Fields's "Great McGonigle" character—a riff on the
Great Ziegfeld—resembles the self-important frauds he had played on Broadway in
Poppy (1923) and its silent-film adaptation
Sally of the Sawdust (1925). He would return to variations of this character in his later films. The play depicted in the film is the American
temperance play
The Drunkard; or, The Fallen Saved, first performed in 1844. In 1933 little-theater producer Galt Bell mounted a revival of
The Drunkard in
Los Angeles. The show opened on July 6, 1933, and was an immediate success. Bell presented
The Drunkard as an audience-participation show, and urged the crowd to hiss the villain and cheer the hero. Bell's festive approach ensured steady audiences and repeat customers. The play became a popular venue for movie people, and enjoyed an extraordinary 26-year run. W. C. Fields loved the show and wanted to make a film version. He arranged for
Paramount Pictures to hire members of the Los Angeles stage company: Jan Duggan, Ruth Marion, Samuel Ethridge, Larry Grenier, and William Blatchford. The villain of
The Drunkard, actor Henry Kleinbach, was also signed; Fields kept Kleinbach on hand during the filming. Fields would be appearing in the
Drunkard part of the film, but hadn't decided which role he would take. Fields finally took Kleinbach's role of Squire Cribbs in the film version. Fields especially enjoyed working with Jan Duggan as a comedy foil; her "Seashore" song from the stage show was featured in
The Old Fashioned Way and she appeared in five of his films. Henry Kleinbach enjoyed a long career as a movie character actor (as
Henry Brandon), as did Samuel Ethridge (as
Sam Flint). As the film's centerpiece, the
Drunkard sequence runs about 20 minutes and is performed in the style of the late 1890s. Reaction shots show audience members at a pitch of emotional involvement: an excited elderly spectator is cautioned by his wife to think of his heart; a young sophisticate skeptically asks his pretty date, "Do you think
this is a good play?" to which she answers rapturously, eyes glued to the stage, "Oh, yes!" For the 1930s, the film is unusual in that it does not mock but instead nostalgically celebrates the enthusiasm 1890s American small-town audiences had for traveling theatrical companies of all sorts. McGonigle's juggling act seen in the film affords a rare opportunity to observe Fields's own juggling talent—his famous
vaudeville specialty—as he juggles airborne balls and cigar boxes. In this bit, Fields looks relatively fit and slim, in contrast to the plumper look that became familiar in later years. Director
William Beaudine was impressed by Fields's dramatic ability during the climactic parting scene: "Fields had played the buffoon all through the picture. The audience was expecting a funny twist to this scene, too. And if Fields had made the slightest false step, the whole tragedy of his parting would have gone to pieces in a burst of laughter. But he didn't make that false step. He acted with the pathos of the true clown. He held his audience and conveyed the sadness of the old man's parting with the only person who meant anything in his life. That was a great bit of acting." ==Reception==