It’s a Gift is a quintessential comedy, starring W.C. Fields in his 16th sound film, and his fifth in 1934 alone.
It was directed by Norman McLeod, who had directed Fields in his cameo as Humpty Dumpty in Alice in Wonderland (1933).
The film depicts the trials and tribulations of a grocer as he battles a shrewish wife, an incompetent assistant, and assorted annoying children, customers, and salesmen.
Rather crude, and clumsily edited but very funny, the film reprises routines honed by Fields from his career over the years 1915–1925.
Fields often tried to recapture sketches that led to his stage success onto film, such as “The Picnic”, “A Joy Ride,” and most famously, “The Back Porch,” all of which are featured in It’s a Gift.
Lesser known than some of Fields’ later works, such as The Bank Dick, the film is the best example of the recurring theme of the Everyman battling against domestic entrapment.
It is one of several Paramount Pictures in which Fields contended with child actor Baby LeRoy.
