My Little Chickadee 1940

In the American Old West of the 1880s, Miss Flower Belle Lee, Mae West, a Chicago-born singer, is en route to visit relatives. She shares a stagecoach with three other passengers and the town gossip, Mrs. Gideon, Margaret Hamilton. A masked bandit on horseback stops the coach, robs it of its gold, and orders everyone to disembark. The bandit immediately takes an interest in the saucy blonde and, after making his getaway, spirits Flower Belle away with the loot.

Back in Little Bend, the robbery is reported to the sheriff, William B. Davidson. Flower Belle arrives in town unharmed and quips, “I was in a tight spot but I managed to wiggle out of it.” The events ripple through the town as Aunt Lou and Uncle John’s home becomes the scene of a dramatic interruption: the masked bandit enters Flower Belle’s second-floor bedroom and they share a kiss, a moment witnessed by Mrs. Gideon. The judge, Addison Richards, confronts Flower Belle with veiled contempt, prompting her to retort with a sly line before she is run out of Little Bend.

She boards a train toward Greasewood City, which makes an unscheduled stop to pick up the charming con-man Cuthbert J. Twillie, W. C. Fields. When hostile Indians attack, Flower Belle steps to the window and mows them down with two pistols, while Twillie fends them off with a child’s slingshot. It becomes clear to Flower Belle that Twillie’s money could be a ticket to a better life, and she begins to play up to him, sparking an uneasy alliance. An impromptu wedding follows, officiated by Amos Budge, Donald Meek, a gambler who masquerades as a minister.

The pair’s ruse evolves as Flower Belle maintains a separate hotel room in Greasewood City, while Twillie is promoted to sheriff by the town boss Jeff Badger, Joseph Calleia. Badger has a broader plan: appoint an incompetent sheriff to shield his crimes, and Flower Belle becomes a central target amid the town’s schemes. Badger, the newspaper editor Wayne Carter, and other locals take notice of Flower Belle, and she finds herself reencountering the masked bandit. A moment of candor deepens when she kisses Badger and muses that a man’s kiss can feel like a signature.

Twillie’s curiosity about a life of ease leads to a farcical showdown: he and Flower Belle stage a bed-trick by swapping in a goat, leaving Twillie to discover the substitution and react with comic disbelief. Later, Twillie makes one last, misguided attempt to consummate the marriage by disguising himself as the masked bandit and entering Flower Belle’s room. He is captured and nearly hanged, with the crowd demanding his fate.

Before the lynching, Twillie asks for one final wish, hoping to see Paris, but the crowd quips, “Philadelphia will do!” In a swift turn of luck and nerve, Flower Belle intervenes and saves Twillie, cementing a partnership forged in danger, wit, and mutual practicality rather than romance alone. The tale threads comedy and danger through a town full of fast-talking schemers, where Flower Belle’s boldness and quick-thinking push back against those who try to steer her life for their own gain, and where loyalty, deception, and a taste for freedom drive every encounter along the dusty trails between Little Bend and Greasewood City.

I was in a tight spot but I managed to wiggle out of it.

A man’s kiss is like his signature.

I’d like to see Paris before I die. Philadelphia will do!