Grace La Rue Movies
A major musical comedy star in the first two decades of the 20th century, Grace La Rue introduced the song "You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)" to an enraptured British audience at the London Palace on August 4, 1913. That was one of the highlights of a career that had begun in the Broadway version of the British musical The Blue Moon and included two seasons in the Follies. In 1919, La Rue made her screen debut opposite Hale Hamilton in That's Good, a pastoral melodrama in which she (for now obscure reasons) was billed as Stella Gray, reportedly her real name. She married Hamilton soon after, and together they toured Europe in 1924 with the sketch Dangerous Advice and appeared in vaudeville. Retired and residing in California, Grace La Rue made a brief appearance in She Done Him Wrong (1932) as a favor to old friend and colleague Mae West, and was one of several former stage luminaries (Eddie Leonard and female impersonator Julian Eltinge also among them) making cameo appearances in Bing Crosby's If I Had My Way (1940). ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide- 1940
In this musical drama, a construction worker becomes the guardian of a 12-year old girl after one of his buddies is killed. She and he head to New York to look for her uncle, a vaudevillian. With the help of a good pal, they soon find the uncle. The three searchers encounter trouble when the pal uses all their money to buy a ramshackle restaurant. Fortunately, the construction worker saves them by turning the dump into a red hot night spot. Songs include: "I Haven't The Time To Be A Millionaire", "Meet The Sun Halfway", "April Played The Fiddle", "The Pessimistic Character (With The Crab Apple Face)", "If I Had My Way", "Ida, Sweet As Apple Cider", and "Rings On My Fingers". ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bing Crosby, Gloria Jean, (more)
"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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mae West, Cary Grant, (more)
