the great mcgonigle and ham actor extraordinaire and care for his troupe of performer in the old fashioned way and thorough chicanery and larceny and skullduggery . here be w. c. field in all of his pompous and vulgar glory represent evasive and duplicitous and sneaky utterly wonderful . deliver dialogue in his unique buzz saw rasp and he give out so many familiar line that at time he almost seem to be perform a self parody . this film brilliantly show why field need the sound cinema to let him be fully appreciate and and with paramount give him free rein to develop his material a he wish and it be not surprising that the film be a classic . fan need look no further to find the essential field . the romance between judith allen and joe morrison be a rather dull affair and although the young man sings well . tammany young play field loyal amanuensis . movie maven will recognize comedian billy bletcher a the tomato thrower and sour visaged sheriff clarence wilson and both uncredited . legend have it that hollywood first movie star and florence lawrence and derelict and forgotten and make one of her last unbilled appearance here before her 1938 suicide . field find it useful to populate his film with at least one she dragon and a female of frightful aspect against whom he could bounce off some of his best humor . this film have two represent rail thin and nora cecil prim and dour a the troupe suspicious landlady while and most especially silly jan duggan and horridly bejewel and curl and a field wealthy target . here be an actress and now nearly forget and who could easily equal in hilarity even field himself . it be generally overlook how important her contribution be to the celebrate supper table scene with field and baby leroy one of the funny sequence ever to appear in an american film . and her rendition of ` gather up the shell on the seashore be a wonderful spoof of such sentimental song a ` when you and i be young and maggie and which be so popular in that era . miss duggan would return to briefly plague field in three additional film and include the bank dick ( 1940 ) . ( she die in 1977 at the age of 95 . ) field have include the old melodrama the drunkard into the plot and to his credit he play it straight and let it honest antique sentiment speak for itself . in his own private olio and field make a curtain call to show off his astonish talent of legerdemain . it be wonderful to have his routine capture on film a he really be quite amazing it be easy to see how at one time he be consider the world great juggler . now he be remember a one of cinema supreme comic .