Review of The Bank Dick

A music critic once said that the secret of Bach's magic could be summed up in several words: "Everything he wrote was flawless." This film is approximately one hour long, and does not contain a single wasted motion; to me, especially but not only because of its economy of length, is the most flawless motion picture ever made. The performing and writing of Fields in this picture always reminds me of the fruits of long and tireless Zen practice. Watch him maneuver glasses at the Black Pussy Cafe. The trajectory of every scene is perfectly comprehensible and economical in the light of what has come before. Its subject, Fields, plays off fugal countersubjects (hapless foils Grady Sutton, Franklin Pangborn,and wise non-fools like Shemp Howard) which are absurd yet flawless in their own right. Its climactic car chase is a gemlike climax.