It Conquered the World (1956) in Color — Starring Lee Van Cleef & Beverly Garland

It’s a Gift (1934) — Buy This Classic in Color

Buy It’s a Gift (1934) in color — W.C. Fields’ greatest comedy masterpiece, a relentlessly hilarious portrait of domestic torment and the American dream of escape. Directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring W.C. Fields, Kathleen Howard, Jean Rouverol, Julian Madison, and Tommy Bupp. He wanted nothing but a little peace and quiet — available now as an instant, DRM-free digital download.

Plot Summary

Harold Bissonette (W.C. Fields) is a beleaguered small-town grocery store owner trapped in a life of unrelenting domestic misery. His shrewish wife Amelia (Kathleen Howard) berates him without pause from morning until night, his children ignore him completely, and his customers treat him with open contempt. Harold’s only dream — modest, pathetic, and endlessly thwarted — is to sell the grocery store, pack up his family, and move to California to run an orange ranch. When he receives word that a relative has died and left him a small inheritance, Harold secretly uses the money to purchase an orange grove in California sight unseen, an act of quiet rebellion that will set off a chain of catastrophic domestic explosions. Before he can even announce his plan, Harold must survive a series of escalating comic disasters — a blind man named Mr. Muckle who destroys the grocery store while searching for the proprietor, a baby who terrorizes fellow train passengers by dropping grapes and kicking strangers, and the immortal back-porch sleeping sequence where every conceivable noise and interruption prevents Harold from getting a single moment of rest. A coconut rolls down a fire escape, a milkman clanks his bottles at dawn, an insurance salesman named LaFong hammers on the wrong door, a squeaky clothesline shrieks in the wind, and a vegetable vendor bellows his wares at the crack of sunrise. When the Bissonette family finally arrives in California after a chaotic cross-country journey, the orange ranch turns out to be a barren, worthless plot of scrubland, confirming Amelia’s every dire prediction. Harold stands on his dusty property in the blazing sun, the butt of cosmic and domestic ridicule — until a developer arrives desperate to buy the land for a grandstand site, offering Harold a fortune and the last laugh. With Fields at the absolute peak of his powers, It’s a Gift builds its comedy from the mundane indignities of everyday life into something transcendently, almost surreally funny — a film where getting a quiet nap on the back porch becomes an epic battle against the universe.

Cast & Crew

• Director: Norman Z. McLeod
• Starring: W.C. Fields as Harold Bissonette, Kathleen Howard as Amelia Bissonette, Jean Rouverol as Mildred Bissonette, Julian Madison as John Durston, Tommy Bupp as Norman Bissonette
• Runtime: 68 minutes
• Year: 1934
• Rated: Approved
• Genre: Comedy
• Country: USA

Why Buy This Classic in Color?

This professionally colorized version of It’s a Gift transforms one of the greatest comedies ever filmed into a visual experience of warmth, detail, and lived-in authenticity. The meticulous frame-by-frame colorization process brings Harold Bissonette’s cramped, cluttered world to vivid life — the dusty wooden shelves of his grocery store stacked high with colorful tins and boxes, the faded wallpaper and worn furniture of the Bissonette home that speaks volumes about middle-class domestic exhaustion, and the harsh California sunlight that bathes Harold’s worthless orange grove in merciless golden clarity. W.C. Fields’ famous ruddy complexion and world-weary eyes are rendered with remarkable naturalism, his rumpled suits and battered hats taking on the muted browns and greys of a man beaten down by life. Kathleen Howard’s Amelia becomes even more formidable in color, her dark expression and severe wardrobe projecting domestic authority with terrifying efficiency. The back-porch sleeping sequence — universally regarded as one of the greatest comedy scenes in cinema history — gains extraordinary depth through colorization, with the early morning light shifting from cool blue pre-dawn to warm golden sunrise as Harold’s torment intensifies. The colorization reveals the full texture of the original black and white sets and costumes while preserving every nuance of Fields’ incomparable physical comedy. This restored and colorized version of the classic movie is a treasure for anyone who appreciates the golden age of Hollywood comedy.

Historical Significance

It’s a Gift stands as the supreme achievement of W.C. Fields’ extraordinary career and one of the undisputed masterpieces of American screen comedy. Released by Paramount in 1934, the film was based partly on Fields’ own stage sketch The Sleep Porch and the unproduced play The Comic Supplement by J.P. McEvoy, drawing heavily on Fields’ decades of experience as a vaudeville and Broadway star. Fields had been perfecting his screen persona — the long-suffering everyman beset by hostile children, impossible wives, and a malevolent universe — throughout the early 1930s, and It’s a Gift represents the purest and most devastating expression of that comic vision. The film’s influence on American comedy is incalculable: the back-porch sequence alone has been studied and imitated by generations of comedians, and the film’s structure — building escalating frustration from tiny mundane irritations into cosmic comedy — became a template for everything from Jacques Tati to the Coen Brothers. Norman Z. McLeod’s direction is deceptively simple, holding the camera steady and letting Fields’ genius fill the frame with perfectly timed physical comedy and muttered asides. The film was a commercial hit in 1934 and has only grown in critical reputation, now widely considered not just Fields’ best film but one of the ten greatest comedies ever made.

Technical Details

• Original Format: Black and White (1934)
• Colorized: Professional frame-by-frame HD colorization and restoration
• Resolution: HD 720p
• File Format: MP4 / MKV
• Running Time: 68 minutes
• Language: English
• Delivery: Instant download link on-screen and sent to your email upon purchase
• Price: €15.00
• License: Personal, non-commercial use

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What makes It’s a Gift considered W.C. Fields’ best film?
The film distills everything that made Fields a comedy genius into a perfect 68-minute package — his gift for physical comedy, his mastery of the muttered aside, his ability to find cosmic absurdity in the most mundane domestic situations, and his unique persona as the put-upon everyman who endures everything the universe throws at him with stubborn, exasperated dignity. The back-porch sleeping sequence alone is widely considered one of the greatest comedy scenes ever filmed.

Who was Norman Z. McLeod?
Norman Z. McLeod was one of Hollywood’s most accomplished comedy directors, responsible for guiding the Marx Brothers through Monkey Business (1931) and Horse Feathers (1932) before directing Fields in It’s a Gift. McLeod had a remarkable ability to create the conditions for comic genius to flourish on screen while maintaining a brisk, economical narrative pace.

Is the back-porch scene really that funny?
It is legendary for good reason. The scene builds with exquisite precision as Harold, exhausted and desperate for sleep, settles onto the back porch of his apartment building only to be interrupted by an escalating parade of nuisances — a coconut bouncing down a metal fire escape, a squeaking clothesline, a persistent insurance salesman, a booming vegetable vendor, a baby dropping things from an upper floor. Fields’ reactions to each new outrage are masterfully timed and endlessly rewatchable.

Is this the original film with added color?
Yes, this is the complete original 1934 film that has been restored and enhanced with professional colorization technology. Every scene and all original dialogue are preserved exactly as intended.

What devices can I watch this on?
You can watch this colorized version on any device that plays MP4 or MKV files, including computers, tablets, smartphones, smart TVs, and media players like Roku or Apple TV.

Is the download DRM-free?
Absolutely. Your purchase is completely DRM-free, meaning you own the file outright with no restrictions on how many times you watch it or on which devices you play it.

How and when will I receive my download?
You will receive your download link instantly on-screen after purchase, and a backup link will also be sent to your email address. No waiting period — you can start watching immediately.

How much does it cost to buy this colorized classic?
The price for this restored and professionally colorized edition is €15.00 — a one-time payment for a permanent, DRM-free download you can watch anytime.

Also available in colour for international viewers. This restored and professionally colorized edition of It’s a Gift brings W.C. Fields’ immortal comedy to vivid new life for a generation of classic film enthusiasts. Watch this landmark classic movie and experience the colorization that reveals every detail of Harold Bissonette’s hilariously doomed quest for peace and quiet.

Related Colorized Classics

• The Bank Dick (1940)
• The Young Lions (1958)
• The Tin Star (1957)
• Duck Soup (1933)
• Sons of the Desert (1933)