My Little Chickadee (1940)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Edward F. Cline

Writers:

Mae West (screenplay) and
W.C. Fields (screenplay)

Release Date:

15 March 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Western

Tagline:

It's the lafftime of a lifetime ! . . as "Wild Bill" Fields tries to tame the West!

Plot:

Rightly suspected of illicit relations with the Masked Bandit, Flower Belle Lee is run out of Little Bend...

Plot Keywords:

Sheriff | Bandit | Train | Farce | Hotel

Cast

Mae West	...	Flower Belle Lee
W.C. Fields	...	Cuthbert J. Twillie
Joseph Calleia	...	Jeff Badger
Dick Foran	...	Wayne Carter
Ruth Donnelly	...	Aunt Lou
Margaret Hamilton	...	Mrs. Gideon
Donald Meek	...	Amos Budge
Fuzzy Knight	...	Cousin Zeb
Willard Robertson	...	Uncle John
George Moran	...	Milton, Twillie's Indian confederate
Jackie Searl	...	Schoolboy (as Jack Searl)
Fay Adler	...	Mrs. 'Pygmy' Allen
Gene Austin	...	Saloon musician
Russell Hall	...	Candy
Otto Heimel	...	Coco
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Coco and Candy	...	Themselves
Mark Anthony	...	Townsman (uncredited)
Hank Bell	...	Townsman (uncredited)
William 'Billy' Benedict	...	Lem (uncredited)
Georgie Billings	...	Boy (uncredited)
Wade Boteler	...	Leading citizen (uncredited)
Al Bridge	...	Barfly drinking straight whiskey (uncredited)
Harlan Briggs	...	Hotel clerk (uncredited)
Bob Burns	...	Barfly (uncredited)
Eddie Butler	...	Henchman (uncredited)
Lane Chandler	...	Porter (uncredited)
Lita Chevret	...	Indian squaw (uncredited)
Bing Conley	...	Henchman (uncredited)
Jimmy Conlin	...	Squawk Mulligan, bartender (uncredited)
Jeff Conlon	...	Man (uncredited)
William B. Davidson	...	Sheriff of Little Bend (uncredited)
Clyde Dembeck	...	Boy on train (uncredited)
Jan Duggan	...	Uppity Little Bend woman (uncredited)
Frank Ellis	...	Townsman wanting to form posse (uncredited)
Al Ferguson	...	Train passenger (uncredited)
Chester Gan	...	Chinese train passenger (uncredited)
Slim Gaut	...	Bowlegged man (uncredited)
Ben Hall	...	Schoolboy (uncredited)
Buddy Harris	...	Porter (uncredited)
Charles Hart	...	Schoolboy (uncredited)
Edward Hearn	...	Barfly drinking Panther (uncredited)
Otto Hoffman	...	Pete, printer (uncredited)
Lloyd Ingraham	...	Townsman wanting to form posse (uncredited)
Danny Jackson	...	Schoolboy (uncredited)
Si Jenks	...	Deputy (uncredited)
John Kelly	...	Henchman (uncredited)
Walter McGrail	...	Townsman (uncredited)
Robert McKenzie	...	Townsman (uncredited)
Charles McMurphy	...	Townsman (uncredited)
George Melford	...	Greasewood sheriff-elect on train (uncredited)
James C. Morton	...	Train conductor (uncredited)
Anne Nagel	...	Miss Foster, schoolteacher (uncredited)
Vester Pegg	...	Gambler (uncredited)
Bob Reeves	...	Barfly (uncredited)
Addison Richards	...	Judge (uncredited)
Betty Roche	...	Salvation Army girl (uncredited)
Jack Roper	...	Henchman (uncredited)
Dick Rush	...	Man (uncredited)
Buster Slaven	...	Schoolboy (uncredited)
Dorothy Vernon	...	Diner (uncredited)
Morgan Wallace	...	Gambler (uncredited)
Blackie Whiteford	...	Townsman (uncredited)
Joe Whitehead	...	Townsman (uncredited)
Bill Wolfe	...	Barfly in trance (uncredited)

Directed by
Edward F. Cline

Writing credits
Mae West		(screenplay) and
W.C. Fields		(screenplay)

Produced by
Lester Cowan	....	producer
Jack J. Gross	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Frank Skinner

Cinematography by
Joseph A. Valentine		(as Joseph Valentine)

Film Editing by
Edward Curtiss

Art Direction by
Martin Obzina
Jack Otterson

Set Decoration by
Russell A. Gausman		(as R.A. Gausman)

Costume Design by
Vera West		(gowns)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Joseph A. McDonough	....	assistant director
Ray Taylor	....	second unit director (uncredited)

Art Department
Martin Obzina	....	associate art director

Sound Department
Bernard B. Brown	....	sound supervisor
Joe Lapis	....	sound technician (as Joseph Lapis)

Special Effects by
John P. Fulton	....	special photographic effects (uncredited)
James V. King	....	special photographic effects (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
James V. King	....	special process cameraman (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Paul Landres	....	consulting editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Charles Previn	....	musical director

Production Companies

• Universal Pictures

Distributors

• Universal Pictures (1940) (USA) (theatrical)
• Realart Pictures (1948) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)

Also Known As:

The Lady and the Bandit (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (re-rating) (2005) | USA:Approved (certificate #6029)

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

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).

Goofs:

Continuity: Near the end, Flower Belle is going up the stairs and her wedding ring is visible on her hand underneath her gloves. Then at the top of the stairs, she goes to give Cuthbert the ring back and it is in her purse.

Quotes:

Flower Belle Lee: [reading off the blackboard] "'I am a good boy. I am a good man. I am a good girl." What is this, propaganda?

Movie Connections:

Featured in 100 Years of Comedy (1997) (V)

Soundtrack:

Willie of the Valley

High Concept

I believe that, some time in the 1970's, more than thirty years after MY LITTLE CHICKADEE was made, the term "high concept" was coined. So, starting in the seventies, a lot of movies with sure-fire ideas became the trend. ("What?", someone, circa 1990 might say, "Arnold Schwarzenegger is being teamed with Danny DeVito? Why, that must be hilarious!") So, clearly, somebody thought the idea of W.C. Fields and Mae West sharing the silver screen would work, and MY LITTLE CHICKADEE remains the ultimate example of both the pitfalls and the merits of High Concept movie-making. Fields and West, both iconic figures, were actually so similar that the audience's loyalties are torn. We watch a West picture to observe Mae West turn the tables on men and we watch a Fields picture to watch Fields flout authority. When Fields and West meet and appear to like each other (he wanting sex and she wanting money) we love them both. Fields gets off one of his most memorable lines as he holds her fingers up to his lips and says, "What symmetrical digits.") She, in turn, throws her false submission at him, letting us know between the lines that she's a woman of steel. So far, so good. Their romance is viewed suspiciously by a character actress who is the perfect foil for both of them: Margaret Hamilton, who, of course, played the Wicked Witch of the West the year before in THE WIZARD OF OZ. Fields and West are married aboard the train by West's con-man friend -- hence, they are not really being married -- and this actor is also the sort of figure who belongs in a movie with either Fields or West. But let's cut to the chase. Both Fields and West have separate moments for the rest of the movie and each of these moments is somewhat minimal. West's scene teaching a classroom of overgrown adolescents seems to be a whitewashing of a bawdy routine from her stage days. It almost makes it. Fields's various encounters with gamblers and a female drunk (who HAS to be Celeste Holm, uncredited, as someone else on this board has noted) are promising, but somehow never really engaging. Thinking about this movie, nevertheless, brings a smile to the face. There are so many little things which, popping into the memory, are funny, that it has to be acknowledged that MY LITTLE CHICKADEE achieved its goal: driving into our minds the idea of the harmony of two comics who'd made audiences howl with laughter in live performance twenty years earlier. It should also be said that the ideal audience for MY LITTLE CHICKADEE is an audience in a darkened movie theatre. Ideally, the year should be the year it was made and the audience should be made up of people who've been anticipating this pairing and would be more than willing to hoot throughout. Has anybody got a time machine?