"I think being a woman is like being Irish." — Iris Murdoch

Last night we watched an old W.C. Fields film together:  It's A Gift.  It's very uncharacteristic for Fields -- he played a meek, hen-pecked husband.  I saw it a hundred years ago with my Dad, and the Carl LaFong scene was his favorite.  He always mentioned it, and since I told Emma about it, she's been bugging me to get the movie.

It's a farce, but it's so dated!  Not because of the content, but because it moves so slowly.  Nowadays dialog is much snappier.  If you think of a typical Fraiser episode (I mention Fraiser because some episodes are textbook farces) it's rapid fire.  In this old movie, you could draw a long breath between one line and the next.

It drove Nelson up the wall.  I think he laughed exactly three times, even though Emma and I were howling.  It's interesting to me to see what makes Nelson laugh.  In this case, it was:

1. When Fields opened a can of tomatoes with a hatchet
2. When Fields is "thrown off key" by a cow mooing as he sings
3. This bit of dialog:

Fields:  This sundial is ten minutes slow.
His wife: [with heavy sarcasm] Yes, the sun is wrong but your watch is right, of course.

I wonder whether it would be possible to do a remake?  Maybe Bernie Mac could play W.C. Fields' role?