The Frustrated Duffer

Abstract

In the Follies of 1918 Fields appears as the lead character in three scenes. The most important is “A Game of Golf,” written by Fields. He plays Colonel Bogie, a frustrated golfer disturbed by numerous interruptions, including paper bits that fly about him and interfere with his swing. He accidentally steps on a club that hits him in the back. He swings at a ball but the club bends. A gorgeous girl with a greyhound walks by him. “Fine looking camel you have with you,” Fields says. A reviewer calls the golf scene the show’s comedic “high spot.” The hilarious golf skit became one of Fields’s staples that was repeated in several films. The best reprise is in Fields’s first sound film, The Golf Specialist (1930). He also later participated in a golf training film, Hip Action (1933) with Bobby Jones. The routine displayed Fields’s ability to draw laughter from props. It also illustrated a new direction in his humor. Here he plays a naïve frustrated Everyman figure beset by elements he can’t control—a theme that appeared repeatedly in his films.