Mae West is my new idol. She is the most amazing comedian and seductress I have ever seen in a classic film. I recently picked up a 5 pack of her films which feature:
Night After Night-with George Raft, her first roll was a supporting roll but she stole every scene she was in.
I'm No Angel- My favorite in the group, this stars Cary Grant and features some of her most popular numbers including "Sister Honkey Tonk" and "I'm No Angel". This movie is one of the funniest of her 12 films. The courtroom scene is amazing and Mae is a lion tamer in a few scenes.
Go West young Man- Mae stars as a Hollywood movie star whose contract states that she cannot get married for five years but when your Mae West men come with the territory. So her press agent and manager does his best to keep all suitors away, leading to some hilarious situations with a politician played by one of my all time favs Lyle Talbot. On the way west, her limo breaks down and she is forced to stay in a small town where she meets a meek care taker played by Randolph Scott. The ending of this film disappointed me. Not one of her best, but entertaining if you like Scott and West, which I do.
Goin' to Town- This one was my least favorite in the group. You can tell the censors really got to Mae. She looks unhappy and sullen throughout the whole picture. She was definitely held back on this one.
My Little Chickadee-This hilarious romp also stars WC Fields and is very entertaining. A must see western with Mae shooting at Indians and flirting with WC Fields. Mae and WC wrote this one together. It was their only collaboration on film unfortunately because I could see them making a series of hilarious movies that would have given the censors constipation. This one is my second favorite out of the five.
Here is a little bit of Trivia from the film from IMDB.com
"On lunch break one day, W.C. Fields went to his dressing room to start on a new bottle of whiskey he had saved for that purpose. Apparently someone beat him to it, as the bottle had been opened and about half of it had been drunk. Fields immediately ran outside and roared to the crew, "Who took the cork out of my lunch?""
"As he leaves at the end of the film, Cuthbert J. Twillie (W.C. Fields) says to Flower Belle, "Why don't you come up and see me sometime?", a reference to Mae West's famous line in an earlier film, She Done Him Wrong (1933)."
Almost all of her films have been released at one time on VHS or DVD. She only made 12 of them and spent most of her time on the stage.
I highly recommend renting or buying The Mae West Glamour Collection and the DVD of her most famous movie-She Done Him Wrong with Cary Grant.
Mae wrote 5 of her films and a number of plays. She Done Him Wrong is based on her play Diamond Lil.
In 1927 Mae was arrested for corrupting society and indecency for her Broadway play called Sex. I can only imagine her court room scene there. She spent a number of months in jail, mostly dining with the warden and his family-typical Mae West!!!
She died in 1980 after a series of strokes.
Visage of Mae West
by Dali
