My Little Chickadee (1940)

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Flack
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My Little Chickadee (1940)

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W.C. Fields spent a portion of the late 1930s on bedrest, alternating between hospitals and sanitariums for physical ailments, mental anguish, alcoholism. Mae West, at 48 (she lied about her age), was considered to be too old to be a sex symbol, and her sexual entendres had got her labeled as "box office poison." Somehow, both stars ended up on Universal's payroll and came up with My Little Chickadee, a film that would eventually be nominated for AFI's Top 100 Funniest American Movies.

Miss Flower Belle Lee (West) is traveling cross country when her stage coach is held up by a masked bandit. The bandit, like every other man in the film, is smitten with Flower Belle and whisks her away, only to deliver her safely to her destination. ("It was a tight spot, but I wiggled out of it," she says.) When she is caught hooking up with the masked bandit a second time, Flower Belle is kicked out of town and told not to come back until she is "respectful" (read: married). Flower Belle rolls her eyes at her sentence, and when the judge asks her if she's showing contempt for the court, she responds, "no, your honor, I'm doing my best to hide it."

On a train ride to the next down she meets Cuthbert J. Twillie (Fields), a small-time con-artist with a big bag of cash. After fending off an Indian attack (Flower Belle skillfully picks off the attackers with two six shooters while Twillie makes do with a child's slingshot), the two decide to get married on the train.

After arriving in Greasewood City, Twillie is quickly made the mayor while Flower Belle alternates flirting between the town's good guy (who runs the newspaper) and the town's bad guy, while still keeping the masked bandit on the hook. Despite all this, Twillie keeps trying to consumate his marriage. The closest he gets is climbing into bed with Flower Belle thinking she is still wearing her fur coat, when in reality she has left a goat behind in her place. "Godfrey Daniels! Beelzebub! I've been hoodwinked!"

Twillie also takes over as the town's bartender. While dealing with a drunk patron, Twillie tells a story about a time he had to take care of a previously drunk woman. He tells the patron he threw the lady down, but when his friend pipes in and reminds Twillie that he was the one who threw her down, Twillie adds, "well, I kicked her." Later he reveals the woman got the best of him. "She returned with a friend. Another lady, with gray hair."

In the film's climax, Twillie has been misidentified as the masked bandit, and it's up to Mae West and the men she's roped in to save him.

The screenplay for My Little Chickadee was written by West and Fields, although West later complained she wrote 90% of it and Fields was given credit to keep him on board. According to lore the two despised each other and refused to speak to one another except when the cameras were rolling. West had a line added to her contract that said she would not perform with Fields when he was drinking, which turned out to be all the time. According to IMDB, one day someone snuck into Fields' trailer and poured out half his whiskey, after which the drunkard exclaimed, "who took the cork out of my lunch?"

While the plot is enough to move My Little Chickadee along, the real reason to watch this film is to see two former A-list actors who, in the back half of their careers, put together one witty comedy.

(Twillie begins shuffling a deck of cards.)
Cousin Zeb: "Is this a game of chance?"
Cuthbert J. Twillie: "Not the way I play it, no."

"I failed a savings throw and now I am back."