My Little Chickadee

Mae West - W. C. Fields - My Little Chickadee

My Little Chickadee (1940) starring W. C. Fields and Mae West

My Little Chickadee is a classic comedy starring two of the great comedians of their day, W. C. Fields and Mae West. The basic plot has Mae West’s character, Flower Belle Lee, run out of town on a rail, where she meets W. C. Fields’ character, Cuthbert J. Twillie. During an American Indian attack on the train, Mae West shows great courage and daring—and W. C. Fields doesn’t. Mistakenly thinking that he’s a wealthy man, Mae accepts his marriage proposal afterward, and with the aid of another con man on board the train gets “married” before they arrive at their new destination.

There’s a masked bandit who’s been robbing the territory blind—and it’s due to her involvement with him that Mae’s been thrown out of her hometown. The bandit continues to attack the new town, and woo Mae West as well—as does half the male population of the town. W. C. Fields is made sheriff due to his “heroism” on the train, giving him an opportunity to do some of his classic jokes and routines, inside and outside of the saloon. Eventually, he’s mistaken for the masked bandit, as he’s desperate for his wife’s affection, leading to a “grand necktie party” where the town people are about to hang him …. Can Mae West save him? Will she? It’s a comedy, after all 🙂

In all, My Little Chickadee is a funny movie, serving primarily as a vehicle for two screen comedians to strut their stuff, and worth watching. My Little Chickadee is available on DVD as part of The W. C. Fields Comedy Collection.

Editorial review of My Little Chickadee courtesy of Amazon.com

W. C. Fields and Mae West in My Little Chickadee

When Columbia Pictures sought to pair Mae West and W.C. Fields in a film, neither was thrilled, but since both stars’ careers were on the skids, they agreed to the project. They fought about everything: script, billing, casting, philosophy, work habits, style. Onscreen, Fields is always the butt of his own jokes. West never is. He’s all broad slapstick, she, all sly innuendo. In the film West hangs onto her precious image–that inimitable combo of sexiness and wit–as Fields systematically subverts it. It’s the clash of the screen-legend titans.

In the Wild West town of Greasewood, West, as Flower Belle Lee (her usual seductive saloon singer), is kidnapped by the Masked Bandit (Joseph Calleia, in a role Bogart turned down). After refusing to turn him in, she’s run out of town and can only return when she’s “married and respectable.” She meets flimflam man Cuthbert J. Twillie (Fields) on a train. He’s instantly smitten: “My heart is a bargain today, will you take me?” “I’ll take you, and how,” she agrees, spying his satchel of cash. Many plot twists later, Twillie’s on the gallows. Hangman: “Have you any last requests?” Twillie: “I’d like to see Paris before I die. Philadelphia will do.” In her ideal happy ending, West’s Flower Belle finds true love–with two men–the Masked Bandit and the town muckraker, Wayne Carter (Dick Foran).

The film’s funniest scenes involve Field’s futile attempts to get West into a compromising position: “I have some very definite pear-shaped ideas I’d like to discuss with thee.” Suffice it to say that Fields ends up in bed with a goat. –Laura Mirsky

Check out the Funny movie quotes from My Little Chickadee as well.

Trivia about My Little Chickadee

As he leaves at the end of the film, Cuthbert J. Twillie (W.C. Fields) says to Flower Belle, “Why don’t you come up and see me sometime?”, a reference to Mae West’s famous line in an earlier film, She Done Him Wrong (1933).
On lunch break one day, W.C. Fields went to his dressing room to start on a new bottle of whiskey he had saved for that purpose. Apparently, someone beat him to it, as the bottle had been opened and about half of it had been drunk. Fields immediately ran outside and roared to the crew, “Who took the cork out of my lunch?”
Dick Foran, who was being paid by the week, would go to Mae West and tell her that W.C. Fields was rewriting his lines to give himself more screen time and to try to steal the film from her. Then he would go to Fields and tell him the same thing about West. In this manner, he was able to extend his employment from a few weeks to several months, as both Fields and West – who didn’t like each other – would hold up production while they would rewrite their scenes.