It's a Gift (1934)

IMDb plot summary: A henpecked New Jersey grocer makes plans to move to California to grow oranges, despite the resistance of his overbearing wife.

Directed by Norman Z. McLeod. Starring W.C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, and Jean Rouverol.

It's a Gift stars W.C. Fields as a henpecked grocery store owner with a dream of owning an orange ranch someday, and when the chance for his dream comes true, he decides to go for it and make it a reality. Watching this, I realize I've maybe never seen a Fields film before -- certainly not one where it was his vehicle. I like him more than I like the movie. He's got some more subtlety to his delivery than a lot of other comedians of the same time, and while that doesn't make him better than them, it does make him stand out. His aimless bumbling is quiet enough that it makes space for a lot of other jokes to land. Where it doesn't work is that every character in this film is deeply unlikable, and I don't really want to root for any of them to do well, I just want them off my screen as soon as I can get them off. But despite the miserable cast of characters, Fields' work is creative enough that I do want to check out more of his films. Maybe there will be another one that works for me more fully.

How it entered my Flickchart:

It's a Gift < Beauty and the Beast (1946)

It's a Gift < Anna Karenina

It's a Gift < Joker

It's a Gift > Happy-Go-Lucky

It's a Gift > Five Graves to Cairo

It's a Gift > Velvet Buzzsaw

It's a Gift > Kiss Me Kate

It's a Gift < Blue Sky

It's a Gift < Timecop

It's a Gift > Furlough

It's a Gift > Poltergeist

It's a Gift > I Saw the Devil

Final spot: #1392 out of 3654, or 62%.