Plot Intro
The film displays the social, professional and amorous interactions between bawdy saloon singer Lady Lou (Mae West) and various proprietors, visitors, cops, criminals and friends- with plenty of feisty one-liners of course.
You may have heard some of her many famous lines. You may have heard her voice recordings. You may have only heard her name. You may have seen drag queen Alaska’s flawless impersonation of her on RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars. But I guarantee you’ve heard of Mae West.
It’s not a particular surprise that she never won an Oscar. In fact, she was never nominated. It would be like nominating one of the cast of Bridesmaids (I’m not against this at all, they’re all fab, but the Oscars snobbishly doesn’t tend to favour bawdy, daring humour). Mae’s trademarks were naughty, sometimes downright crude, one liners, and playing gutsy women empowered by their awareness and pride of their sexuality. She was lightyears ahead of her time. Even today, a sexually promiscuous woman (or even a woman who blazonly discusses sex) can be labelled all sorts of horrid names while men ar disproportionately praised for the same behaviour. I would go so far as to say that Mae walked so that WAP could run.
Interestingly, when Mae started her movie career, films were more liberal when it came to nudity and sexual references. The onset of the Hays Code in the early '30s put a spanner in the works, but she got around it by putting in even more filthy lines. The enforcers of the code would censor these lines, leaving in the ones Mae wanted to keep because they were comparatively chaste. As Mae herself said, “I believe in censorship. I made a fortune out of it”.
Mae arrived at movies relatively late in her career. Spurred on by a proud and encouraging mother, Mae started in theatre in the 1910s and wrote many of her own risque plays. In the early 30s, aged 39, she finally entered Hollywood. She Done Him Wrong was her second movie, based on one of her own plays, and it was so successful it saved Paramount from bankruptcy. It also projected Mae’s co-star Cary Grant into stardom.
Whilst it’s not the best film in the world (it’s awkwardly edited, haphazardly plotted and sits within that difficult early '30s era where film makers hadn’t worked out how to integrate sound into their productions), I was captivated by Mae West. She has one stance and one facial expression throughout but waiting for her quips and comebacks are all part of the pleasure. We see the past as socially conservative and entirely oppressive towards women and whilst this isn’t an inaccurate assessment, Mae is evidence that streaks of rebellion and audacity existed and paved the way for new waves of feminism when the '60s and '70s hit.
Mae’s film career continued throughout the '30s and early '40s. As mentioned before, she had endless battles with censors due to the raunchy dialogue she wrote herself. Over time, the censors became increasingly draconian and, as we have seen in our Best Actress project, Mae’s image of outspoken, feisty heroines was being replaced by stoic, virtuous survivors of disaster as World War II raged on.
Her frustration with the censors is evident as she frequently turned down many roles that became iconic for other actresses. A major example is when she turned down the role of Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, a performance that put Gloria Swanson back on the map. Mae, rather poignantly, said that the film’s style of humour wasn’t right for her - her brand of comedy was “about uplifting the audience”.
Mae preferred the comparative freedom of expression in television, radio and, especially, music. In her 50s and 60s she was recording rock and roll albums and getting standing ovations for her live performances. Despite failing eyesight and health problems, Mae attempted to move back into movies in the '70s but with little success. Nonetheless colleagues commented on her determination and self-confidence even when she was working at over 80 years old.
Mae never had children - she did get pregnant during one of her relationships and had an abortion which had dangerous consequences for her health and left her infertile. But she maintained romantic links right up until her relationship with a wrestler called Chester Rybinski with whom she remained for the last 26 years of her life. He said “I believe I was put on this Earth to take care of Mae West”.
Mae died from a stroke in 1980 at the age of 87 and she is buried in a family mausoleum in New York City. She remains a cornerstone of female sexual liberation in cultural history. Her unashamed double entendres, her curvaceous costumes dripping in jewels and her disrespect for prudence on-screen remain quite surprising to watch today.
It’s very poignant to me that someone with such voracious sexuality was also very determined to make entertainment that lifted her audiences rather than depressed them. This, combined with her closeness to her family and her open support for homosexuals as far back as the '20s, prove that just because someone is sexually liberated does not mean they are the axis of evil in society. Conservatives, take note.
Put simply, Mae West herself. The film is generally uninvolving but, as I said, the drive is in waiting to see what she’ll say next. Her voice and style is so distinctive that she didn’t really need anything else in her repertoire.
Pretty much the rest of it. The early '30s is a difficult era to watch because storylines have such haphazard structures and the editing is so primitive that it’s hard to get emotionally involved or even work out what’s happening.
Mae West, what a treat.
She’s by no means a great actress, and frankly giving her an Oscar for Best Actress would be just silly. But Mae West - what an absolute treat.
From the moment she arrives in a carriage - many long camera shots with many angles making you aware that here is the important person - West dominates this rather thin story with her sheer charisma and relishment of lines that aren’t so much double entendre as they are flat out sexual commands.
I think it’s utterly breathtaking to be watching - in the ‘40s - a movie that so clearly dictates that women should be allowed to enjoy and pursue sex. West famously wrote ‘Sex’ - a play for which she was jailed - and spent a long time wavering over the line of publicly acceptable. But in this - an otherwise unremarkable film - Lady Lou wins out despite pursuing and getting the shags she wants - right down to the final line when a handsome policeman embraces her and says ‘you bad girl’ - and West closes the film with a deeply knowing ‘you’ll see’. It’s extraordinary that this was allowed to be made and spoken about just before the Hays Code would come into action, forbidding so much as married couples sharing a bed onscreen.
It’s worth a watch just to see West in action. And she never gave up. Even in her final film Sextette, at 84 years old, she played a sexually uninhibited siren - despite having her lines fed to her through an earpiece and her failing eyesight making it difficult to move around the set. Sextette also starred a young Alice Cooper who - on his Desert Island Discs recalled how West insisted he escort her to her trailer before making a pass at him. Three years later, extraordinary to the end, West would die at the age of 87. An icon.
Pretty much any one-liner that West gets to chew up and spit out.
The rest of the film is so thin that I can’t even remember what happens? Someone dies. I think.
Mark
Mae West, for her passion, refusal to be diminished, and unbridled sexuality deserves a 10 out of 10. Sadly this film is a solid 2/10
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