I'm No Angel (3½ Stars)

This is Mae West's third film, made in 1933. It was her second film with Cary Grant. She plays Tira, a woman who sings and dances in a carnival, Big Bill Barton's Wonder Show.

At least, the poster claims that she dances. We only see her sing.

But who cares? The men shout out compliments, and she replies contentedly.

Can you see that it's only men in the carnival tent, pressed hard against one another? If you look closely, you can see that she's wearing a skin colour dress. It doesn't actually reveal anything, but from the back of the audience it looks like it's see-through, which drives the men wild.

But carnivals were seedy places in the 1930's. Tira's associate Slick mingles with the audience, picking the men's pockets. That's one of the risks of keeping your wallet in your jacket pocket. I keep my wallet in my jeans, and the pocket is tight enough for me to notice anyone tugging at the contents.

Tira and Slick have another game they play. Tira invites wealthy men to her room, and when they're in a compromising position Slick bursts in, claiming to be her husband. The men who visit Tira are married – she makes sure they're wearing a wedding ring – which leaves them open to blackmail. But one of the tricks goes wrong. A man refuses to pay, so Slick hits him over the head with a bottle. They think he's dead, so Slick steals his ring and leaves. Before they can dispose of the body, the man stands up and calls the police. Slick is arrested, and Tira needs legal protection. Big Bill lends her money for a lawyer, on condition that she performs as a lion tamer.

Mae West looks good with a whip.

The lions purr like kittens at her touch.

According to the audio commentary, the lions' trainer was mauled during filming. This led to delays while it was made certain that Mae was safe.

A rich man called Kirk Lawrence is impressed by her act and visits her backstage. He becomes fascinated with her and showers her with gifts, even though he's engaged to be married.

Enter Cary Grant as Jack Clayton. He's Kirk's friend and business partner. He tells Tira that she's ruining Kirk's life, so she should stop seeing him. Normally Tira would ignore advice like this, but she finds out that Jack is richer than Kirk, so she has a new target. Jack happens to be single, which makes things easier.

Tira is dressed like a spider.

Jack looks at her from a safe distance.

He moves closer.

And closer. Now he's trapped in her web.

The relationship with Jack carries on for months. He's charming and rich enough for Tira to accept his marriage proposal. Slick is finally released from prison, and he's not happy. He thinks Tira is going soft. He keeps Tira away from Jack by having her car break down, and then he visits Jack to tell him she's lost interest in him.

This is a weak part of the plot. Jack believes Slick instead of returning the next day to ask Tira if it's true. He sues her for breach of promise, which I believe happened frequently in the early 20th Century. It's not a crime any more today.

There's a lengthy courtroom scene, which is a farce. Tira flirts with the judge and the jurors. She's allowed to question the witnesses herself. I didn't know that was permissible. Jack realises Tira still loves him and calls off the case. And they lived happily ever after.

There were variants used in "She Done Him Wrong", but this is the film in which she first uses her famous phrase, "Come up and see me some time". She speaks the words to one of the jurors.

She also speaks a few other memorable quotes.

"When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better".

"It's not the men in your life that counts, it's the life in your men".

"Always remember, take all you can get and give as little as possible".

The dialogue in Mae West's later films was censored heavily, but this film was relatively tame. Only one change had to be made. In one of her songs, the line "Nobody does it like a Dallas man" had to be changed to "Nobody loves me like a Dallas man".

"I'm No Angel" was a huge box office hit, and most of Mae West's fans consider it to be her best film. I have to disagree. I prefer "She Done Him Wrong". I'll give my opinion of her other films when I see them.

She Done Him Wrong (4 Stars)

"She done him wrong" was made in 1933. It's Mae West's first lead role in a film, and it's the only one of her films to be nominated as Best Film at the Academy Awards. It's based on the Broadway play "Diamond Lil", also written by Mae West.

Mae plays Lady Lou, a woman who lives and works in a saloon in New York's Bowery in the 1890's. She's the main attraction. Men swarm to see her when she sings on stage. She was a woman who loved diamonds years before Marilyn Monroe sang "Diamonds are a girl's best friend". Whatever outfit she wore on stage, she was adorned with diamonds. Some of them were given her by Chick Clark, a jewel thief who's now in prison. The rest were given by Gus Jordan, the saloon boss.

Men all want her, with one exception. Captain Cummings, played by Cary Grant, leads the Salvation Army mission next door. He frequently visits the saloon, looking for lonely drunks who want to repent. Gus tolerates him, as long as he doesn't lure too many men away. Lou sees him as a challenge. She can't bear to see a man in the room who doesn't want her.

That doesn't mean Captain Cummings is the only man she's interested in. She's attracted to a rich Russian called Sergei. Women wore long dresses in that day, but she still manages to get his attention when she's walking upstairs.

Sergei can't take his eyes off her as she walks upstairs. She invites him to come up and see her. This is the best known quote by Mae West, and she says it to several men in the course of the film. Sergei has a girlfriend, but when has that ever stopped her? She'll take any man she wants, whether he's single or not. Sergei's girlfriend flies into a rage when she finds him in Lou's room. Lou doesn't care how many relationships she breaks up.

Meanwhile, her ex-lover Chick is languishing in prison. All he has is a photo of Lou to keep him company when he's lying in bed at night. Lou tells Gus that she never cared for Chick. She was only with him because of the diamonds he stole for her. Gus is a lovesick fool. It doesn't occur to him that Lou is only with him because he's giving her diamonds. The saloon doesn't make enough money to feed Lou's greed. Gus is making counterfeit money which Sergei is distributing for him. Men have to turn to crime for Lou's attention.

The film takes a turn when a young woman called Sally attempts to kill herself. Lou takes her under her wing. Lou immediately guesses that she's had trouble with a man. Why else would a woman want to kill herself? Not Lou, of course. Lou would never kill herself because of any man. Lou is the woman who leads men to their destruction.

But Sally is collateral damage. Gus isn't just making money by making money. (Is there a better way to say that?) He sends women to San Francisco as pickpockets. Lou thinks nothing of it when Sally disappears. Captain Cummings comes to the saloon, because her father is looking for her. He's worried about her because she's only 16.

Captain Cummings asks Lou where Sally has gone, and Lou honestly has no idea. The Captain can't take his eyes off Lou's diamonds.

Or is he looking at something else? It's difficult to say. He's a man of God.

"Come up and see me".

The next day he comes up to see her. Look at the way he's shrinking back from her. He's scared. I have to praise Cary Grant as an actor. This was one of his first films, but he puts on an excellent performance as a straight-laced counterpart to Mae West's brazen sexuality.

Could you resist a woman like Mae West? I couldn't. I wouldn't even try. I'd end up as yet another frustrated man in a jail cell.

Eventually he sits down to discuss Sally. At this point Mae West delivers her most notorious line of the film. "That's it. Loosen up. Unbend". She looks down at his crotch to make sure he understands what she means. This is a film that should have been made in colour, so that we could see the Captain blushing furiously.

The Captain leaves when he realises that Lou knows nothing about Sally. It's a brilliant scene. I'll post a few screenshots, but I'd need to post a video to show the mechanics.

The Captain opens the door to leave, but Lou moves close and pushes the door shut.

 He attempts to kiss her, but just before their lips meet she pushes him away.

How frustrating that must be when he's finally unbent!

Lou opens the door and tells him to come up again, any time.

When he leaves Lou sighs contentedly and says "It won't be long now". The fish is on the hook. How long will it be until the man of God is committing crimes for her?

It never comes to that. Chick escapes from prison and starts shooting people in the saloon. And there are unexpected events. Films already had plot twists 90 years ago.

This was a promotional photo for the film. It's interesting that Cary Grant spoke badly of Mae West after the film. Apart from saying rude things about her appearance, he said she was a fake, not sexual at all. However much I enjoy his acting, I have no respect for him as a man.

I understand him exactly. He was a charming man who expected women to fall at his feet. When they were together, Mae West behaved exactly as she did in the film. She was highly sexual, but for her, sexuality wasn't about getting into a man's bed, it was a power game. She used her sexuality to intimidate men. Cary Grant, who considered himself a stereotypical alpha male, didn't like to be intimidated. First she made him unbend, and then she pushed him out of the door while he was standing fully unbent. The film was over, so he couldn't come up again. And even if he had come up, the result would have been the same every time.

Cary Grant thought he could have Mae West. That's what she wanted him to think. He wasn't enough of a gentleman to admit that he could never have her.

At the time of the film Mae West was the highest paid actor of any gender in Hollywood. She was paid a salary of $5000 per week. Cary Grant was paid $450 a week, which was considered a high salary for actors, but it was only a fraction of what Mae was earning. He complained about it, and his weekly salary was increased to $750 after the film. That's probably another reason for his rude words about her. As an alpha male he couldn't tolerate that a woman earned much more than him.

P. S. Multiply the numbers by 22 to see what their salaries would be worth today.

Night After Night (4 Stars)

"Night After Night" is a gangster film made in 1932. It's best known as the first film appearance of Mae West, although she wasn't the film's main star. Her name is fourth in the list of actors, and she doesn't appear on screen until 37 minutes into the film, but let's look at the film in the light of history. George Raft was a well known actor in the 1930's, and he continued making films into the 1960's, but how many people know him today? The same can be said of Constance Cummings. Wynne Gibson's career fizzled out even faster. But Mae West's name is still known today.

Mae West was 39 when she appeared in "Night After Night", which was very old for beginning a film career, but she was already a household name in America. She'd appeared in Broadway plays since she was 18, and she soon began to write her own plays. She was ahead of her time. She was overtly sexual, even bawdy, but she was a feminist and a supporter of gay rights. In 1927 she wrote "The Drag", a comedy about homosexuals. It was so shocking at the time that it couldn't be shown on Broadway, only at smaller venues.

Was Mae West's public appearance her real self or just an act? I think it was a mixture of the two. She was a sexually provocative person by nature, but she was intelligent enough to know when to turn her sexuality on and off as the situation demanded. She knew that she was at an advantage whenever she gave a man a tingle between his legs, and she wasn't afraid to do so, on-screen and off-screen.

It could be argued that Mae West wasn't a good actress. She made ten films in Hollywood, and in all of them her character is the same. She didn't want to play a wide variety of roles, she wanted to be herself. From her second film onwards she wrote the films herself, but even in "Night After Night" she insisted on rewriting her own dialogue. The biggest problem she had in her film career was censorship. Many of the lines she wrote had to be changed because they were considered too outrageous.

"Night After Night" is a film about Joe Anton, a likeable gangster who's worked his way up from the slums. It's 1932, and he owns the most popular Speakeasy in New York. The Prohibition did more to promote crime than any other law in American history. Now he's going through an existential crisis. He feels that money doesn't make him happy. He's tempted to give it all up, but his best friend Leo is persuading him to carry on. His girlfriend Iris also appreciates his wealth, which disturbs him. He admits to Leo that he doesn't love Iris. She's too materialistic for him.

Joe wants to better himself. He receives lessons from Mabel Jellybean, a schoolteacher who teaches him how to speak like a gentleman. Or at least, she tries to teach him. He can't stop using his New York slang. She also encourages him to speak about current affairs, such as the 1932 Conference of Lausanne, to make himself sound more interesting.

Joe is fascinated by a beautiful young woman who visits the Speakeasy every night and sits alone. He's afraid to speak to her, because she looks like an upper class woman, out of his league. He gets his chance when he has to evict a drunk who's bothering her. She tells him her name is Jerry Healey, and her family used to own the house. Her husband lost all his money in the 1929 stock market crash. He killed himself, and now she lives alone in a small apartment. She visits the Speakeasy to remember her happy years.

Joe arranges a date with Jerry, but he's afraid he'll show himself up, so he invites Mabel to sit with them to guide the conversation. Joe asks Jerry her opinion on the Conference of Lausanne, but she's confused by the question. Evidently she had other things on her mind and knew little about the conference.

And finally Mae West walks in as Maudie Triplett, one of Joe's old friends. More than a friend, maybe? Nothing further is said. What's certain is that she's part of his past, and he doesn't want her around now. The doormen tell her that Joe is busy, but that doesn't stop her. No man tells Maudie what to do.

Maudie opens Joe's jacket to check his clothes. She's impressed by the way he's dressed.

She also looks down at his trousers. She likes the way they hang. Before he can protest, she calls the waiter to bring another chair for her. The threesome has become a foursome. As you can expect, with Maudie at the table there's no more talk about the Conference of Lausanne. Maudie tells everyone to lighten up and drink more. Mabel especially drinks over her limit. The evening ends with Maudie and Mabel falling asleep in Leo's bed.

Does the film have a happy ending? Of course it does! Frankie Guard, the owner of a rival Speakeasy, wants to buy Joe out. He offers $50,000 but Joe asks for $250,000. They finally agree on $200,000 (which is more than four million dollars in today's money). Joe hasn't given up money, but he's stopped trying to earn more, and he can make Jerry happy.

What about Maudie? When they wake up in the morning, Maudie and Mabel are best friends. Maudie offers Mabel a job in her beauty parlour, and they drink on it. I had to include this screenshot. Maudie is wearing a see-through nightie, but you have to pause the film at the right moment to see anything.

Here's another glimpse. Mae West was a beautiful woman, although I have to admit that I like her primarily for her attitude, not her looks. This week I bought a box set of her films on Blu-ray. I've seen some but not all of them, and the films that I did see were years ago on television. Now I have a chance to wallow in her beauty, inside and out.