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When MAE WEST was writing the screenplay for "I'm No Angel," she wove a tiny strand of her own bio into the playful narrative — — including a reference to her shimmy, her belief in the occult, her love of animals, and her birthday in August. 
• • "I'm No Angel" Cast • •
• • Mae West as Tira
• • Cary Grant as Jack Clayton
• • Gregory Ratoff as Benny Pinkowitz
• • Edward Arnold as Big Bill Barton
• • Mae-centered morsels • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Tira, who performs in a circus sideshow, is famous for her hootchie-cootchie style — — a gal who discovered you don't have to have feet to dance. Tira goes to the resident gypsy to have her fortune told.
• • Rajah [played by Nigel de Brulier], the astrologer reads her horoscope.
• • Rajah: You were born in August.
• • Tira: Yeah, one of the hot months.
• • Rajah: It was on the 17th under the sign of Leo, the Lion.
• • Tira: Aw, King of the Beasts, huh.
• • Tira [pronounced TY-rah] is warned to be careful that night — — because she could be unlucky. Tira tells him that she'd like to know her future (because she knows all about her past).
• • Rajah: Ah, you have a wonderful future. I see a man in your life.
• • Tira: What — — only one?
• • Rajah: But this is one very particular man. He is very wealthy, enormously wealthy.
• • Tira: ... What does he look like?
• • Rajah: I see he has brown eyes. In fact, I see two men... two different men. In the near future, I see a change. ... I see a change of position.
• • Tira: Sitting or reclining? . . .
• • Rajah: The horoscope — — keep this where you may consult it frequently.
• • Tira: All right, I'll take it to bed with me.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
— — excerpt from "I'm No Angel" written by Mae West — —
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
• • Feed — — http://feeds2.feedburner.com/MaeWestNYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST charmed The New York Times film critic Mordaunt Hall. Well satisfied by the motion picture "I'm No Angel," Hall haled it and his readers heeded. 
• • Here's what Hall wrote after the advance screening in 1933:
• • Arrayed in a variety of costumes which set off her sinuous form, Mae West is appearing at the Paramount in her latest screen vehicle, "I'm No Angel," a title which, as might be surmised, fits the leading character. Here Miss West, who wrote the story herself from "suggestions contributed" by Lowell Brentano, is beheld as a circus beauty named Tira, who wins applause and admiration by risking her blond head in a lion's mouth twice daily.
• • It is a rapid-fire entertainment, with shameless but thoroughly contagious humor, and one in which Tira is always the mistress of the situation, whether it be in the cage with wild beasts, in her boudoir with admirers, or in a court of law.
• • Tira is ever ready with a flip double entendre, and she permits no skeleton to be found behind her cupboard doors. She has an emphatic personality, which proves a magnet for even socialites with millions. She receives costly presents, including diamond necklaces, but she is hardly a gold-digger. She refrains from posing, preferring to keep her natural slangy speech in her journey through the story from a tent to a penthouse.
• • She admits that she has thrown discretion to the winds and she sometimes finds herself in an awkward predicament, but through a wily lawyer she succeeds in proving that she is guiltless. The feeble parts of this picture are those in which a criminal known as Slick is introduced. The less one sees of him the better one feels, for the production is interesting only as long as it proceeds on its merry route.
• • The glimpses of Tira making her impressive entry to the circus arena and then proceeding to the big cage with the roaring lions are depicted shrewdly. Tira does not actually stick her whole head in the lion's mouth, but contents herself by putting her face between the beast's jaws, which is quite enough. Even this is set forth with a certain degree of fun, and one feels that Tira probably has a pistol ready for an emergency and that other circus employee are ready to shoot in the event that the beast starts to close its mouth. But one is apt to wonder whether they could possibly be quick enough. Society among the spectators is thrilled, all except one snobbish girl, who is furious because her fiancé is very enthusiastic over the performer's courage — — and her beauty.
• • Later there comes the time when Tira puts her fair head into a court of law as the plaintiff in a breach-of-promise case. She sues Jack Clayton, whom she really loves, for $1,000,000, and it is not Tira's artful counsel who wins the case, but the circus queen herself. She cross-examines the defendant's witnesses and turns their testimony in her own favor, the unusual proceeding being countenanced by a judge whose sympathy Tira wins with the utmost ease.
• • Miss West plays her part with the same brightness and naturalness that attended her second film role. There is no lack of spontaneity in her actions nor in the utterance of her lines. She is a remarkable wit — — after her fashion. Cary Grant is pleasing as Jack Clayton and Walter Walker is excellent as the considerate old judge. Gregory Ratoff does well as Tira's lawyer. Wesley Ruggles has directed the film with his usual intelligence.
— — Source: — —
• • Byline: Mordaunt Hall
• • Published by: The New York Times
• • Published on: 13 October 1933
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • Cast for "I'm No Angel" • • • •
• • Tira . . . Mae West
• • Jack Clayton . . . Cary Grant
• • Bill Barton . . . Edward Arnold
• • Slick . . . Ralf Harolde
• • Barker . . . Russel Hopton
• • Alicia Hatton . . . Gertrude Michael
• • Kirk . . . Kent Taylor
• • Thelma . . . Dorothy Peterson
• • Benny Pinkowitz . . . Gregory Ratoff
• • Beulah . . . Gertrude Howard
• • The Chump . . . William B. Davidson
• • Bob, the Attorney . . . Irving Pichel• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • On Friday February 6th, a sparkling new print of "I'm No Angel" will open the 1930s series "Breadlines and Champagne," which will run from Friday February 6th through March 5, 2009 at the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014. Info and screentimes are available by phoning 212-727-8110 — — or by visiting www.filmforum.org online.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.
New Yorkers in the know are getting in the mood to spend February 6th with MAE WEST. 
• • If you have seen "I'm No Angel" before, then you might remember the title song, which Mae warbles in her inimitable cheeky way.
• • Harvey Brooks wrote the music for the theme song and the lyrics were written by Gladys DuBois and Ben Ellison.
• • Born in Philadelphia in the month of February — — 15 February 1899 — — Harvey Brooks also wrote the music for several other Mae West numbers. Composer Harvey Brooks died in Los Angeles on 17 June 1968.
• • Here are the lyrics so you can sing along with Mae on Friday.
• • • • "I'm No Angel" • • • •Aw, come on, let me cling on to ya like a vine
Make that lowdown music trickle off your spine
Baby, I can warm ya with this love of mine
I'm no angel
Aw, let me feel your fingers runnin' through my hair
I can give you kisses till you walk on air
Love me, honey, love me till I just don't care
I'm no angel
I'll take your blues, stomp down your troubles
Rock you with a steady roll
Here's your good nation, drink my affection
You're my new ace in the hole
Aw, let me have ya now before the night is gone
Come on, flank this joint, so we can carry on
I can make it heaven where the shades are drawn
I'm no angel
(— Instrumental Break —)
Come on, honey, thrill me like a midnight breeze
Don't care how you do it, babe, just so you please
Take my kisses till your weary heart's at ease
I'm no angel
Let me feel your fingers runnin' through my hair
I can give you kisses till you walk on air
Love me, honey, love me till I just don't care
I'm no angel
Oh, I'll take your blues, stomp down your troubles
Rock you with a steady roll
Here's your innovation, drink my affection
You're my new ace in the hole
Aw, let me have ya now before the night is gone
Come on, flank this joint, so we can carry on
I can make it heaven where the shades are drawn
I'm no angel
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • • • Cast for "I'm No Angel" • • • •
• • Tira . . . Mae West
• • Jack Clayton . . . Cary Grant
• • Bill Barton . . . Edward Arnold
• • Slick . . . Ralf Harolde
• • Barker . . . Russel Hopton
• • Alicia Hatton . . . Gertrude Michael
• • Kirk . . . Kent Taylor
• • Thelma . . . Dorothy Peterson
• • Benny Pinkowitz . . . Gregory Ratoff
• • Beulah . . . Gertrude Howard
• • The Chump . . . William B. Davidson
• • Bob, the Attorney . . . Irving Pichel• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •• • "I'm No Angel" is being shown as part of the 1930s series "Breadlines and Champagne," which will run from Friday February 6th through March 5 at the Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014. Info and screentimes are available by phoning 212-727-8110 — — or by visiting www.filmforum.org online.• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
NYC
Mae West.
Edward Arnold co-starred with Mae West in "I'm No Angel" [1933].
• • Native New Yorker Edward Arnold [18 February 1890 — 26 April 1956] was a character actor who appeared in 150 films — — along with his role as Big Bill Barton.
• • Born on the Lower East Side of New York City as Gunther Edward Arnold Schneider, he was the son of German immigrants. With his booming baritone voice, piercing blue eyes, and a heavy-set physique, Edward Arnold was an expert at playing rogues and authority figures.
• • A burly man with a commanding style, he was a popular screen presence for decades. He starred in such film classics as Diamond Jim [1935], a role he reprised in Lillian Russell [1940].
• • Edward Arnold served as President of The Screen Actors Guild shortly before his death in 1956 at age 66.• • "I'm No Angel" Cast • •• • Mae West as Tira
• • Cary Grant as Jack Clayton
• • Gregory Ratoff as Benny Pinkowitz
• • Edward Arnold as Big Bill Barton
• • Memorable lines • •
• • Rajah (a fortuneteller): Ah, you have a wonderful future. I see a man in your life.
• • Tira: What — — only one?
• • Tira: Beulah, peel me a grape.
• • Tira: It's not the men in your life that counts, it's the life in your men.
• • Tira: When I'm good I'm very good. But when I'm bad I'm better.
• • 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.
