On the first day of shooting The Bank Dick, in September 1940, the cast and crew were ready punctually at 9 a.m. as instructed by W.C. Fields. He showed up at 11 a.m., followed onto the set by his secretary, who carried his flask. Nobody acted as if he were late, including Fields. They simply went straight to work.

The filming actually started with one of the last scenes, the family breakfast in the new home that was purchased by bogus stock investment. As Fields rose to leave for work, his elder daughter, played by Una Merkel, kissed him on the forehead. He apologized for his breath, which smelled of alcohol. Merkel replied, "Why Mr. Fields, on you it smells like Chanel Number Five." She remained a favorite of his throughout the shoot.

Although his experiences with Mack Sennett had prepared director Edward Cline to direct slapstick scenes like the film's climactic car chase, nothing could have prepared him for Fields' ad-libbing. The star rarely delivered a line as written. For one scene in The Black Pussy Cat Cafe, Fields was supposed to share some dialogue with actor Bill Wolfe. Instead, he improvised a lengthy monologue, then simply left the set, with Wolfe gazing after him dumbfounded. That was the shot used in the finished film.

During another scene in the bar, Shemp Howard, cast as bartender Joe Guelpe, couldn't find the prop water glass for Egbert's usual, whiskey with water chaser. Instead, he used an old fashioned glass. Fields added to the joke by treating the glass as a finger bowl. He then dried his fingers on a paper napkin, balled it up, tossed it over his shoulder and kicked it back up with his foot.

On the day they filmed the scenes in which Egbert tries to direct a movie, Cline, as a gag, had some men carry him to the set in a sedan chair. Fields immediately appropriated it and used it for Egbert's entrance to the location shoot. He improvised a series of jokes around the chair that had the crew paralyzed with laughter.

Shooting on The Bank Dick ended in mid-October. At that time, Fields directed that his writing credit should go to a pseudonym, as usual, with none of the "critics" acknowledged. For The Bank Dick he used the name "Mahatma Kane Jeeves." The name was a take-off on British drawing room comedies, in which the butler usually was named Jeeves, and the leading man would at least once prepare to leave the house and order the butler, "My hat, my cane, Jeeves." That line was actually in the script, at the end of the final breakfast scene, but Fields had decided not to use it.

After the film's preview, Fields polished some of the comic lines, then post-dubbed them. The new lines are easy to spot, as he couldn't be bothered to synch the new lines properly with the lip movements on screen. Most critics feel this obvious error actually adds to the film's comic effect.

Fields and Universal received complaints from residents of Lompoc, CA. Not only did they resent Fields' depiction of their town as boring and culturally backwards, but he mispronounced the name throughout as "Lom-poke," giving it a risque sound. Lompoc had been founded as a dry town, which gave its inhabitants another reason to resent the film.

Both Mack Sennett and William Saroyan suggested the script should be honored with an Academy Award®, but Fields knew better, telling Sennett they usually forgot the clowns at Oscar® time. He was right. He was never voted an Oscar® nomination.

by Frank Miller