Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Brilliant and touching

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

W. C. Fields specialized in two kinds of characters, tricksters and henpecked husbands. "It's A Gift" works as a showcase of Fields in the latter department.Fields is Harold Bissonette, pronounced "bis-son-ay," a store clerk who dreams of an orange grove to call his own. His nagging wife Amelia (Kathleen Howard) just can't wait to tick off all the ways Harold ticks her off in as loud a voice as possible. Harold puts up with this as he plots to buy his orange grove despite her persistent objections."What did I say last?" she demands at the end of one tirade."Yes, yes, every word of it," a distracted Harold meekly replies.If you are a die-hard W. C. fan, it's not hard to recommend "It's A Gift." It's a series of quintessential setpieces of Fieldsian slow burns and double-speak. There's not much to be said for the plot, as you shouldn't have to pay more attention to it than Fields and his team of writers did. The point is to get Fields in various messes, and this "It's A Gift" does with brisk efficiency.Plenty of famous bits make their way on screen. The infamous Carl LaFong is name-dropped and name-spelled for eternity, and there's of course the biggest cinematic nod in the direction of the kumquat industry, though unlike Mr. LaFong they get the name spelled wrong. Everyone remembers that scene where Harold tries to whack his son ("Well, he's not going to tell me I don't love him!") and when he comes up with a Churchillian reply when accused of being drunk.The question of enjoying "It's A Gift" boils down to how much you embrace "aggravation comedy," where the humor is built into annoying situations made more so through sheer repetition. I can only take so much of Harold dodging customers in his store, or wrestling with a deck chair. A long sequence showcases Harold trying to sleep on a porch while a milkman, a coconut, a salesman, and a squeaky clothesline all conspire against him. I can't help but chuckle a few times, but am always happy when the scene ends.Harold is a fascinating character, a beaten man who is the author of his own destruction. He bought an orange ranch even after knowing it was a lemon, lets a blind man smash everything in his store, and of course married Amelia. But he's still Fields, and manages to work his way through his self-created turmoil to a surprisingly upbeat, if left-field, conclusion.That's my favorite part of the film, but you can't say enough for the able support of Kathleen Howard. Her Amelia is a wonderful shrew, kind of likable in her querulous way. She nags Harold even in her sleep, and her line readings are deliriously skewed in the way they seem to fall heavy on nearly every other syllable. "Don't be kicking Norman's skates around!" she huffs after Harold does a header slipping on one of his son's roller-skates, as if Harold did it just to annoy her. Considering this is Fields, maybe he did.Director Norman Z. McLeod isn't much talked about even among film students, though he may be the only man who directed major vehicles for Fields, the Marx Brothers, Harold Lloyd, and Danny Kaye. He knew how to work with comedy stars, and here keeps Fields at the center of the action.Watching "It's A Gift" can be hard on the nerves, but it's also a treat for the funny bone with a good heart discernible amid the mayhem.

I profess this film to be the very first W.C. Fields film that I have ever viewed in it's entirety.The verdict? While I don't view W.C. Fields to be among the funniest comedians I have ever seen,his work in this film left an overall good impression on me.The film contains a good mixture of sight gags and one liners,and I found all of them to be the comedy equivalent of home runs,or at the least,triples.About the only thing I didn't laugh at in this film was Mr. Fields' interaction with the children.Overall I find the film to be a winner,and would view again should I come across it on television and were finding myself in need of laughs.

This was torture, absolute torture! The jokes are not funny, you pretty much hate the entire cast especially the kid, the voice of the wife everything, its so stupid and BORING! I honestly do not know how I survived this film, I like classic films, but this was just absolutely freaking bad. I stopped the film after 50 minutes otherwise I would have committed suicide. The rest of the film I watched stuffing junk food in my mouth to at least enjoy something for 18 minutes. The movie itself its not long, but if I apply Einstein's theory of relativity those 68 minutes will seem like a freaking year.DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE, IT'S NOT WORTH THE TIME NOR THE MONEY!

There is considerable fun to be had in watching this fine old comedy; such expert timing, with Fields proving master of the slow-burning visual gag and also the offhand, unremittingly sour retort.Raymond Durgnat wrote extensively on Fields in his book on early Hollywood comedy, "The Crazy Mirror", as has David Thomson in his Biographical Dictionary of Film. These critics rightfully see Fields as embodying a certain isolationism in the American soul, a reluctance to go along with the cosy family values often proffered by Hollywood. As Geoff Brown argues in his Time Out review, "It's a Gift" is 'Fields' definitive study in the horrors of small town family life.' Few comedies of this era match it in terms of avoiding easy sentiment and padding: perhaps only "Duck Soup" comes to mind. It was still a few years before the screwball comedies fully found their feet, with the magnificent likes of "My Man Godfrey" (1936) and "Bringing Up Baby" (1938)."It's a Gift" is as gloriously chaotic as the best of the Marx Brothers, as precisely measured as the best Jacques Tati, but it is imbued with an irascible philosophy all of its own. There are some truly wonderful set-pieces: the kumquats scene and the slow build of WCF's time on his makeshift bed on the outer landing, to name two examples.