W. C. Fields : his follies and fortunes (1949)

life, nor had he known anybody who had seen one, but he turned out some memorable scenes with Richard Dix. Certainly Dix will never forget them, for he came within a hair of being killed on several occasions. It was La Cava's hope to get the feeling of motion into his racing picture, and to that end he threw in everything he could think of — wrecks, fires, explosions, death, smoke, dust, and all-around destruction. "Throughout the picture," says Le Baron, "the air was clogged with flying humans and automotive parts." La Cava had a certain subdued but reckless humor that Le Baron believed would be attractive to Fields. The producer's bringing them together provided one of the enduring friendships of Fields' life, but it struck fire from the beginning and continued to be rackety to the end. The first picture they worked on together was So's Your Old Man. After the first day's shooting, Le Baron came onto the set and drew La Cava aside. "How do you like him?" "He's a terribly mean man," said La Cava. Later in the day, Le Baron cornered Fields and said, "What do you think of La Cava?" "He's a dago son of a bitch," replied Fields, with his usual loose grouping of people and events. After two weeks Le Baron consulted La Cava again. "How do you like him now, Greg?" he asked hopefully. "I hate his guts," said La Cava, "but he's the greatest comedian that ever lived." As before, Le Baron queried Fields later on, saying, "How are you and La Cava making out, Bill?" "I can't stand the bastard," said Fields, "but he's the best director in the business." The sets that Fields and La Cava worked on were always popular. Employees from the neighboring sets liked to drop in and i95