Review of
Drat!
Being the Encapsulated View of Life by W. C. Fields in His
Own Words, edited by Richard J. Anobile
Four out of five stars
While there was
no question that Fields was at times a heavy drinker, it is also the case that
he was an extremely talented entertainer. Known as a hater of children and
dogs, he fathered children and had reasonably good relations with them when you
factor in that he was always on the road as an entertainer.
What is not
commonly known is that Fields wrote or improvised a large amount of his own
material, including many of the classic movie lines attributed to him. He had
very little formal schooling, yet became an avid reader, traveling with a trunk
full of books and had an extensive library in later life. One of his female co-stars
described him as kind and gentle in personal interactions. When the two-year-old
son of his neighbor drowned in a lily pond on his property Fields was so
stricken with grief that he had the pond filled in.
This book contains
images from his films with associated snippets of text. His claimed hatred of
children and dogs is repeated many times. They only exhibit his public persona
as an entertainer and nothing of his private side, where he was a very literate
man that treated others well. In an industry where the star generally rules, Fields
was irascible on screen, yet generally considerate to his fellow players. In
this book, only the irascible is seen.
No comments:
Post a Comment