The chase finale

Saw this longtime favorite again today, at a screening at the Performing Arts Library in NYC. It was the first time I'd see it with an audience since the '70s. It was a packed house, and an appreciative one. (Seeing this movie sure beat being outside, dealing with the heat!)

I've always enjoyed the chase finale, even though it's a mixed bag. The rear-screen projection effects are so shoddy they actually add to the comedy, but the stunt sequences are very well handled. There's the classic bit with the ditch diggers flying up into the air, one by one, as the motorcycle cop zooms through. Beautifully filmed, perfectly timed. But then they cut back to the stunt driver who "doubled" for Fields, and it's plain no effort was made to make him look like Fields: the driver appears to be in his 20s or 30s, he's trim and dark-haired. (Fields, of course, was 60 and rotund, with thinning blond hair.) All they did was put a cop's uniform on the driver and shoot the scenes.

I guess the Front Office guys at Universal were cheapskates and didn't care, and maybe Fields didn't care that much, either. It's a great movie anyhow, and better stunt doubling wouldn't have improved it all that much.