Matinee Thursdays: My Little Chickadee

W.C. Fields, Mae West

Universal Pictures; Directed by Edward Cline

Black and White; Not Rated; 91 minutes; 1940

The pairing of West and Fields seems like the answer to a connoisseur’s impossible dreams and Fields proves equal to the occasion. "What symmetrical digits!" he exclaims, kissing Mae’s hand. Miss West holds her own with this account of their first meeting, "I was in a tight spot but I managed to wiggle out of it." Her high point in this Western farce comes when she fills in for a schoolteacher and gives the boys a lesson they’ll never forget and Fields appears in no less than four card games.