![Cover for Good Times [TV Show]](/images/displaymedia.php?id=25021&cat=3&sizew=70){kind=small}
...maybe Fields is an acquired taste.
In the course of events, Fields brags his way into a movie director's job, quits when he realizes he'll have to put in more than a moment's work, and subsequently falls over a bank robber, quite by accident, and gets the credit for his capture. His reward is a job at the bank as a security guard, a bank dick. Next, there's an episode involving the sale to Og of presumably fraudulent shares in a mine, Og's "borrowing" $500 from the bank where he works, and then a surprise visit from the bank examiner. The movie ends with an uproarious automobile chase, again involving a bank robbery. As I said, it's all really a pretext for displaying Fields' verbal and physical humor. He may have been approaching the end of his run, he died in 1946 at age sixty-seven, but he was never in better command of his timing.
Video:
Criterion transferred their DVD image from a 35mm fine-grain master and the sound from a 35mm optical track. Neither the picture nor the sound appears to have been doctored in any way, they are not digital restorations, but they are evidently based on the best available original sources. Expect to notice some few age spots on the screen, occasional flecks and scratches, nothing more. Otherwise, the black-and-white contrasts hold up well.
Audio:
The monaural audio is quite limited in range, but it has the advantage of being quiet, which is a blessing.
Extras:
A real boon, however, would have been more supplemental material; heck, almost ANY supplemental material. All we do get are a brief booklet essay by film writer Dennis Perrin and a selection of nineteen chapter stops. While I appreciated the essay, it is unlike Criterion to be so stingy with their products.
Parting Thoughts:
For those who can't get enough of this enduring funnyman, Criterion have also released a separate DVD containing six of Fields' best short subjects. They are "The Golf Specialist" (1930), "The Pool Sharks" (1915), "The Pharmacist" (1933), "The Fatal Glass of Beer" (1933), "The Barber Shop" (1933), and the infamous "The Dentist" (1932). The timings run from eleven minutes for the silent "Pool Sharks" to around twenty minutes each for the rest. They include many of his most-famous skits and provide close to two hours of the comic's unique sense of humor. Ah, yes...I can see it now.
Video:
Criterion transferred their DVD image from a 35mm fine-grain master and the sound from a 35mm optical track. Neither the picture nor the sound appears to have been doctored in any way, they are not digital restorations, but they are evidently based on the best available original sources. Expect to notice some few age spots on the screen, occasional flecks and scratches, nothing more. Otherwise, the black-and-white contrasts hold up well.
Audio:
The monaural audio is quite limited in range, but it has the advantage of being quiet, which is a blessing.
Extras:
A real boon, however, would have been more supplemental material; heck, almost ANY supplemental material. All we do get are a brief booklet essay by film writer Dennis Perrin and a selection of nineteen chapter stops. While I appreciated the essay, it is unlike Criterion to be so stingy with their products.
Parting Thoughts:
For those who can't get enough of this enduring funnyman, Criterion have also released a separate DVD containing six of Fields' best short subjects. They are "The Golf Specialist" (1930), "The Pool Sharks" (1915), "The Pharmacist" (1933), "The Fatal Glass of Beer" (1933), "The Barber Shop" (1933), and the infamous "The Dentist" (1932). The timings run from eleven minutes for the silent "Pool Sharks" to around twenty minutes each for the rest. They include many of his most-famous skits and provide close to two hours of the comic's unique sense of humor. Ah, yes...I can see it now.
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[release]4763[/release]