One of the oddest pairings in screen history is also one of the funniest. While their films helped Paramount rise out of the depths of the depression in the mid 1930's, they didn't work together until this one film. Legend has it that they didn't get along, but if that is true, they do not show it on screen. Sure, West's Flower Belle is out to con Fields into a bogus marriage to try and look respectable (if that is possible), and Fields is certainly no match in the looks department for her previous leading men like Cary Grant and Randolph Scott. But their comedy styles, while totally different, really suit each other, and both of them get opportunities to shine both on their own and together.The basic plot line has West as the scourge of the west, being forced from her town when she is seen gallivanting with the mysterious masked bandit, a robber of the prairie coaches. Town busybody Margaret Hamilton (wearing her "Wizard of Oz" Miss Gulch outfit) escorts West out of town, then stands up for her at the fake wedding to Fields aboard a train. Fields is anxious to consummate the "marriage", but West keeps distracting him, first simply by locking him out, then planting a goat in her bed! Hamilton gets to repeat her "Wizard of Oz" scream as well, hysterically reacting to Fields stepping on her face while he makes the mistake of trying to imitate the masked bandit to get into Wests' boudoirs. Fields ends up becoming town sheriff which sets up all sorts of great comedy bits as well.West has a great scene "teaching" class. ("I am a good boy. I am a good girl", she reads on the blackboard. "What is this, propaganda?") While this is far from a classic compared to the same year "The Bank Dick" (starring Fields), the presence of these two scene-stealer's is enough to keep the interest from waning. Ruth Donnelly, Donald Meek and Jimmy Conlin are among the many character actors who pop in and out of the action.

The selling point for this movie is Mae West meets W.C. Fields but I'm not a fan of the latter. The only other movie of his I've seen is The Bank Dick, which I apparently thought was okay but I don't recall a thing about now. Fields was probably more famous back then for his vaudeville work and I don't think he created any movies for the ages like his fellow vaudevillians The Marx Brothers did.But this movie is still very much a Mae West movie and I enjoyed it like I do all her work. There are plenty of one-liners delivered by both West and Fields but no one can zing like the former can. Ergo, my main criticism about this movie is that she had to share too much screen time with Fields!

An Old West comedy that doesn't make a lot of sense, "My Little Chickadee" is mostly a cinematic vehicle for the talents of its two stars: Mae West and W.C. Fields.Mae, all decked out in flowery glad rags, does her usual shtick, as she rolls her eyes, smiles mischievously, and walks in the slinky, suggestive manner that she's known for. I love it. She doesn't "act" so much as she projects her own unique on-stage persona. In this film she sings only one song: "Willie Of The Valley". It's okay, but I could have wished for a song more suitable to her wonderfully bawdy public image.Wearing a high top hat and white gloves, and with that big nose and eccentric way of speaking, W.C. Fields plays Cuthbert J. Twillie, a blustery, flamboyant older man who uses big words to impress, and devious tricks to hoodwink. He's not seriously criminal, just a good-natured, booze-loving flimflam man trying to get along in life as best he knows how. Sometimes he succeeds, sometimes not. Fields is just as unique as Mae West. And his comedic routine is straight out of vaudeville.The script's dialogue contains lines that highlight the humor of Fields, like when he tries to impress Flower Belle (Mae West): "The days of chivalry are not over. I've been worried about you my little peach fuzz. Have you been loitering somewhere? ... You are the epitome of erudition, the double superlative ...". His flowery metaphors sometimes get on Flower Belle's nerves, like when he says to her: "I climb the ladder of love to reach for the stars". She snaps back: "I'm in no mood for astronomy".For all his bluster, Twillie is actually the weaker of the two characters. It's Flower Belle who uses a pistol to knock off villainous Indians, and Twillie whose use of a kid's slingshot backfires.In this story, Margaret Hamilton, in her best witch voice, plays a histrionic busybody, in a support role.This is a film that will appeal mostly to fans of Fields and/or West. I think the film probably showcases Fields' talents a little better than those of West. What hurt this film is the real-life villainous Production Code which tried to water down the bawdy dialogue. As a result, both the plot and some of the dialogue come across as flat. Had the self-righteous censors left the scriptwriters alone, "My Little Chickadee" could have really sizzled.

Although My Little Chickadee did not turn out to be the comedy smash of all time, both W.C. Fields and Mae West got in enough of their own shtick to make it worthwhile to see. What I can't figure out is when both were under contract at Paramount earlier in the decade why Adolph Zukor never thought of teaming them.Probably because both of them were highly individualized and highly specialized performers. Both wrote their own material, but Mae believed her words were golden as she wrote them and Bill Fields was notorious with the ad-libs, even with a script he wrote. Like Dallas in Stagecoach, Mae West as Flower Belle gets kicked out of one town and heads for another town accompanied by one of the Lady's League in the person of Margaret Hamilton. She's been spotted by Hamilton entertaining the mysterious masked bandit as only Mae entertains. On the train she meets up with small time con man Cuthbert J. Twillie, a Fields pseudonym if there ever was one. She's convinced she's got a bankroll and she needs a husband to maintain a respectable front. Her gambler friend Donald Meek who looks like a clergyman and remember in Stagecoach Thomas Mitchell originally thought he was one, marries them on the train.As a husband Fields is as ardent as Bob Hope was in The Paleface with Jane Russell who also needed to get married out of necessity to a stooge. He's sure willing enough, but Mae's to smart for him as she's got town editor Dick Foran and saloon owner Joseph Calleia panting hot and heavy for her as well.My favorite moment is when Mae slips a goat into her bed and Fields gets a big surprise when he thinks he's finally going to score.I'd have to say the film's a tie in terms of these two icons trying to top the other. There's plenty enough here to satisfy fans of both Mae and Bill and the many like myself who love both of them.