all over the world and "needs no broadcast station; no carrier waves are necessary."  Genius!  What a great way to bankrupt the television networks that didn't yet exist.  Interested parties converge on the International House to place their bids on the new device.  Dr. Wong keeps promising, "And now, the six-week bicycle race!" but instead, we see:

-Cab Calloway and His Harlem Maniacs doing "Reefer Man":  "Why, what's the matter with this cat here?" "He's high." "What do you mean he's high?" "Full of weed."

-Baby Rose Marie (eek!) performing "My Bluebird's Singing The Blues."  Yes, that's Rose Marie, later of The Dick Van Dyke Show.  She was even scarier as a kid, and at first glance I thought she may have been a midget.  Must be seen to be believed.

-Rudy Vallee singing a smarmy, religious-themed love song (and being rightly trounced by Fields, who enters the room mid-song:  "How long has this dog fight been going on?")  Fields bad-mouthed Vallee intentionally, violating an agreement between Vallee and director A. Edward Sutherland, who had promised to keep Fields' comments on a leash.

-Colonel Stoopnagle and Budd, a dry-as-parchment duo of radio satirists, presenting sight gag inventions, and the bizarre slogan "Stoopnocracy is Peachy."

The cast also includes Bela Lugosi, Burns and Allen (the "Gracie is batty" jokes, obviously pulled from their "successful" stage act, are blindingly tedious), Peggy Hopkins Joyce (top-billed above Fields, and playing herself, a mediocre Mae West-type vamp, who was mostly famous for marrying millionaires), and Franklin Pangborne (as the prissy hotel manager - "I'm gooseflesh all over!"). 

There's also a mind-blowing stage act featuring Sterling Holloway and a group of semi-nude dancers dressed as teacups, saucers and sugar bowls.  It's at this pivotal nightclub scene that the film takes a surreal turn and never looks back.  Fields lands his "auto gyro" on the roof garden, hoards booze and shoots at the Radioscope, Lugosi's gun barrel gets bent trying to pry open a window, the hotel gets generally trashed, and someone sits on a "pussy."

International House was Fields' first film back at Paramount, after making several shorts with producer Mack Sennett, including The Dentist.  It's also the movie that established his most-remembered persona of the wise cracking boozehound.  (When we first see him, Professor Henry R. Quail (Fields) is downing the last of two-dozen beers before setting off on a solo flight in his auto gyro (named The Spirit of Brooklyn); a newspaper clipping later tells us that citizens along his flight path are being injured by falling bottles, but are "resting comfortably as can be expected.")  The timely modification of the Volstead Act by FDR, to allow for the manufacture and sale of 3.2 beer (for much-needed national revenue) probably helped International House quite a bit at the box office.  The film was also helped by advance publicity regarding cuts that had been suggested by MPPDA and the Hays Office, which was at that time merely advisory.  International House was released with its "gross vulgarities in both action and dialogue" intact, doing solid business in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Boston.

The W.C. Fields Comedy Collection also includes My Little Chickadee, It's A Gift, You Can't Cheat An Honest Man, and a well-done A&E Biography segment, W.C. Fields: Behind The Laughter.

If I hadn't met my wife, I might still see W.C. Fields as a fuzzy old-time icon loaded down with idiosyncrasies.  Now I see a complex comedic genius, with a body of work (much of it now on DVD) ripe for discovery.  Thanks, my little laplander.

Source:  James Curtis. W.C. Fields, A Biography: Knopf 2003.

Comments

[Paul]

I love this film, but my crappy old VHS of it is in storage somewhere - thanks for alerting me to the fact that it's out on DVD.

[xman]

He was also one of the finest jugglers that ever lived

[Chris T.]

For me, the must-see film in the Fields canon is "It's A Gift", referenced during a Sopranos episode a few seasons back: "Open the door for Mr. Muckle!" Check the IMDB listing: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025318/plotsummary

[Krys O.]

"International House" is one of my favorites to. It's got a "Casino Royale" surreal feel.Check out "Million Dollar Legs" also with Mr. Fields: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023225/ and the films of Wheeler & Woolsey: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0941298/.

[Dave the Spazz]

It's A Gift is the best (and funniest) movie ever made.

"Carl LaFong!"

[Wife Elisabeth]

I bought the DVD set on the basis of "It's A Gift" and so the fabulousness of "International House" was a real added bonus.
By the way, the great W.C. is sandwiched between Stockhausen and Carl Jung on the Sgt. Pepper's album cover.

[Cranky Media Guy]

Yes, It's A Gift is great. I like The Man On The Flying Trapeze equally, though. You'll think I'm nuts, but I actually tear up a bit when I think of those two movies; Fields' character in both of them is WAY more sympathetic than the way we usually think of Fields. The characters have their flaws, but they're average people trying to make their way in a world that seems to have it out for them.

Besides, how can you NOT like a movie ("Flying Trapeze") which features a professional wrestler named Hokalaka Meshobabb [sp?]?

[Carl LaFong]

do not miss "It's A Gift". and highly recommended: Bob Weide's documentary "W.C. Fields Straight Up" (now available on dvd).

[superorchestra]

ah, yes...I share your trepidation to disappear down a woodchuck's hole of "old-timey" ness, but that likely stems from time spent in A CERTAIN METROPOLITAN AREA where people go to great efforts to affect an old-timey demeanor. (Bristle) You gotta remember though, these people were being thouroughly modern in their time...

[Dave the Spazz]

Hey Cranky Media Guy

Man on the Flying Trapeze is the second funniest movie ever made. And you know who plays wrestler Hokalaka Meshobabb? None other than future Ed Wood, Jr. megastar Tor Johnson!

[Gene]

Question, in one of W C Fields movies he is shown driving a very small car inside a hotel. The car is seen going down the stairs and through the halls. Can anyone tell me the name of the movie. By the way the car was an American Austin.
thanks

[Evan]

International House is great -- any movie with Colonel Stoopnagle in it is alright by me. Allegedly the Fleischer Brothers animated a bouncing-ball sing-along video called "Stoopnocracy Is Peachy," but I've never been able to find it.

[kwerna]

Regarding Gene's question, the little car is in International House.