W.C. Fields and Me

When I first went to see this movie in a theater I went to watch Steiger, who never, to my knowledge, did a lick of comedy previously, fall flat on his face.

However, about five minutes into the movie I could no longer see Steiger. He had so well portrayed the great comic that you would think he invoked the very spirit of Fields and allowed Fields to tell his own story.

The research behind the acting must have been quite thorough, as I never once saw anything I could fault. His mastery of Fields speech patterns was impeccable and not overdone like so many who attempt to sound like Fields. The story line never took liberties for dramatic effect, and as far as I can tell, remained true to the real life and events of W.C.Fields.

I can only hope that, some day the studio will relent and put this great movie out on DVD or Blu-Ray; despite the poor box office returns. I really would like to see this movie again; and consider it one of the all time great biographical works.

I'm not figuring out why W.C. Fields And Me was panned the way it was by some critics. Although it's hardly a linear biography, Rod Steiger gave a good interpretation of the character. The parts I liked best was when he was away from performing and we got to see some of what may be the inner workings of that very uniquely funny man.

We've never had a comedian like W.C. Fields and I doubt we'll see his like again. The mold was shattered in a million pieces when the comedy gods made him. His comedy style wasn't with one liners or fancy dialog. He created a character of an everyman with a big dose of curmudgeon, his body language during a scene was as important, even more than the words of a script.

The film is based on the memoirs of Carlotta Monti who was Fields's live-in mistress. Quite a bit more was added to it. The famous story of Lee Tracy urinating off a hotel balcony in Mexico is attributed to Fields. Now the story of Fields spiking Baby LeRoy's formula with some of his best gin, that's a tale told and retold and seems to be the real deal.

For those who want to see W.C. Fields at his very best I cannot too highly recommend The Bank Dick. In a way I'm glad Steiger did not use it because no one, absolutely no one could do justice to what W.C. Fields did in that film.

Valerie Perrine complements Steiger very well as Carlotta Monti and Jack Cassidy makes his scenes count playing John Barrymore who was Bill Fields drinking companion and America's greatest actor in his generation. Both lost their lives and health eventually to booze.

But both left us a lot of great performances.

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Glad to see like minded people reviewing this movie. Although it has been years and years since I first saw it, it left a lasting impression. I can't really say why, other than I am a Steiger fan, but I do believe he brought something new to what I know of the character W C Fields.

I too would, like my fellow fans, like to see this distributed on DVD. The film has been a topic of discussion with work colleagues, and even though I have said that it wasn't the 'greatest' of productions, it was definitely worth seeing.

If the big wigs are reading, please, give me back a bit of my youth, lets have this on DVD!

This adaptation of W.C. Fields' life is a pretty good one which shows the great comic, warts and all. This is based on the book published by Field's mistress of many years, and she is played by Valerie Perrine, who does a splendid job. Steiger is very good, but I have to agree with a previous poster that he sort-of resembles a blown-up Van Johnson rather than Fields. The only technical flaw I could see in an otherwise splendid recreation of 30's Hollywood is one street scene where the street is dressed with the proper 1930s autos, but then a late 1960s Lincoln Continental Mark III passes by, followed by a 1973 Pontiac LeMans and a Volkswagen Beetle! After this gaffe, the parade of passing cars returns to the classic 1930s cars. The late Jack Cassidy does a pretty good job playing John Barrymore, and the Mancini score is, as always, an asset. This is streaming on Netflix in a gorgeous wide-screen copy.

I had the unique perspective of living at the set in La Canada, California at the time this movie was being filmed.(I was working at nearby JPL in Pasadena) I appreciated the director's attention to detail and was able to meet Rod Steiger and Valerie Perrine between "takes." The sets were fantastic, as were the performances. The crew spent about three weeks preparing the house and bringing in the properties that were used to re-create W.C. Fields's home. The crew painstakingly stenciled 1930s designs near the ceiling of the room. Since that would make the living room stand out, they carried the design into several other rooms that were not used during the production! There is a scene of the outside of the house that shows the room that I was living in.

One of the rules on the set was that no one could imitate W.C. Fields while Rod Steiger was on the set. I believe that Rod worked very hard to portray W.C. Fields in a realistic way. (He was one nasty character!)

Please bring this movie out on DVD!