It's a gift 1934 - A classic comedy by any standards

IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025318/
IMDB rating: 7,5

Director: Norman Z. McLeod
Main Cast: W. C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Jean Rouverol

"Anyone seeking to understand W.C. Fields's humor and screen persona need look no further than Norman Z. McLeod's It's A Gift. The 1934 movie, which was successful but not highly regarded at the time, has become the defining film in the comic's screen career. It's also a very telling comedy about men who are downtrodden in spirit and put-upon by everyone around them, particularly women and children. It's misogynist humor, which is one reason why Fields' comedy, like that of the 1990s television series Married... with Children, is almost entirely a male phenomenon. In It's A Gift, Fields' performance as the common man and hen-pecked husband achieved a level of sympathy that he would seldom find in his other, more aggressive, assertive roles. Fields' Harold Bissonette is, or rather, once was, an essentially kind man - he wants nothing more than peace and quiet to enjoy his meals, family, and home, and wouldn't even mind earning the respect of his wife, if that's what it takes - but his patience is tried at every turn by some of the most obnoxious supporting players ever to grace a feature film. It's significant that the one and only completely sympathetic character in It's A Gift is Harold's new neighbor, a complete stranger (former filmmaker Dell Henderson) who does Bissonette a good turn without even knowing anything about him. The gesture is an element of the script that suggests, subtly yet profoundly, that there is hope for Harold and the men in Fields' audience like him. Fields never did another movie that was as cleanly executed, neatly constructed, or pleasing - indeed, by the end of his career, with Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, his barbed humor spun in too many directions at once, evoking a spirit of anarchy but not much sympathy or warmth. It's A Gift is Fields at his most affecting and funny and, along with his performance as Micawber in George Cukor's David Copperfield, his best work on screen." - http://www.allmovie.com/movie/its-a-gift-v25529

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