Goin' to Town

This was the first Mae West movie to appear after the introduction of the Production Code the year before and, given the generally held belief that this factor harmed her successive films, I was expecting to be let down by this one; indeed, while rarely scaling the heights of her best work, I found it to be a very engaging and entertaining vehicle with a fair amount of good lines.

Amusingly, this film – with the word “town” in its title – starts out way out West while West’s GO WEST YOUNG MAN (1936) starts out in a rural setting and goes rustic gradually! Interestingly enough, it features a vivid horse-racing sequence and another hilarious vignette in which West dabbles in opera singing: playing Delilah (“the only woman barber who made good”), she is prone to call out to her Samson, “Come ‘ere, Sammy!”; it’s worth mentioning here that The Marx Brothers also lampooned just these very diverse subjects for their first two big-budget MGM extravaganzas!

The plot is quite busy, especially for a 70 minute movie, with a handful of besotted males vying for the hand of wealthy oil tycoon West (who marries – and is subsequently widowed – twice during the course of the film, even if she is clearly chasing after her no-nonsense British employee Paul Cavanagh who is really an aristocrat!). Initially, I thought that Cavanagh was a curious choice for her leading man but, ultimately, he acquits himself rather well under the circumstances, and Gilbert Emery is a welcome familiar face as West’s Pygmalion (once she decides to take on the upper crust of society in her bid to win Cavanagh’s affections); incidentally, this portion of the film bears more than a passing resemblance to George Raft’s predicament in Mae West’s debut feature, NIGHT AFTER NIGHT (1932)!

This film is really a Mae West vehicle and you can see how she inspired today's stars like Madonna and even Lady Gaga with her dazzling outfits and costumes. Mae West had a style like nobody else and was incredibly talented besides her looks. She was a screenwriter who developed her own projects in order to suit her. In this film, she plays a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who ends up from rags to riches. Along the way, she wants high society's acceptance even of her bawdy behavior and attitudes. Her character might be ill-bred, ill-mannered, and raunchy with jokes but she's entertaining and talented with her singing voice. I wonder if it was her real voice. She's going to climb high society even if it means doing it her way. Mae West is one of the great movie stars during the Great Depression and we can see why people flocked to see her films.

GOIN' TO TOWN was Mae West's fifth film and even if the Hays Office was now trying their best to clamp down her sexy persona, Mae was still very much a red-hot firecracker in this 1935 release getting some surprising saucy lines and actions past the censors. Set in rural Texas, Mae is quite the uninhibited prairie playgirl. The movie was even publicized with the tag "Variety is the Spice of Life" and the fact that Mae has seven lovers in the film (actually, it's "just" five - two of the men are merely devoted and platonic associates). As Mae notes in the picture, "Where there's a man concerned, I always do my best." And best she does, GOIN' TO TOWN is easily one of her top five pictures.

Mae stars as Cleo Borden, goodtime gal in a Texas saloon who states "I'm a good woman for a bad man." She is particularly pursued by Buck Gonzales, a wealthy rancher who nevertheless engages in stealing cattle. The sheriff is on to Gonzales and warns him, which both he and Cleo dismiss. "Buck ain't got nothing bad on his mind but me," says Cleo. Cleo is not exactly a one man woman though, romancing another cowboy (Grant Withers) on the side. Buck is determined to have her for himself and proposes marriage which intrigues but not necessarily thrills Cleo, who decides to play a game of dice with him to decide whether she will marry him or not. Buck wins and in his eagerness to claim her as his wife, makes a will declaring her his sole heir and they plan to marry within two weeks. On the eve of their wedding though, Buck is caught cattle rustling and is shot to death by the law. Cleo learns of his death as she arrives to be married and is soon informed she has now inherited his estate.

It doesn't take Cleo long to pursue her next man, a British geological engineer Edward Carrington (Paul Cavanaugh) working Buck's property with whom she engages in a cat and mouse routine. She tries her best to vamp him and almost suceeds but is aware she is not the typical woman such a well-bred gentleman pursues. Oil is discovered on the estate and Cleo is wealthier than ever but Carrington's work is now done and he leaves. With the help of the ranch's bookkeeper Winslow (Gilbert Emery), also British, who has stayed on to help her "with the cattle and the men" who work there (Cleo immediately replying, "Just the cattle, I'll take care of the men'), Cleo decides to polish herself up and upon learning Carrington is currently in Buenos Aires to attend the horse races, she decides to enter Buck's racing-trained stallion Cactus in the race and goes down there herself to deliberately bump into Paul again. The blonde bombshell is a hit with the international males in Argentina and Carrington seems happy to see her again but there's trouble brewing when she clashes with a wealthy socialite (Marjorie Gateson) and Paul is appalled by her flirting with a sleazy gigolo (Ivan Lebedeff).

This comedy is packed with lots of Mae's delicious wisecracks and sass and has one of greatest ever slams, directed at the Russian gigolo whom she's now sized up, "We're intellectual opposites...I'm intellectual and you're opposite." Cleo and Paul have a classic love-hate burgeoning romance in then brand-new IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT fashion but is there any doubt Mae West will get what she wants? Mae is wonderful and looks great dolled up in minks and high fashion and vamping her way through three songs as well as an aria from the opera "Samson and Delilah".

Leading man Paul Cavanaugh is quite good in one of his more notable movie roles, but I do agree with another reviewer that Leslie Howard would have been better cast in the part as Cavanaugh doesn't quite have the sex appeal of a man a woman would chase around the world. Standing out in the cast are three classic 1930's supporting players. Marjorie Gateson was perhaps the most formidable advisory Mae ever had on the screen. Elegant and middle-aged (three years Mae's senior), Ms. Gateson specialized playing frosty socialites and here was at her most malevolent. When Monroe Owsley was in a movie, you knew there was going to be trouble for the leading lady with this untrustworthy beau and he serves that purpose here for Mae as he did for Barbara Stanwyck, Claudette Colbert, Loretta Young, and scores of other movie queens (sadly, he passed away two years after this film's release at age 36.) Owsley was such a good actor at times he fooled the audience as much as the female star. There was no such shading in sinister Ivan Lebedeff, the international equivalent to Owsley, playing sleazy bad guys the likes of Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich were sorry they had crossed his path, though here Lebedeff is more of a birdbrain than his stock character yet just as predatory.

There's some pretty racy and controversial stuff here for a post-code; Cleo's blithe attitude toward marriage, her later marrying society figure Owsley just to crash society and the circles Carrington socializes in with the intent to divorce once she's achieved her goal. There's even a couple of derriere jokes (riding a horse for an extended period for the first time, Mae cracks "Usually it's my feet that hurt" and later looking over a map opened up on a table by Paul she coos, "You can find some amazing things on a map," and proceeds to sit on the edge of it.) The raciest line though doesn't go to Mae but to young character actor Jack Pennick, a regular supporting actor in John Ford films, playing a tongue-tied cowboy who has a hard time getting his words out right. Informing the other cowboys who wonder what's going on behind closed doors with Cleo and Mae at the saloon (which Jack learns by peeping through the keyhole!), he tries to say"She's got him tied, roped, and ready for branding" but it comes out, "She's Got him tope (sic) rided (sic) umm ride toped (sic) umm tied roped and betty for randing (sic) umm randy for bedding umm she's got him ready!" GOIN' TO TOWN is a fabulous showcase for one of the cinema's most delightful stars, Miss Mae West.

Reviewing the iconic Mae West feels like an exercise in futility. Today's audiences either "buy into" her supremely confident premise and enjoy her oeuvre, or reject her entire egotistic supposition and persona in general.

Going' to Town is the first West vehicle made under the Production Code, and it does somewhat pale in comparison to her earlier films. But still, what we find here contains a great deal to enjoy, even with the buxom star now somewhat muzzled and constrained. Here she is Cleo Borden (I love her character names every time!), an "on-the-level" saloon hall girl who inherits a windfall and attempts to go legit in high society in the Hamptons. Jealous and snooty Marjorie Gateson does everything in her power to stand in her way -- a plot contrivance familiar to West fans.

Firstly, Mae West always seemed to consider the guys in her audience, and here the film starts with an exciting action sequence featuring a chase on horseback with guns blazing. It plays more like something from a George O'Brien oater -- a neat and surprising way to open the proceedings actually. Before long the scene has shifted to Buenos Aires, where the story treats us to an actual horse race that's very nicely filmed in an extremely fast pace.

But the movie's plotting seems a tad overwrought, with perhaps a few too many admirers competing for both West's attentions and meager screen time. But then, fans of outrageous Hollywood fashion can feast their eyes on the haute couture that clothes the corseted blond star. And it certainly does add to the humor having a full-figured actress dominating the proceedings, and Mae West expertly keeps all eyes focused on her abundant charms -- if only to ascertain the reasons behind her supreme confidence.

So, everyone, get a load of Mae West as she rolls her eyes, smokes cigarettes, sings a few songs, steamrolls over her entire supporting cast, and flirts with every man around. That makes some outlandish entertainment that's not to be underestimated even today.

*** out of *****

This is the third of the Mae West movies on the 5-film, 2-disc collection I just watched and I just found out, the first made after the Production Code became a bit more strict. It's a bit of a mess, to tell the truth what with the change in locales from the Wild West to South America to Southampton. And some of the plot points confused me. But as long as Ms. West manages to keep her zingers at the ready and get some good songs in, to boot, this is still a pretty enjoyable outing for her. And it's always fun to see her give it to the snobbish society ladies, that's for sure! The men, for the most part, are pretty interchangeable but really, there's still plenty to enjoy in Going' to Town.