Movie Quote of the Day (‘The Bank Dick,’ With W.C. Fields on a Car Chase)

Egbert Souse [played by W.C. Fields]: [to bank robber, after narrowly missing the police during a car chase] “Seems to be a great deal of traffic here for a country road. Don't you think?”—The Bank Dick (1940), screenplay by "Mahatma Kane Jeeves" (pseudonym used by W.C. Fields), directed by Edward F. Cline

Movie Quote of the Day (W.C. Fields, With a Longtime Target)

[The town mob is about to lynch Twillie.]

Cuthbert J. Twillie [played by W.C. Fields]: “I'd like to see Paris before I die... Philadelphia will do.” — My Little Chickadee (1940), screenplay by Mae West and W.C. Fields, directed by Edward F. Cline

Movie Quote of the Day (W.C. Fields, Eliciting Info on an Illicit Woman)

Cuthbert J. Twillie [played by W.C. Fields]: “Tell me, prairie flower, can you give me the inside info on yon damsel with the hothouse cognomen?”

Mrs. Gideon [played by Margaret Hamilton]: “Do you mean Miss Flower Belle Lee?”

Cuthbert J. Twillie:” I don't mean some woman out in China.”

Mrs. Gideon: “Well! I'm afraid I can't say anything good about her.”

Cuthbert J. Twillie:” I can see what's good. Tell me the rest.” — My Little Chickadee (1940), screenplay by Mae West and W.C. Fields, directed by Edward F. Cline

Movie Quote of the Day (‘My Little Chickadee,’ With W.C. Fields on a ‘Game of Chance’)

Cousin Zeb (played by Fuzzy Knight): “Uh, is this a game of chance?”

Cuthbert J. Twillie (played by W.C. Fields): “Not the way I play it, no.”— My Little Chickadee (1940), screenplay by Mae West and W.C. Fields, directed by Edward F. Cline

Movie Quote of the Day (‘My Little Chickadee,’ As W.C. Fields and Mae West Meet)

Cuthbert J. Twillie [played by W.C. Fields]: “May I present my card?”

Flower Belle Lee [played by Mae West]: “'Novelties and Notions.' What kind of notions you got?”

Cuthbert: “You'd be surprised. Some are old, some are new. Whom have I the honor of addressing, m'lady?”

Flower Belle: “Mmm, they call me Flower Belle.”

Cuthbert: “Flower Belle, what a euphonious appellation. Easy on the ears and a banquet for the eyes.”

Flower Belle: “You're kinda cute yourself.”

Cuthbert: “Thank you. I never argue with a lady.”

Flower Belle: “Smart boy.”— My Little Chickadee (1940), screenplay by Mae West and W.C. Fields, directed by Edward F. Cline

Movie Quote of the Day (W.C. Fields, With Love for a Mother-in-Law)

[Harold Bissonette—played by W.C. Fields--has ripped a pillow playing with the dog.]

Amelia (his wife, played by Kathleen Howard): “Those were my mother's feathers!”

Harold: “Never knew your mother had feathers…”— It's a Gift (1934), screenplay by Jack Cunningham with contributions by eight others, based upon a story by “Charles Bogle” (i.e., Fields himself), directed by Norman Z. McLeod

W.C.Fields was born William Claude Dukenfield in Darby, Penn., on this date in 1880. It’s a Gift is typical of the film persona of this great comedian: A snarling, aggressive misanthrope, fond of alcohol, but annoyed by dogs and children and cowed by his wife.   

It’s also representative of how he created material: with his own very large input into the screenplay. (The only role he didn’t touch, largely because of his huge respect for the author, was Mr. Micawber, in the adaptation of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield.) The pseudonyms he employed (starting with "Charles Bogle") only became more preposterously hilarious (e.g., Mahatma Kane Jeeves, Otis Criblecablis) as time went on.