“Perhaps in those days when the comedy field was so much richer, standards were proportionately higher, but even so any casual dismissal of the film which contained that superbly creative and mathematically precise sleeping porch episode seems beyond belief. Fields' caustic wisecrack to the millionaire—“I’ll be sober tomorrow, but you'll always be crazy" seems particularly apt when applied against his sniping critics. Most of their writings, and their names, have been forgotten; Fields can only seem funnier as the years go by.”
Everson recaptures in detail all of Fields' movies from the earliest "Pool Sharks" to "Tillie's Punctured Romance," "David Copperfield," "The Bank Dick," "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break," and the last, "Sensations of 1945." And with Fields in over 130 hilarious stills is a supporting cast of dozens, including Baby LeRoy, Marilyn Miller, Mae West, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Louise Brooks, Jack Oakie, Hugh Herbert, Maria Montez, Billy Gilbert, Alison Skipworth, Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Freddie Bartholomew, Buster Crabbe, Gracie Allen, ZaSu Pitts, Una Merkel and Franklin Pangborn.
Author: William K. Everson
Title: The Art of W. C. Fields
Edition: No edition remarks
Published: New York: Bonanza Books, 1966
Physical description: Hardcover; Quarto; 232p
Condition: Near fine copy in near fine dust jacket. Owner’s name on front paste-down.
Comments: Solid copy.
