W.C. Fields and Me

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!

In 1976, Universal spent significant money to bring two golden-age Hollywood biopics to the screen: Gable and Lombard and W.C. Fields and Me. Both were panned, gave little return on the money spent, and have been relegated to rarely seen, not-on-video status. I haven't seen Gable since the year of its release, but caught up with W.C. on cable awhile back. It's imperfect, but certainly interesting, well-acted and worth another look. (I'd like to see Gable again, too, to see if it's worse or better than I remember.)

Steiger gives a good interpretation of Fields, though unable to channel the unique comic gifts that he possessed. It was always good to see Perrine onscreen in her too-few roles, and Jack Cassidy was effective in one of his last roles prior to his untimely death. The design and technical work result in a great look, unfortunately panned and scanned in the TV version that is seen today (when it's seen at all.)

Interestingly, the Fields portrayal can be traced back to the memorable serial killer Steiger portrayed in 1968's No Way To Treat A Lady, adapting several disguises and voices, one of which evoked Fields. Universal has been pretty good about releasing older films of theirs to DVD at a good price; how about a couple of widescreen editions of these flawed but interesting biopics?

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 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!

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.

s