IMDb RATING
6.8/10
3.1K
YOUR RATING
After a scandal runs a gold-digger out of town, she meets a con artist and becomes embroiled in a string of petty deceits.After a scandal runs a gold-digger out of town, she meets a con artist and becomes embroiled in a string of petty deceits.After a scandal runs a gold-digger out of town, she meets a con artist and becomes embroiled in a string of petty deceits.
Jackie Searl
- Boy
- (as Jack Searl)
Russell Hall
- Candy
- (as 'Candy')
Otto Heimel
- Coco
- (as 'Coco')
Mark Anthony
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
John Barton
- Townsman
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaW.C. Fields walked off the set over what director Edward F. Cline felt was a minor disagreement, but when it was clear after two weeks that he was not coming back to finish the film, nearly one-third was shot using a double. The double used is unknown. It could have been John Sinclair, who had doubled for him in Poppy (1936), or David Sharpe, who was his stunt double in later films. The double wore a plastic mask and most of the shots were long shots.
- GoofsWhen the train stops to pick up the Fields character, it consists of the locomotive only. The carriages then reappear in the next scene.
- Quotes
Cuthbert J. Twillie: During one of my treks through Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew. Compelled to live on food and water...
Gambler: Will you play cards!
Cuthbert J. Twillie: ...for several days.
- Crazy creditsThe title, 'The End', is superimposed over Mae West's gluteus maximus as she walks away from the camera.
- ConnectionsEdited into Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)
Featured review
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?
helpful•121
- thurberdrawing
- Apr 22, 2008
- How long is My Little Chickadee?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- The Lady and the Bandit
- Filming locations
- Railtown 1897 State Historic Park - Jamestown, California, USA(exterior: train scene)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 23 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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