W.C. Fields and Me

W.C. Fields and Me (1976)

Even a man who hates children and dogs has to love someone.

In 1920s New York City, W. C. Fields is a successful headlining entertainer, but when his girlfriend leaves him and his broker loses his money, Fields begins anew in California. Working at a wax museum, Fields eventually lands a film role that ascends him to stardom. Back in the limelight and palling around with John Barrymore and the like, Fields meets an aspiring actress Carlotta Monti at a party, with whom he forms a rocky relationship.

Date of release
1976-03-31
TMDB
7.9 / 10 (7)
Runtime
1h 51m
Genres
Drama
Director
Arthur Hiller

Casting

Interesting facts

W. C. Fields and Me is a 1976 American biographical film directed by Arthur Hiller and starring Rod Steiger and Valerie Perrine. The screenplay by Bob Merrill is based on a memoir by Carlotta Monti, mistress of actor W. C. Fields during the last 14 years of his life. The film was released by Universal Pictures.

Production notes

Karen Black was offered the role of Carlotta. However, she turned it down in order to work with Alfred Hitchcock on his final feature-film Family Plot.

Rod Steiger's makeup was an early assignment for makeup artist Stan Winston.

The Pacific Electric Railway car used in the film had been saved from the scrap heap, refitted with an internal combustion engine, rubber tires, and a steering mechanism, and used in several period films set in Los Angeles before its appearance in this film. In 2001, it was refurbished to operate on a rail line serving San Pedro, California.

The mansion used for this film was located at 700 Berkshire Avenue, LaCanada Flintridge, Los Angeles County, and it previously was owned by William Joseph Connery, a silent-movie era independent movie producer. He called the home Villa Ardaree, and it was known before that as Dryborough, named after the original owners.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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