Mae West: 6 October 1933

On 6 October 1933, MAE WEST wowed the world when Paramount released "I'm No Angel" directed by Wesley Ruggles and co-starring Cary Grant (in the role of Jack Clayton).
• • To celebrate that blockbuster — — in which Mae steps into a lion's cage, thereby making a childhood dream come true — — let's revisit a vintage scene [see below] along with a vintage film review.
• • Curiously, the critic concludes that Mae West is as hot as Hitler in his coverage that appeared in the venerable Variety [issue of 17 October 1933].
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • VARIETY's Film 1933 Review of "I'm No Angel" • •

• • "I'm No Angel" is going to help redistribute a nice chunk of the nation's coin. That the Mae West film is going to make tubs of coin was crystal-clear opening day at the Paramount. Ushers were riding herd on a permanent corral of waitees in the lobby.
• • As to quality, "I'm No Angel" can stand alone — — although without "She Done Him Wrong" as a benediction an a million bucks' worth of assorted publicity, high-brow, and hoi polloi, the gross probably wouldn't reach the big brackets now looming. Also it is fairly obvious that the same plot mechanics and situations without Mae West wouldn't be a motion picture at all. But that's no criticism. Simply chronicling the fact that it's all Miss West plus a good directing job by Wesley Ruggles and first rate studio production quality in all departments.
• • Comedy detail has been adroitly worked out and the picture is strongly fortified on laughs, all derived from the West innuendos and the general good-natured bawdiness of the heroine, whose progress from a carnival mugg-taker to a deluxe millionaire-annexer is marked by a succession of gentlemen friends, mostly temporary, and usually suckers. When reaching affluence, the carnival gal is serviced by four colored maids in an ultra-penthouse and garbed in the flashy manner of an Oriental potentate's pampered pet.
• • Every now and again Mae West bursts into a song, generally just a chorus or a strain. They're of the Frankie and Johnny genre, but primarily she plays a lion tamer, not a songstress.
• • Needless to say this opus will scarcely get on the reformers' recommended lists.
• • But with the tide running the opposite way, perhaps the spleen of the moralists isn't such a factor right now. And anyway, Mae West is today the biggest conversation-provoker, free space grabber, and all-around box office bet in the country. She's as hot an issue as Hitler.
• • Source: Variety [edition 17 October 1933]
• • Byline: "Land"
_______________________________

• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
________
Source:http://maewest.blogspot.com/atom.xml

Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.