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Not unlike Kris Humphries, 26, who has decided to seek an annulment of his sham marriage to Kim Kardashian, 31, on the basis of fraud, MAE WEST's storyline for "I'm No Angel" had her character Tira haul a handsome fiance into court for breach of promise.
• • Actor Gregory Ratoff played the prosecutor; Walter Walker, age 69, was the kindly old magistrate; and Cary Grant portrayed Jack Clayton, who is being sued for breach of promise.
• • A box office bonanza, "I'm No Angel" premiered on 14 October 1933 at the Paramount Theatre during the Great Depression.
• • Walter Walker [1864 — 1947] • •
• • Native New Yorker Walter Walker was born on 13 March 1864 and began working in front of the camera in 1917 when he was 53 years old. Over the next three decades, he was featured in 95 motion pictures, often in authority roles. From 1917 — 1947 he would be cast as a mayor, governor, senator, judge, lawyer, physician, Secretary of War, Benjamin Franklin, capitalist, priest, etc.
• • Walter Walker was seen briefly in three different comedies that starred Mae West. In addition to sitting on the bench in "I'm No Angel," he was the New Orleans Admirer in "Belle of the Nineties" [1934], and Andy Kelton in "Go West Young Man" [1936]. Did you recognize the familiar face of "his Honor" in the other two movies?
• • Employed in Hollywood until the very end, Walter Walker died in Honolulu, Hawaii in the month of December — — on 4 December 1947. According to his obit in The New York Times, his wife and a daughter (Mrs. L.H. Riley) survived him. He had been visiting his daughter and her husband, Lieut. Col. Riley, when he passed away. He was 83 years old.
• • In December, Let's Remember Archie Mayo [1891 — 1968] • •
• • Born in New York City, Archie Mayo [29 January 1891 — 4 December 1968] was a stage actor who relocated to the West Coast in 1915 and soon began working as a film director.
• • Mayo directed the speakeasy motion picture "Night After Night" [1932] — — a George Raft vehicle that did more for Mae's career than for the tough guy actor known best for "Scarface."
• • Mayo retired in 1946 — — shortly after completing A Night in Casablanca with the Marx Brothers and Angel on My Shoulder with Paul Muni, Anne Baxter, and Claude Rains.
• • Archie Mayo died in Guadalajara, Mexico in the month of December — — on 4 December 1968. He was 77. Mayo has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• • On 4 December 1888 • •
• • Irish actor Colin Kenny, who was seen with Mae West in "The Heat's On," was born in Dublin on 4 December 1888.
• • On 4 December 1944 • •
• • The photographer Arthur Fellig, more commonly known as Weegee, made his silver gelatin prints sing and knew how to cleverly caption his portraits for large-format magazines such as Life and Look. On 4 December 1944, Weegee took himself downtown to the "poor man's Stork Club" — — i.e., Sammy's Bowery Follies, which somehow became a refuge for him. Sammy employed many old vaudevillians in his nightly stage shows. This was the spot for numerous humanistic and playful images such as a photo he took on December 4th of Sammy's "Mae West" — — the boisterous Bowery entertainer Norma Devine.
• • Mae West would visit her old colleagues at Sammy's place, whenever she was in town.
• • In Her Own Words • •
• • Mae West said: "I'm no angel."
• • Quote, Unquote • •
• • An article by Associated Press mentioned Mae West and her Hollywood attire.
• • A Los Angeles based stringer from AP wrote: Buxom Mae West, colorfully attired in a typical Hollywood outfit of lounging-pajamas, gave a deposition today preliminary to trial of the suit of Frank Wallace, who claims she is his wife.
• • AP noted: Miss West gave the deposition behind closed doors in the office of A. M. Blount, counsel for Frank Wallace. She was dressed in blue lounging pajamas, blue silk sandals, white hat, and carried a white handbag. ...
• • Source: Article: "Buxom Mae West Gives Trial Deposition" written by AP; published on 8 May 1937
• • By the Numbers • •
• • The Mae West Blog was started seven years ago in July 2004. You are reading the 2135th 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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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1933 • •
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NYC
Mae West.
MAE WEST worked with director Wesley Ruggles, who died on January 8th.
• • Here is what The New York Times film critic had to say about "I'm No Angel" in his review (printed in the newspaper on 13 October 1933). Mordaunt Hall wrote: "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 or in the utterance of her lines. She is a remarkable wit, after her fashion. Cary Grant is pleasing as 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. ..."
• • Born in Los Angeles was Hollywood director Wesley Ruggles [11 June 1889 — 8 January 1972]. A younger brother of actor Charles Ruggles, Wesley directed one of Mae West's most successful films in 1933.
• • In 1915, he began his career as an actor, appearing in several silent films — — a few with Charlie Chaplin. In 1917, he turned director, making more than fifty insignificant and forgettable films before he won acclaim with "Cimarron" [1931] and the financially flush and critically astounding blockbuster starring Mae West the following year. "I'm No Angel" raked in even more profits than "She Done Him Wrong" — — and this was in the height of the Depression.
• • Wesley's brother, actor Charles Ruggles had one of the longest careers in Hollywood, lasting more than 60 years and encompassing more than 100 films.
• • Wesley Ruggles died on 8 January 1972 — — at age 82 — — in Santa Monica, California.
• • 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.
On 6 October 1933, MAE WEST wowed the world when Paramount released "I'm No Angel."
• • To celebrate that blockbuster, in which Mae steps into a cage to tame the king of beasts, thereby making a childhood dream come true, let's enjoy a vintage review written by Mordaunt Hall, film critic for The New York Times, 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 blonde 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 entente, and she permits no skeleton to be found behind her cupboard doors. She has an emphatic personality, which proves a magnet for even social lights 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 or in the utterance of her lines. She is a remarkable wit, after her fashion. Cary Grant is pleasing as 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.
— — 1933 film review — —• • Source: The New York Times
• • Film Critic: Mordaunt Hall
• • Originally published on: 13 October 1933
• • 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.
Not unlike Kris Humphries, 26, who has decided to seek an annulment of his sham marriage to Kim Kardashian, 31, on the basis of fraud, MAE WEST's storyline for "I'm No Angel" had her character Tira haul a handsome fiance into court for breach of promise.
