Running Wild

In director Gregory La Cava's silent production RUNNING WILD, W.C. Fields is at his comic best, playing Elmer Finch, a man stricken with a severe inferiority complex. He gets no respect from the harridan who is his second wife (Marie Shotwell) or from his lumpen stepson, Junior (Barnett Raskin). Only Mary (Mary Brian), his daughter from his first marriage, believes in him. Derided at work and unable to collect on a bill, Elmer is desperate when he stumbles across a horseshoe. He throws it over his shoulder and, although it sails through a shop window, it indirectly changes his luck and his attitude.

Fields is hilarious as La Cava gives him all kinds of wonderful comic business. Elmer tears through the town yelling, "I'm a lion," at the top of his voice, then drives a stolen car wearing boxing gloves. And after Junior comes home and Elmer has cowed his wife, she says to Elmer, "You wouldn't hit him, would you?" Fields is a sight to behold as he replies, "Oh, no," while advancing on Junior with a malevolent glint in his eyes.