W.C. Fields –
Extravaganza (Passport Set)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: D Content: B
W.C. Fields was once one of the great screen icons, and
this was strongly so up until the late 1970s.
Between his Paramount films being trapped in the holdings of the
Universal Pictures catalog (who does not do enough with them) and a new
groundbreaking law that stopped anyone from using the images of big stars
(particularly of the past) without the permission of the person’s estate,
Fields has suffered the most. That is
why the new Extravaganza DVD set from Passport is so interesting.
DVD One offers three of his sound shorts: The Fatal
Glass Of Beer (1933), The Golf Specialist (1930) and The
Dentist (1932), all of which are from poor prints, especially in their
sound. They are not particularly funny
either, though a few moments are amusing.
DVD Two has his silent 1925 D.W. Griffith comedy Sally Of The Sawdust. Fields is good and it is considered one of
his best works, but it follows the same Griffith formula that constantly
annoys. The print is better than
anything on DVD One, but this is overrated as a film overall. DVD Three has an old TV tribute to Fields
that was meant to fit an hour time slot, the 1915 silent short Pool
Sharks, a likeness of Fields in the animated RKO/Van Beuren Rainbow
Parade in three-strip Technicolor called Cupid Gets His Man,
from 1936, and a section of other interesting pieces under the name W.C.
Fields Film Follies Festival. The
cartoon print is not bad, particularly in the color department.
Those semi-extras that finish this set off are a
highlight, including a long trailer for International House, a famous
clip (too short versus the real thing) of a real earthquake hitting as Fields
is shooting a scene and what he does about it, trailers for You Can’t Cheat
An Honest Man, My Little Chickadee, and The Bank Dick, Fields
“coaching” a checker game, a promo for a Fields festival showing three of his
short films (The Barbershop, The Pharmacist, and The
Fatal Glass Of Beer) and then there is a toy ad. You have a man doing a good impression of
Fields (if he does not totally look like him) for a game called Chick-A-Dee
from the Marx Toy Company. This is in
color and has four cut-out plastic chickens at the four corners of a marble-holding
disc. Whoever pecks the most marbles
wins. It is an ironic way to end this
set.
The picture is as varied as we have ever seen in such a
collection, rarely in color, always 1.33 X 1 full screen. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono usually shows how
old the sound is and it is often. The
piano for the silent footage is especially obnoxious, especially by being a bit
clearer than authentic sound film sound.
A curio that is not always satisfying, Extravaganza is still
worth your time, especially if you have no idea who W.C. Fields is.
- Nicholas Sheffo
