Mae West: “No Angels” Trio

MAE WEST was the genesis of the Berlin Film Festival’s 27-movie tribute to Mae West, Rosalind Russell, and Carole Lombard. Let’s hear more from the German coordinators.
• • Berlin’s Mae West, Rosalind Russell and Carole Lombard Retro Delivers Sparkling Pics for Unsparkling Times • •
• • Berlin: Jessica Kiang wrote: The “No Angels” Film Retrospective, which co-ordinator Annika Haupts says had been conceived as “mood-lightening” counter-programming during Germany’s first corona lockdown, comprises comedies that were themselves developed during America’s Great Depression. ...

• • Jessica Kiang wrote: Mae West was the genesis of the program, says curator Rainer Rother. Carole Lombard quickly followed, as West’s “opposite extreme,” with Russell chosen as a “bridge” between them. But what comes through is the actresses’ individuality and the delightful contrast between — respectively — the brassy, classy and sassy modes of pre-war femininity they represent.
• • Jessica Kiang wrote: Even in a sample group of three, however, hands on hips, smirk on lips, Mae West stands apart.
• • Mae West was a matronly sex symbol persona no one dared attempt thereafter • •

• • Jessica Kiang wrote: Basically her own weather system since she gate-crashed Hollywood aged 39 with a matronly sex symbol persona no one dared attempt thereafter, she is repped here by her first nine features.
• • Jessica Kiang wrote: Most of them, admittedly, bleed into one another with Mae West a showgirl/ circus performer/ movie star/ nightclub singer about whom men talk in tumescent terms and who purrs her dialogue (usually penned by West) so heavily that any double meanings get squished down to single entendres.
• • Jessica Kiang wrote: But there are standouts: “She Done Him Wrong” and “I’m No Angel” are fun for spotting her catchphrases as they debut and also for a game, if not wholly assured, the British actor Cary Grant at an early stage in his self-creation.
• • Jessica Kiang wrote: Best of all, there’s “My Little Chickadee,” a terrific early example of crossover IP as the Mae West and WC Fields Cinematic Universes vie for supremacy (the stars co-wrote the screenplay), with verbose and very funny results. ...
• • Source: Variety; published on Thursday, 10 February 2022
• • On Sunday, 22 April 1928 in The N.Y. Times • •
• • On Sunday, 22 April 1928, The New York Times was purring about Mae West. On the theatre page was an announcement that "Diamond Lil" was the most prosperous of all the recent stage productions. Broadway backers paid attention, noticing that Mae had given the Royale Theatre its first hit — — a non-musical, no less.
• • The New York Times wrote: Seldom, if ever, does an actress spring suddenly into the New York arena panoplied in the outward accouterments of stardom as did the singing comedienne Mae West in "Sex" two years ago come next Thursday …
• • On Tuesday, 22 April 2008 • •
• • It was on Tuesday, 22 April 2008, that the DVD "Mae West — The Glamour Collection" was released for sale.
• • Overheard in Hollywood • •
• • Shortest quest for inspiration: Mae West's announcement that she would go to bed and there write a new screen play for herself. The title: "Not Bad."
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "It's what they see in my eyes that counts."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • The N.Y. Times mentioned Mae West.
• • "Just a Maid in Movies, But Not Forgotten" • •
• • Manohla Dargis writes: These were the other women in women’s pictures: the black cooks, nurses and maids, maids, maids who, breaking out of the margins if only a little, joked with Mae West, fretted about Claudette Colbert, and they stood by white woman after white woman, scolding them and appealing to their better selves if every so often, like Chico, also playing their laughing co-conspirator. Sometimes these women did not have names, and they didn’t necessarily make it into the credits. Still, they were there. ...
• • Source: The New York Times; posted on Thursday, 21 April 2011
• • The evolution of 2 Mae West plays that keep her memory alive • •
• • A discussion with Mae West playwright LindaAnn LoSchiavo — —
• • http://lideamagazine.com/renaissance-woman-new-york-city-interview-lindaann-loschiavo/
• • The Mae West Blog celebrates its 17th anniversary • • 
• • Thank you for reading, sending questions, and posting comments during these past seventeen years. Not long ago, we entertained 3,497 visitors. And we reached a milestone recently when we completed 4,900 blog posts. Wow! 
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seventeen years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 4,978th blog post. Unlike many blogs, which draw upon reprinted content from a newspaper or a magazine and/ or summaries, links, or photos, the mainstay of this blog is its fresh material focused on the life and career of Mae West, herself an American original.

• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • in 1934 • •
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Mae West: 15 January 1936

It was 15 January 1936 and MAE WEST was feeling the chill.
• • Her ally Emanuel Cohen [1892 — 1977] had packed up his bags at Paramount, which started to feel as friendly and cozy as the North Pole under the new studio boss Ernst Lubitsch.
• • Born in Berlin in the month of January [on 28 January 1892], Ernst Lubitsch had a domineering manner that quickly cooled cordial relations with many individuals under the Paramount Pictures roof. Appearing one day in Mae West's on-set dressing room to scold her, Ernst Lubitsch soon found himself hammered by a hand mirror. As he beat a retreat, a group of extras cheered the outcome.
• • Despite the momentary satisfaction Mae must have felt, before long Variety Magazine was reporting doom and gloom on Hollywood and Vine.
• • According to Variety — — issued on 15 January 1936 — — Mae West had been warned that she must strictly follow orders and that Paramount's production chief would not tolerate any challenges or deviations. Several directors found letters to that effect in their mailboxes as well.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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• • Photo: • • Mae West • • none • •
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