Sextette - A Grande Estrela

This is right up there with "Can't Stop the Music" as wonderfully inspired trash. I find it funny that so many people are offended by Mae's appearance and numerous flirtations in this film. These are the same yokels who laugh at Bob Hope or George Burns when they chat up a young babe. It's nice to see the tables turned. Mae is grand - there's no other word for her- and her statue-like appearance (due to God knows how many face lifts and layers of make-up) actually help to accentuate the nature of her cinema icon glory. She always was bigger-than-life.

The plot of this film and the musical numbers are truly terrible, but they're there merely as plot devices for Mae to strut her stuff, and for Timothy Dalton to rack up enough embarrassing moments to cancel out his entire career even if he makes it to Mae's age! This movie always was meant to be camp, since Mae has always been the reigning camp queen, but of course it also tried to pass as real Hollywood entertainment, which means that there's a lot of unintentional humor too. There are tons of witty lines, and it's fun to see this huge gallery of stars (I barely recognized Alice Cooper without his long hair and smeared mascara. He looked like Paul Jabara, which I bet was intentional). I would not recommend seeing this film on an empty stomach, as seeing Timothy Dalton breaking out into "Love Will Keep Us Together" will cause a severely nasty involuntary reaction. But for fans of true camp, this movie is an absolute must see!

SEXTETTE is a throwback to the early years of cinema, where stars were larger than life and films threw in song and dance routines at regular intervals in the name of popular entertainment. It's also a vehicle for elderly starlet Mae West, at the tail-end of her career, playing a man-eater celebrating her wedding to a young toyboy (a visibly embarrassed Timothy Dalton). As the credits rolled, I had no idea what I'd just seen.

Clearly the director is in love with West and the film has been concocted as a tribute to her. But the format is very odd and old fashioned and West's appearance is rather shocking; her age is never mentioned so it's pretty weird to see her trying to play herself some fifty years previously. Often the narrative will break off to feature some filmed insert of West making one of her trademark wisecracks, which is bizarre in itself.

The music is pretty poor although there are endless guest appearances from a wide variety of folk in an attempt to entertain: Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr, George Hamilton, and Alice Cooper all show up here. Overall though, SEXTETTE is a ludicrous film, and I can't help but think that it would have been better to remember West as she was rather than as she is here.

To truly appreciate "Sextette" one has to truly appreciate Mae West!And to truly appreciate Mae West one must know and understand her life and her persona!Just forget any other Hollywood actress!Mae West stands alone in a class by herself!She is entirely her own creation and spent her lifetime maintaining and nurturing that creation!There exists a few GOOD books about her!And even her autobiography sheds light on HER view of herself and her effect on the world(as she believed it revolved around her!) Mae West was a small,husky,talented,brassy girl from Brooklyn who decided early in life to become a sexy,living legend long before she finally arrived in Hollywood (at age 39) She succeeded at a time when overweight and overaged leading ladies were unheard of!(they still are!) Everything from her golden hair,her hourglass figure,her purring voice and sassy,hip-swinging strut she devoloped through years of self-discipline and self-worship!By the time she became a world-famous movie star she was already in her 40s,wearing wigs,corsetts,wedge-heels,practicing exercises and birth-control devices decades ahead of her time! Which,of course,brings us to "Sextette" Based on a musical play of her own creation it would seem almost inconcievable to have anyone else portray her character!And remember,Mae West WAS her own character!The blond wigs,slinky gowns,diamonds and furs were STILL part of Mae's everyday persona well into her 80s!This was a woman who never had children nor cared for anyone but herself!SHE BELIEVED in her ageless,sexy siren and all that came with it!By all accounts Mae was remarkably agile and well-preserved!It would have been nice to have seen her WITHOUT the gauzy photography and artificial get-up!

I saw this movie on TV several years ago and thought that I would hate it after reading so many terrible reviews. It's true that this is a movie aimed mainly at Mae West fans and it was made about 40 years too late. But the production values are high and the acting is great. Mae looked good for her age and it was the only film offer she had received in a while. Like Mae said 'if I don't work what should I do, sit in a chair all day and rock'. The movie is good fun and it is nice to see Mae having such a good time. There were lots of stories being told at the time she made this about her mental and physical condition but these nasty stories which we all heard were proved to be false. Long live Mae

There are only a very few moments of absolute awe which I can recall in my life. What is not reflected in the blurb about this film, and the comments referring to Miss West's embarrassing appearance in this film, is the effect she had on the cast and crew when she entered the set on the Paramount lot. We were in the "gym" waiting to begin shooting, talking and yapping away as actors will do at 7 AM before anything gets going, when the double doors to the set opened, and as each person turned and looked at the lady entering and realized it was Mae West, they fell silent - until you could have heard a pin drop or your heart beating just a bit faster and louder. Miss West may have been a poor shadow of what she had been years before, but she was still Mae West. Incredible as it may seem, at eighty years old she radiated a presence I have felt from very few others. Later on, while shooting a scene with her, and the director was loudly yelling at her through her ear-piece, rather than becoming angry at the rude treatment she was getting, she simply turned to me with that Mae West smile; and in one look she said, "It's okay kid, I'm Mae West, who the hell gives a damn about him." When I looked back at her, somewhat in awe, she winked. Ultimately, she did the take the way she wanted to do it. Maybe the public will never see that scene as I saw it played out, but I will never forget it.