Mae West Movies

This film's subject is one of the world's most recognizable film artists, Mae West. Mae West was an iconoclast who challenged the sexual mores of her time -- long before Madonna was born and reinvented the idea. She made shrewd choices for her leading men -- such as her favorite, Cary Grant -- on whom she could play off her outrageous character. Her humorous, sexual suggestiveness is exemplified in her famous line, "Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" A major force of the silver screen, by 1935 she was the highest paid performer in America. With photographs, clips from radio and film, and interviews with friends and colleagues, this video presents a look at the woman considered by many to be the greatest sexual icon of the twentieth century.
~ Rose of Sharon Winter, Rovi

Mae West (1892-1980) was perhaps the original comic sex goddess of American cinema. Originally a vaudeville performer, she became a national sensation following her 1926 Broadway show Sex, which she wrote, produced, directed and starred in. She continued to outrage the sensibilities of her time on Broadway before coming to Hollywood and doing the same there throughout the 1930s. She perfected her double entendre humor onscreen and gradually fell out of favor with an increasingly prudish film-going public, though her career underwent several brief revivals. Even as an extremely old woman, she affected the manners and dress of a reigning sex queen. The 1978 release of Sextette, based on her own original scenario, marked her final screen appearance. It was not well received by critics nor the public, and was an undignified note on which to end her sensational career. In this farcical and star-studded film, West plays the fading movie star Marlo Manners, whose attempts to consummate her marriage to Sir Michael Barrington (Timothy Dalton), her sixth husband, are humorously interrupted by the preceding five. Marlo is also dictating the unexpurgated story of her life, and when one of the tapes goes missing, it threatens to cause an international incident, as well as ruining a number of reputations (including her own). ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

One subject that has always been popular in the movies -- and is likely to stay that way for a long time to come -- is beautiful women, and this 1965 documentary explores the history of the Hollywood sex symbol, from the earliest days of Thomas Alva Edison's first silent films to such then-contemporary bombshells as Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor. Along with celebrating some of the most beautiful women to grace the silver screen, including Marilyn Monroe, Rita Hayworth, Marlene Dietrich, Jean Harlow, Ingrid Bergman, and Greta Garbo, The Love Goddesses discusses the shifting attitudes about the onscreen portrayal of love and sex, and how some actresses found their images changing as they went from ingenues to pinups, and sometimes vice-versa. Actor Carl King serves as narrator; Percy Faith composed the score. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The once-in-a-lifetime teaming of Mae West and W.C. Fields in My Little Chickadee had the potential for comic greatness: what emerged, though generally entertaining, was, in the words of critic Andrew Sarris, "more funny strange than funny ha-ha." Mae West dominates the film's first reel as Flowerbelle Lee, a self-reliant woman who is abducted by a mysterious masked bandit during a stagecoach holdup. Because she refuses to tell anyone what happened during her nocturnal rendezvous with the bandit, Flowerbelle is invited to leave her prudish hometown and move to Greasewood City. En route by train, Flowerbelle makes the acquaintance of con-artist Cuthbert J. Twillie (W.C. Fields), who carries a suitcase full of what seems to be large-denomination monetary notes. After a lively clash with marauding Indians, Flowerbelle tricks Twillie into a phony marriage; she does this so that she can arrive in Greasewood City with a modicum of respectability, and incidentally to get her hands on Twillie's bankroll. Once she discovers that Twillie's "fortune" consists of nothing but phony oil-well coupons, Flowerbelle refuses to allow Twillie into the bridal chamber (he unwittingly crawls into the marriage bed with a goat, muttering "Darling, have you changed your perfume?") Through a fluke, the cowardly Twillie is appointed sheriff of Greasewood City by town boss Joseph Calleila. The plot is put on hold for two reels while La West does a "schoolroom" routine with a class full of markedly overage students, and while Fields performs a bartender bit wherein he explains how he once knocked down the notorious Chicago Mollie. Jealous over the attentions paid to his "wife" by Calleila and honest newspaper-editor Dick Foran, Twillie decides to gain entry into his wife's boudoir by posing as the still-at-large masked bandit. His ruse is soon discovered by Flowerbelle, but the townsfolk capture Twillie as he makes his escape. They are about to lynch the hapless Twillie when Flowerbelle discovers that Calleia is the genuine masked bandit. She urges Calleia to save Twillie's life by making a surprise appearance at the lynching and by returning the money he's stolen. When all plot lines are ironed out, Flowerbelle and Twillie bid goodbye to one another. Borrowing a device utilized by ZaSu Pitts and Hugh Herbert in 1939's The Lady's From Kentucky, W.C. Fields invites Mae West to "come up and see me sometime," whereupon West appropriates Fields' tagline and calls him "My Little Chickadee." The script for this uneven comedy western was credited to Mae West and W.C. Fields, though in fact West was responsible for most of it. Fields willingly conceded this, noting that West had captured his character better than any other writer he'd ever met. Despite this seeming gallantry, it was no secret that West and Fields disliked each other intensely, a fact that had an injurious effect on their scenes together. My Little Chickadee has assumed legendary status thanks to its stars, and it certainly does deliver the laughs when necessary: still, it is hardly the best-ever vehicle for either Fields or West, two uniquely individual performers who should never have been required to duke it out for the same spotlight. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Go West, Young Man represented the first time that Mae West starred in a film not originally written with her in mind. Based on Lawrence Riley's stage comedy Personal Appearance (which starred Gladys George on Broadway), the film casts La West as Mavis Alden, a pretentious and somewhat stupid movie star who is shipped out on a nationwide promotional tour of her latest picture, Drifting Lady. Stranded in a backwater Pennsylvania town, she finds time for a chaste romance with local gas-station attendant Bud (Randolph Scott). Her enthusiastic press agent tries to stage-manage a wedding between the two casual lovers, whereupon West wriggles out of the commitment by renouncing Scott -- repeating the flowery dialogue from her newest cinematic masterpiece. Mae West is moderately amusing in an uncharacteristic assignment, but one wonders what the results would have been if Paramount had allowed her to star in her first choice of assignments: A satirical biography of Catherine the Great. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Mae West is Goin' to Town in this elegant post-Production Code vehicle. West plays Cleo Borden, a nouveau riche cattle rancher who hopes to crash into high society. Though she is willing to subject herself to "refinement" lessons, she still has a high old time puncturing the pretensions of those around her: when aristocratic Ivan Valadov (Ivan Lebedeff) haughtily announces that he is the backbone of his family, West gives him the once-over and replies "Then your family'd better see a chiropractor." Through the connections of her husband-by-convenience Fletcher Colton (Monroe Owsley), Cleo is able to move freely among the glitterati of Southhampton but is forced to rely on her tried-and-true "street smarts" when she crosses swords with haughty villainess Grace Brittony (Marjorie Gateson) at a Buenos Aires race track. Through it all, aristocratic British engineer Edward Carrington (Paul Cavanaugh) awaits the opportunity to claim Cleo for his own -- as if anyone could ever "own" our fiercely self-reliant heroine. The film's highlight is a society operatic gala, in which Mae West delivers a serious (and most effective) rendition of "My Heart at Thy Still Voice" from Samson and Delilah. In a more characteristic vein, the star gets down and dirty (well, at least semi-dirty) with "He's a Bad Bad Man, But He's Good Enough for Me." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

"I'm the finest woman who walked the streets," declares bejeweled, hip-swishing Lady Lou (Mae West) at the beginning of She Done Him Wrong. Lou works as a singer at the Gay Nineties saloon of Gus Jordan (Noah Beery Sr.), who plies her with diamonds to keep her by his side. She runs afoul of stalwart mission captain Cummings (Cary Grant), who warns her that she's on the road to perdition. Mae West's first starring film, She Done Him Wrong literally saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy. It would remain the best of her feature films, most of which were severely watered down by the Production Code (whose renewed stringency of 1933 was brought about in great part by West herself). She Done Him Wrong was based on West's own stage play, Diamond Lil, which ran on Broadway for 97 weeks. West sings "Frankie and Johnny," "I Like a Man Who Takes His Time," and ""I Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone."" ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In one of his first starring roles, George Raft plays Joe Anton, a tough but basically decent speakeasy owner who falls in love with Park Avenue socialite Miss Healy (Constance Cummings). Hoping to come up to the girl's social level, Joe starts taking lessons in speech and behavior from haughty dowager Mrs. Jellyman (Alison Skipworth). What he doesn't know is that Miss Healy pays attention to him only because he's living in the posh apartment where her family had resided before the Stock Market crash. Even so, the girl genuine falls in love with Joe when it appears as though he's about to desert her in favor of his ex-flame Iris Dawn (Wynne Gibson). A dreary retread of stock movie-drama themes, Night After Night would be utterly forgotten today were it not for the presence of Mae West, making her film debut. A scant few seconds after her first appearance, the generously bejeweled West is accosted by a hatcheck girl who coos "Goodness, what lovely diamonds." Swivelling those famous hips, La West replies expansively "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie." Commenting years later on Night After Night, George Raft, who suggested that Mae West be cast in the film, ruefully recalled "She stole everything but the cameras." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi