My Little Chickadee (1940)
Country: US
Technical: bw 83m
Director: Edward F. Cline
Cast: Mae West, W. C. Fields, Joseph Calleia
Synopsis:
A gold-digger on the make is run out of town, but meets a confidence trickster with whom she decides to get hitched, strictly on a business footing.
Review:
Fields has one or two nicely cadenced phrases and erudite coinages in this ill-starred Destry spin-off: 'An Ethiopian in the fuel supply', for example. West, however, has had her antics taken off at the knees by the Hays Code, and the heavy cuts from close-up to medium shot as she delivers her one-liners are poorly matched, underlining the flatness of her material. A pity; on paper it sounds like a good wheeze, but the scenario is episodic: Eddie Cline cut his teeth on Keaton shorts, and the pace flags here.
Country: US
Technical: bw 83m
Director: Edward F. Cline
Cast: Mae West, W. C. Fields, Joseph Calleia
Synopsis:
A gold-digger on the make is run out of town, but meets a confidence trickster with whom she decides to get hitched, strictly on a business footing.
Review:
Fields has one or two nicely cadenced phrases and erudite coinages in this ill-starred Destry spin-off: 'An Ethiopian in the fuel supply', for example. West, however, has had her antics taken off at the knees by the Hays Code, and the heavy cuts from close-up to medium shot as she delivers her one-liners are poorly matched, underlining the flatness of her material. A pity; on paper it sounds like a good wheeze, but the scenario is episodic: Eddie Cline cut his teeth on Keaton shorts, and the pace flags here.
Country: US
Technical: bw 83m
Director: Edward F. Cline
Cast: Mae West, W. C. Fields, Joseph Calleia
Synopsis:
A gold-digger on the make is run out of town, but meets a confidence trickster with whom she decides to get hitched, strictly on a business footing.
Review:
Fields has one or two nicely cadenced phrases and erudite coinages in this ill-starred Destry spin-off: 'An Ethiopian in the fuel supply', for example. West, however, has had her antics taken off at the knees by the Hays Code, and the heavy cuts from close-up to medium shot as she delivers her one-liners are poorly matched, underlining the flatness of her material. A pity; on paper it sounds like a good wheeze, but the scenario is episodic: Eddie Cline cut his teeth on Keaton shorts, and the pace flags here.