My Little Chickadee

My Little Chickadee
Directed byEdward F. Cline
Written byMae West
W. C. Fields
Produced byLester Cowan
StarringMae West
W. C. Fields
CinematographyJoseph A. Valentine
Edited byEdward Curtiss
Music byFrank Skinner
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • February 9, 1940 (1940-02-09)
[1]
Running time
84 minutes
CountryUnited States
Budget$625,000[2]
Box office$2 million[3]

My Little Chickadee is a 1940 American comedy-western film starring Mae West and W. C. Fields, featuring Joseph Calleia, Ruth Donnelly, Margaret Hamilton, Donald Meek, Willard Robertson, Dick Foran, William B. Davidson, and Addison Richards, and released by Universal Pictures. It was directed by Edward F. Cline and the music was written by Ben Oakland (song "Willie of the Valley") and Frank Skinner.

West reportedly wrote the original screenplay, with Fields contributing one extended scene set in a bar. Universal decided to give the stars equal screenplay credit, perhaps to avoid the appearance of favoritism, but the move incensed West, who declined to team with Fields afterwards. The stars spoofed themselves and the Western genre, with West providing a series of her trademark double entendres.

  1. ^ Hanson, Patricia King, ed. (1993). The American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures Produced in the United States: Feature Films, 1931–1940. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 1457. ISBN 0-520-07908-6.
  2. ^ Schatz, Thomas (1988). The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc. p. 247. ISBN 9781627796453.
  3. ^ Foot, Lisle (2014). Buster Keaton's Crew: The Team Behind His Silent Films. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company. ISBN 9781476618067.