Film

The Bank Dick

Name: The Bank Dick
Genre: Comedy
Released: 1940
Cast: W.C. Fields, Cora Witherspoon, Una Merkel, Evelyn Del Rio, Jessie Ralph

Slapstick
Light-hearted

W.C. Fields slouches through this 1940 comedy as a lovable scoundrel who stumbles into a bank guard job and immediately begins scheming. It's anarchic physical comedy mixed with Fields's slurred, misanthropic monologues—a film that moves at its own digressive pace, never hurried, often hilarious. For anyone who loves characters who are charmingly, unapologetically awful.

TMDb rating

3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love a rambling, anarchic comic character who schemes his way through every scene, and you enjoy physical gags and sly, quick-tongued dialogue more than a tidy plot.

Skip it if you want a tight, forward-moving story; this one wanders through loosely connected episodes and its gags can feel repetitive, so patience matters more than plot.

What it asks of you: Seventy-two minutes of loose, meandering comedy where you let the scenes unspool at their own lazy pace and accept that logic is optional.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

It's a Wonderful Life1946

Capra's counterpart to Fields: a story about small-town misfits and banking crises, but suffused with sentimentality. It shows what happens when you believe in people, as Fields gleefully does not.

But If you go in expecting cynicism, you'll find instead a film that genuinely believes in human decency. Some find that saccharine.

Singin' in the Rain1952

Another film about con artists and schemes wrapped in pure entertainment. Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor are lighter than Fields but working the same vein—charm as a tool, absurdity as salvation.

But The tone is relentlessly sunny. If you're watching for Fields's grouchy misanthropy, the cheerfulness might grate.

Sunset Boulevard1950

A darker Hollywood story about ambition and delusion, narrated by someone thoroughly compromised. Billy Wilder shares Fields's eye for how people lie to themselves about money and status.

But It's bleak in a way The Bank Dick never attempts. The comedy is acidic rather than warm, and it ends badly.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Bank Dick

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

M1931

Both are portraits of a man trapped by circumstances and his own nature, but where Fields's Egbert survives through charm and luck, Lang's protagonist is crushed by machinery. Flip the coin and you get the whole moral question.

Fritz Lang's masterpiece about a serial killer hunted through Berlin—German Expressionism at its peak, city as labyrinth, desperation visible in every shadow. Nothing like comedy, but the same anatomy of a flawed man surrounded by systems that don't work.

But It's harrowing. The killer is sympathetic. If you watch this for lightness, you will not find it. It demands patience and emotional endurance.

Red River1948

John Wayne and Montgomery Clift on a cattle drive, tension mounting as authority corrodes. Swap the western for a bank and you have Fields's world—power, schemes, loyalty tested.

But It's a serious drama with real stakes. There's no comic relief, and watching characters suffer isn't the same as laughing at them.

The Ladykillers1955

A gang of thieves poses as musicians to rob a bank, living with an elderly landlady who slowly catches on. Crime, scheming, and a protagonist who is genuinely awful but oddly lovable.

But It's darker than The Bank Dick and less forgiving. The tone shifts toward cruelty in ways Fields never quite manages.

Tokyo Story1953

Both films understand that people are repetitive, disappointing, and endearing for exactly those reasons. Ozu and Fields both see human nature without judgment—just attentiveness. One is Japanese minimalism, the other American slapstick, but the kindness underneath is the same.

Ozu's film about an elderly couple visiting their children in Tokyo. Minimal plot, maximum observation. Characters repeat themselves, move in circles, fail to connect even as they love each other. Funny in a way that makes you ache.

But Nothing happens. Dialogue is oblique. You watch it at the film's pace, not yours. Impatience will destroy it for you.