Iconic comedian W.C. Fields is up to his crazy antics again alongside his crazy family and Baby LeRoy (The Old Fashioned Way) in It’s a Gift. This comedy film is about an unhappy grocery clerk who inherits some money to invest in oranges!
Harold Bissonette (W.C. Fields, The Bank Dick), (constantly mispronounced by his annoying wife as “biss-on-ay”) is a grocer who is constantly badgered by his family. His wife Amelia (Kathleen Howard, Death Takes a Holiday) nags him all the time and seems to be always against him. His daughter Mildred (Jean Rouverol, Stage Door) is indifferent and only cares about herself, and his son Norman (Tommy Bupp) is a pain in the butt. Why he stays with them is beyond me.
One day, Harold receives a small inheritance from his Uncle Bean who has recently passed away. He sells his grocery store for the greener pastures of California to have a business selling oranges. After making the journey to California, Harold’s family feels like they have been taken for a ride as the house is a dump and land is worthless. His family walks out on him, but all is not lost!
W.C. Fields fans should enjoy It’s a Gift like his many other films as it has his usual comedic routines. One scene has poor Harold trying to sleep outdoors because his wife continuously nags him, and all his noisy keep him awake. There are a couple of great scenes with a blind man, and Baby LeRoy who are trying to destroy his grocery store and one where the family has a picnic on a private property, where they leave behind a path of destruction!
Kino Lorber releases W.C. Fields’ It’s a Gift on Blu-ray. On their release it is mentioned that the source came from a 2017 4K scan. The picture quality is nothing short of fantastic with rich whites and dark blacks. The greyscale looks balanced with a lot of detail to the scenery in various locations. The video looks polished and clean throughout, but there were couple of blemishes, including a minor jump cut around the thirty-minute mark, but nothing to ruin the viewing experience. It’s a Gift has never looked as good as it does now, sporting a 4K master.
It’s a Gift has the familiar soundtrack used by Kino and other labels, which is English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, and it sounds fine without any major age-old drop-offs or hissing detected. Dialogue, action sounds and music are crisp throughout. Everything came in perfectly clear and balanced.
This release from Kino has a commentary track by James L. Neibaur, the author The W.C. Fields Films book. He is a perfect candidate to do a commentary for a W.C. Fields film and he discusses the comedic actor, the film, and other cast members thoroughly.
The other supplemental content for this release are theatrical trailers for The Old Fashioned Way, You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man, My Little Chickadee and The Bank Dick
I honestly can’t imagine a fan of W.C. Fields not picking this release up as it has excellent audio and video quality and a commentary by a man who wrote a book about the actor. If you’ve never seen a W.C. Fields film, this is a good one to start with
It’s a Gift
Director- Norman Z. McLeod
Cast- W.C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Baby Leroy
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Kino Lorber
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –12/14/2021