Edward F. Cline

The Bank Dick

Directed by Edward F. Cline and written by W. C. Fields under a pseudonym, The Bank Dick (1940) follows Egbert Sousé, a chronically intoxicated Lompoc resident who stumbles into bank security work after foiling a robbery by accident. Built around Fields’s signature blend of verbal evasion, physical timing and moral indifference, the film favours set-piece gags over narrative cohesion. Milton Krasner’s straightforward cinematography and Arthur Hilton’s clean editing serve the performance without embellishment. Though its plot contrivances and thin supporting roles show strain, its endurance lies in Fields’s unyielding command of comic causality — a masterclass in how to be funny without ever trying to be liked.