West reportedly wrote the original screenplay, with Fields contributing one extended scene set in a bar. Universal decided to give the stars equal screenplay credit, perhaps to avoid the appearance of favoritism, but the move incensed West, who declined to team with Fields afterwards. The stars spoofed themselves and the Western genre, with West providing a series of her trademark double entendres.
In the American Old West of the 1880s, Miss Flower Belle Lee (Mae West), a singer from Chicago, is on her way to visit relatives. While she is traveling on a stagecoach with three men and a woman named Mrs. Gideon (Margaret Hamilton), the town gossip and busybody, a masked bandit on horseback holds up the stage for its shipment of gold and orders the passengers to step out.
The masked bandit immediately takes an interest in the saucy blonde. As he makes his getaway with the gold, he takes her with him. Upon reaching the town of Little Bend, the others report the robbery and kidnapping to the sheriff (William B. Davidson). Flower Belle then walks into town, unharmed, and explains, "I was in a tight spot but I managed to wiggle out of it."
Later that evening, at the home of her Aunt Lou (Ruth Donnelly) and Uncle John (Willard Robertson), the masked bandit enters Flower Belle's second floor bedroom and they start kissing. However, his presence and departure is witnessed by Mrs. Gideon. She quickly reports what she has seen and Flower Belle is annoyed to find herself hauled up before the judge (Addison Richards). Offended by her indifferent manner, the judge asks angrily "Young lady, are you trying to show contempt for this court?" She answers: "No, I'm doing my best to hide it!" Flower Belle is then run out of Little Bend.
She boards a train to Greasewood City. It makes an unscheduled stop to pick up con-man Cuthbert J. Twillie (W. C. Fields). When hostile Indians attack, Flower Belle saunters to a window and mows them down with two pistols, while Twillie dodges flying arrows and fights off the Indians with a child's slingshot. Flower Belle has little use for Twillie until she sees a stash of money in his bag. Believing him to be rich, she then plays up to him and they get acquainted. They have an impromptu wedding, officiated over by a passenger, Amos Budge (Donald Meek), a gambler who looks like a minister.
As she has only pretended to marry Twillie for "respectability", Flower Belle gets a separate hotel room in Greasewood City. Meanwhile, Twillie is made sheriff by the saloon owner and town boss Jeff Badger (Joseph Calleia), who has an ulterior motive: he hopes the new sheriff, who is clearly incompetent, will be unable to interfere with Badger's crimes. Flower Belle attracts the attention of Badger, newspaper editor Wayne Carter (Dick Foran), and every other man in town. While keeping her troublesome "husband" out of reach and out of trouble, Flower Belle encounters the masked bandit again. At one point, she kisses Badger, and recognizes that Badger is the masked bandit, musing: "A man's kiss is like his signature."
Twillie attempts to consummate his "marriage" with Flower Belle, but she escapes and leaves a goat in their bed. Twillie, unaware of the substitution, attempts to make love to the goat, and is surprised when he discovers that it is not his wife.
One night, Twillie again attempts to consummate his "marriage" by entering Flower Belle's room disguised as the masked bandit. He is caught, accused of being the masked bandit, and is about to be hanged. With the noose around his neck, he makes his last request to the lynching party. "I'd like to see Paris before I die. Philadelphia will do!"
Shooting on My Little Chickadee was completed in January 1940. West and Fields received joint screenplay credit. However, West later claimed that she wrote most of the film and that Fields only wrote some of the scenes, such as the bar scene, and some dialogue and was given joint credit as an inducement to "straighten himself up and finish the picture".[4] The film was heavily censored, with many scenes and lines of dialogue ordered to be cut or altered. It opened just one month later and became Fields' highest-grossing film for Universal. Reportedly, West and Fields did not like each other, and would not speak to each other except during filming. Reviews were mixed, but Fields performance was praised across the board, while West's was criticized. She was so furious that she refused to work with Fields ever again or even to talk to him or about him.[5]
Fields had starred in a series of comedies for Paramount in the 1930s. My Little Chickadee was West's first screen performance since Every Day's a Holiday (1937) for Paramount Pictures. This was Fields' second film for Universal, and West's only film for Universal. It was also the last successful film of West's career; her three subsequent films all failed at the box office.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an aggregate score of 93% based on 13 positive and 1 negative review.[7]Frank S. Nugent reviewed the film negatively for The New York Times, writing that "the film is at low tide most of the time in the quality of its humor, in the broad treatment its players and directors have given it, in the caliber of the audience it seems intended to please and in the generally bad odor it exudes."[8]Variety wrote that the film "has its sagging moments, and the slim basic story cannot be taken seriously at any point. But there's sufficient broad humor and elemental comedy to satisfy generally."[9]Harrison's Reports wrote that West and Fields "play up to each other very well and make a good team. Due to their efforts the picture offers good mass entertainment, in spite of the fact that the story is thin."[10]Film Daily wrote that it was "all lusty fun" with "some amusing gags and situations."[11]John Mosher of The New Yorker called West "as fresh and ebullient as ever" after her two-year absence from the screen.[12]
My Little Chickadee was a box office success, earning $2million in gross receipts.[3]
Related Research Articles
The Bank Dick, released as The Bank Detective in the United Kingdom, is a 1940 American comedy film starring W. C. Fields. Set in Lompoc, California, Fields plays Egbert Sousé, a drunk who accidentally thwarts a bank robbery and ends up a bank security guard as a result.
Mae West was an American stage and film actress, singer, playwright, comedian, screenwriter, and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned over seven decades. She was known for her breezy sexual independence, and her lighthearted bawdy double entendres, often delivered in a husky contralto voice. She was active in vaudeville and on stage in New York City before moving to Los Angeles to begin a career in the film industry.
Chickadees are a group of birds in the family Paridae.
Little Egypt was the stage name for at least three popular belly dancers from the late 1800s through the early 1900s. With countless imitators, the name became synonymous with belly dancers.
Mae Marsh was an American film actress whose career spanned over 50 years.
George H. Melford was an American stage and film actor and director. Often taken for granted as a director today, the stalwart Melford's name by the 1920s was, like Cecil B. DeMille's, appearing in big bold letters above the title of his films.
John Nicholas "Dick" Foran was an American actor, known for his performances in Western musicals and for playing supporting roles in dramatic pictures.
Belle of the Nineties is a 1934 American Western film directed by Leo McCarey and released by Paramount Pictures. Mae West's fourth motion picture, it was based on her original story It Ain't No Sin, which was also to be the film's title until censors objected. Johnny Mack Brown, Duke Ellington, and Katherine DeMille are also in the cast. The film is noted for being the premiere performance of the jazz standard "My Old Flame", performed by West with the Duke Ellington Orchestra.
Thomas Donald Meek was a Scottish-American actor. He first performed publicly at the age of eight and began appearing on Broadway in 1903.
Willard Parker was an American film and television actor. He was a leading man under contract to Columbia Pictures in the 1940s and starred in the TV series Tales of the Texas Rangers (1955–58).
William Beatman Davidson was an American film actor. He appeared in more than 300 films between 1915 and 1947.
Every Day's a Holiday is a 1937 American comedy film starring and co-written by Mae West, directed by A. Edward Sutherland, and released by Paramount Pictures. The film, released on December 18, 1937, also starred Edmund Lowe, Charles Winninger, and Charles Butterworth. This was West's last film under her Paramount contract, after which she went on to make My Little Chickadee (1940) for Universal Pictures and The Heat's On (1943) for Columbia Pictures.
William LeBaron was an American film producer. LeBaron's film credits included Cimarron, which won the Academy Award for Outstanding Production at the 4th Academy Awards ceremony for 1930/1931. LeBaron also produced landmark comedy features from W. C. Fields, Mae West and Wheeler and Woolsey. In addition to being a producer, LeBaron served as the last production chief of Film Booking Offices of America and at FBO's successor, RKO Pictures, where he was replaced by David O. Selznick.
Joseph A. McDonough was an assistant director in Hollywood. He often worked with director James Whale at Universal Studios and MGM.
William Benedict, was an American actor, perhaps best known for playing "Whitey" in Monogram Pictures' The Bowery Boys series.
Aleen Leslie was a screenwriter, playwright, and novelist. She died in 2010, three days before her 102nd birthday. At that time, she was the oldest member of the Writers Guild of American-West. She is perhaps best known for the A Date with Judy media franchise. Leslie was also the author of the novels The Scent of the Roses and The Windfall, and wrote various plays for the Pasadena Playhouse.
Who Killed Aunt Maggie? is a 1940 American mystery film directed by Arthur Lubin and starring John Hubbard, Wendy Barrie and Mona Barrie. It was produced and distributed by Republic Pictures.
Harlan Briggs was an American actor and Vaudeville performer who was active from the 1930s until his death in 1952. During the course of his career he appeared on Broadway, in over 100 films, as well as appearing on television once towards the end of his career.
Edward Curtiss (1898-1970) was an American film editor who worked in Hollywood from the 1920s through the 1960s.
Vera West was an American fashion designer and film costume designer. From 1928 to 1947, she was the chief costume designer for Universal Pictures.
References
↑ Hanson, Patricia King, ed. (1993). The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1931–1940. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p.1457. ISBN0-520-07908-6.
↑ Schatz, Thomas (1988). The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc. p.247. ISBN9781627796453.
1 2 Foot, Lisle (2014). Buster Keaton's Crew: The Team Behind His Silent Films. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. ISBN9781476618067.
↑ Stark, Samuel (April 17, 1968). "Mae West, as USC cinema prof, On ESP; 'For Every Sex Posture'". Variety. p.1.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
