This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Joseph Calleia , as Jeff Badger, is the Greasewood saloon owner and town boss. He's also the masked bandit: a dead ringer for Zorro, complete with black cape, but with his mask covering his entire face instead of only the top portion. He's infamous for holding up the stage and looting the strong box. and for abducting and romancing a conspicuous new resident: Flower Bell(Mae West). It's assumed that Mae should be able to identify the bandit, but she can't. She's put on trial as a detriment to the morals of the community, and asked to leave. She boards the train for the next town: Greasewood. Along the way, a portly man, reclining on a travois, stops the train to board. He soon strikes up a conversation with Mae , who notices he has a wad of greenbacks in his traveling bag(She later discovers they're all fake),thus becomes interested in him. Soon, they are talking marriage, and a man who claims to be a minister is found among the passengers.(Actually, he's a professional gambler). Soon, a band of Indians attack. The few men aboard are worthless at shooting them. However, after being narrowly missed with a few arrows, Mae scrounges a couple of six shooters and shoots nearly every Indian off his horse. Since the new sheriff-to-be of Greasewood was killed by the Indians, Jeff suggests that Fields become the new sheriff. Nobody else wants the job, since the mean lifespan of the last 5 sheriffs was one month after taking office. Besides, Fields claims he shot all those Indians, so he must be a good shot.The masked bandit romances Mae out under the moon, then rides away. Fields, frustrated in being put off by Mae, dresses up like the masked bandit and climbs up the outside of the hotel to her room. He kisses Mae, but she knows something is wrong, and discovers his fakery. But, some town people see him descend from her window, thus assume he must be the bandit. They want to string him up soon, without a trial. Dick Foran, as the newspaper editor and town bastion of law enforcement and decency, tries to stop the vigilantes, but to no avail. Just then, Mae, who just broke out of jail and borrowed 2 six shooters, shoots the hanging rope in two, and tells the people he's not the real bandit. Says she still doesn't know the identity of the real bandit, but has a strong suspicion. She admits her "marriage" to Fields is a sham. This news further stimulates Jeff and Foran to seek a marriage with Mae. Seemingly, Mae has a choice between good(Foran) and evil(Jeff). although the masked bandit threw a bag containing his recent loot into a crowd before galloping away. Mae says she might never decide between the two.Here are some quotes: Man: "Is this a game of chance?" Fields: "Not the way I play it."Mae: "Arithmetic: I was pretty good with figures myself."Jeff: "I wonder what kind of woman you are?" Mae: "Sorry, I can't give out samples".Fields to Indian: "The bottle is mightier than the quiver."Mae: "I avoid temptations, since I can't resist them."Judge" "Young lady, are you trying to show contempt for this court?" Mae: "No, I'm trying my best to hide it."Mae is her usual self, mostly smirks, sashays and rolling her eyes upward, although she often looks unusually bored. She only has one forgettable song. Dick Foran mostly played singing cowboys, sort of a B version of Gene Autry...Other supporting actors that deserve mention: Margaret Hamilton, fresh from her two roles in "The Wizard of Oz", plays the town busybody. Donald Meek plays the gambler pretending to be a minister. Fuzzy Knight tries to inject a little humor here and there, but wasn't given much to work with. Yes, the film could have been much funnier. Also, some scenes go nowhere, appearing to be fillers.

An occasionally amusing yet ultimately disappointing vehicle for two screen legends, "My Little Chickadee" gives us Mae West and W. C. Fields as a mismatched couple trying to keep one step ahead of matrimony and the noose in the Old West.Flower Belle Lee (West) is a girl in trouble, no temporary thing when the trouble is in the form of a persistent masked bandit who has been seen in her company too often. To get clear, she sets up a phony marriage with a smooth-talking but inept conman named Cuthbert J. Twillie (Fields), slow to the draw on the fact his wedding was a sham – not until he finds himself sharing his marriage bed with a goat.Watching West take Fields for a ride is fun for 15 minutes or so. Unfortunately, there's still an hour to kill after that. Contrary to film legend, the two do share more than that one scene. Yet their relationship is characterized by distance."Big chief get a new squaw?" Cuthbert is asked by his Indian sidekick, Milton (George Moran)."New is right," Cuthbert replies. "She hasn't even been unwrapped yet."It's the kind of film where repartee like that, funny as it sometimes is, substitutes for dialogue. West's most common emotion here is a kind of bored, bemused insouciance, whether she's being wooed by Fields or abducted by the Masked Bandit. Shooting down a band of attacking Indians, she quips away between blasts ("There he goes in a shower of feathers") and is so encased by her screen persona to make what passes for a story purely inconsequential.Fields does a little better. Like West, he was on the rebound after years of drinking had reduced him to radio work. His main role here is to be the butt of Flower Belle's wry jokes and machinations, an unaccustomed part for someone usually one step ahead of everyone else on screen in his shambling, erudite way.I enjoyed his scene tending bar, and an exchange he has with a pair of Preston Sturges regulars, Al Bridge and Jimmy Conlin."Squawk Mulligan tells me you buried your wife several years ago," Bridge's character says."Had to," Cuthbert answers. "She died."But this is a film more amusing for its clips than for watching from beginning to end. The basic scenario, of Cuthbert taking the unhealthy job of sheriff of Greasewood City, a post which has seen five previous late occupants in the last six months, could have been made into something; director Edward F. Cline is more concerned with setting up one-liners – no surprise considering his screenwriters were the pair delivering them!Speaking of that, West is first-billed, both as actor and as writer, and the emphasis on her over everything else gets old fast. Told by the bandit she will be embarrassed if she knew his real identity, she rolls her eyes for the umpteenth time and replies: "I've never been embarrassed in my life."West wouldn't be embarrassed by this movie; it was a popular if minor success and has grown in stature as being one of her signature roles. It's not much of a role, though, just an excuse to put her icon character through its paces while Fields stumbles along in her wake. You will be amused, too, but perhaps left wondering at what all the fuss was about.

This is the only film comedy legends W.C. Fields and Mae West made together. They're both larger-than-life characters who usually dominate their movies by themselves with only occasional help from talented supporting players to guide them through their classic shtick. They only share few scenes together but there's some gold in those few scenes though it's even better when they do separate and interact with the usual character types both have been known to associate with. One player here who does well with both is Margaret Hamilton, fresh from her Wicked Witch of the West role in The Wizard of Oz, who scowls her best scowl and acts suitably flustered whenever she encounters these two either together or separately. In summary, My Little Chickadee is worthy of these two legendary comedians despite some unevenness on the part of the screenplay they both wrote.

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.