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

will know there aren't any cattails growing around here by now." "This can be across the street, at a neighbor's," Fields went on. "Hell, those things grow up overnight, anyway. Well, I'm out in the middle of them with a big scythe and I'm cutting down cattails, and all of a sudden a Manx cat runs out, see?" La Cava regarded him speculatively for a moment, then he said, "Where's it funny?" "Why, it's a Manx cat," said Fields. "I cut the bastard's tail off. Don't you get it?" "I get it all right," said La Cava, "and it's repulsive. Half of the audience will think you actually did cut the cat's tail off." "Well, we're going to do this scene," said Fields. "I've made up my mind. I like it." La Cava said he'd have to talk to the producer first. When he returned from the supposed talk, he told Fields that, since the costs of the picture were running dangerously high, the producer wanted the cattail episode done at the end, as an extra scene. "They say we'll have to do it separately, Bill," La Cava said. "It'll be better that way — we'll be able to give it the careful treatment it deserves." When So's Your Old Man was finished, La Cava didn't mention the cattails, and neither did his comedian. It was presumed that he had forgotten it. But Fields never really forgot anything. A few months later, when he was working on another picture, its director came to La Cava, much perturbed, and said, "Say, I'm having trouble with Bill Fields over a scene involving a Manx cat. He's got some laborers sticking a lot of cattails in the ground, and he's sitting on a box sharpening up a scythe. What do you think I ought to do?" "Tell him you're running over the budget and that you'll work the scene in as an extra at the end," advised La Cava. "That's what I did." *97