My Little Chickadee

Edward F. Cline's 1940 American film is the only one pairing Mae West and W. C. Fields. The two wrote their material separately, and the result places two comic sensibilities side by side in one film: West's double meanings and Fields's physical humour never fuse. That mismatch is both the film's fault and its appeal. It is built as a western parody but the plot is entirely a pretext. The Hays code seriously restricted West's language, and that shaped the rest of her career. What is troubling now is that the scenes involving Indigenous people repeat the racist conventions of the period. Who it's for: viewers interested in classic Hollywood comedy and in Mae West and W. C. Fields. Who it's not for: anyone wanting narrative consistency, or troubled by the racist representations of the period.