Je ne suis pas un ange

A strange thing happened with movie stars during the depression. The most popular players weren't the young and beautiful ones; they were homely, middle-aged figures like Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler and Will Rogers, unlikely stars but ones who seemed perhaps a little more earthly and genuine to moviegoers in troubled times. And this trend even had its own sex symbol – Mae West, a plump forty-year-old who became for a few years a Top 10 box office draw on the pull of her considerable sexual magnetism.

West was not possessing of the beauty of contemporaries such as Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich (neither of whom ever surpassed her in the polls). Her allure lies in the way she controls her body, a not-so-subtle hinting at what she is capable of in the bedroom, all done without showing so much as an ankle or flash of cleavage. She is perhaps the only female example of what many male stars from Clark Gable to George Clooney have been – an older player publicly seen as sexy thanks to a presence that transcends age. There have been other female stars who have this quality, but I believe West is the only one who thrived on it. As we see from her opening piece in I'm No Angel, she has absolute control over every aspect of her demeanour – a flick of the hips, a roll of the eyes, a set mouth. She could have been a decent straight actress had she turned her hand to drama.

But what is also remarkable about Mae West is that she had an unprecedented level of creative control over her work. Female writers were known but not common, and writer-actors of either gender were almost unheard of at the time. And I'm No Angel demonstrates West's wit and sophistication as much as it does her sexuality. And it's a rare tale for classic Hollywood in which the women are in charge. There's a sense of sisterhood, or at least mutual respect, between Mae and the other female characters. And as she says herself, walking off stage from her opening performance, the men who fall at her feet are just "suckers".

*I'm referring here to the ever-reliable Quigley Poll, which since 1932 has annually interviewed a large section of cinema-goers and asked them for their three favourite stars. Mae West came in at No. 8 in 1933, and No. 5 in 1934.

When I look at this film, first of all, I am astonished no one bothers to mention the costumes she wears which are not only revealing but incredibly original and almost better than designers of today. Edith Head is rumored, but she has a controversial reputation as having put her name on a lot of designs while at Paramount where this film was made and where Head remained as chief designer right through the years Audrey Hepburn brought in Givenchy and though he got special billing, when Hepburn worked, she always chose the advice of Givenchy and it supposedly drove Piaf up the wall. Those people who think of West as "ridiculous" seem to forget that she was writing on her own against the most powerful writers in films and theater, and she skirted the laws by her clever use of the double entendre. When I was invited to her house at the Ravenswood for tea, she was well into her 80's and was as sharp and smart and hilariously funny as she was 50 years before the women's movement, and even woman's suffrage. She was idolized by both men and women because she insisted that "the brain was the best seducer of men".That is sadly lacking in the female of today. West was also an avid reader and ridiculed sex experts with many quotes which never were published.She was an amazing talent who was 40 when she did this film, but she was a seductress to audiences.

I'M NO ANGEL (Paramount, 1933), directed by Wesley Ruggles, Mae West's second starring feature, with the full of story, screenplay and ALL dialog credited by Mae West, as listed in the opening titles super-imposed from an overview of a circus, according to the title, might have been a comedy fantasy centering upon a fallen angel, but as the story goes, it's about a freewheeling woman's rise from circus tent to Park Avenue penthouse.

The story centers around Tira (Mae West), a free-spirited woman working as a midway dancer in Big Bill Barton's (Edward Arnold) low class carnival. She is loved by Big Bill, but has a casual lovers, or in another sense of the word, acquaintances with the male population, one being "Slick" Wiley (Ralf Harolde), a pickpocket. Tira keeps a hotel room in town where she entertains gentlemen friends. One of her latest pickups is Ernest Brown (William B. Davidson), better known as "The Chump," five times married and with no morals. When Slick enters the scene to make a pinch, posing as Tira's husband, the angry Brown decides to leave and expose the two. Before he can get away, he is knocked unconscious by Slick. Mistaking him for dead, Tira and Slick make their getaway, leaving his body in the hallway. After Brown recovers, he discovers he's been robbed. Along with the police, Brown locates Slick at the sideshow and has him arrested. To clear herself, Tira hires Benny Pinkowitz (Gregory Ratoff), a prominent New York City attorney, to handle her pending trial. To obtain the loan, Tira agrees to appear as Bill's latest attraction, the star of a lion taming act, climaxed by putting her head into the mouth of the king of beasts. Because of her renewed success, with the act now playing at Madison Square Garden, Tira becomes the talk of the town. Entering the social scene following her encounter with Kirk Lawrence (Kent Taylor), who happens to be engaged to the jealous Alicia Hatton (Gertrude Michael), his relationship with Tira starts to ruin the family name. Jack Clayton (Cary Grant), Kirk's cousin, decides to pay Tira a visit and buy her off. Instead acquires this lovely product for himself. All goes well until Big Bill hires Slick, recently released from jail, to break up their relationship by posing as Tira's husband dressed in nothing but a bathrobe. Clayton calls off the wedding, leading to a breach of promise suit by Tira.

Songs credited by Gladys DuBois, Ben Ellison and Harvey Brooks, include: "They Call Me Sister Honky Tonk," "No One Loves Me Like That Dallas Man," "I Found a New Way to Go to Town," "I Want You, Need You," and "I'm No Angel" (all sung by Mae West). The title song, sung by West, is heard during the closing casting credits, and before the fade out, has the final say with, "I'm No Angel ... Believe ME!"

Following the success to SHE DONE HIM WRONG, I'M NO ANGEL, which re-teams West with Grant for the second and final time, proved to be an improvement over its predecessor, and to many Mae West fans, her best movie, and it's easy to see why. The courtroom scene where Tira (West) acts as her own attorney in the breach of promise suit, questioning the men in her past and present, and the male jurors who want to become part of her future, is priceless. With the members of the jury seen laughing out loud during Tira's defense sure had it's theater audiences doing the same thing back in 1933. During the course of West's longest movie, 86 minutes, I'M NO ANGEL is a full of memorable one-liners ("When I'm good, I'm very good. When I'm bad, I'm better," "Beulah, peal me a grape," "It's not the men in my life, but the life in my men," plus many more), and suggestive scenes leading only to the imagination of its viewers. I'M NO ANGEL is the movie where she introduced her most famous line, "Come up and see me some time," recited after her courtroom battle while on the telephone talking to the (unseen) Juror # 4. This line was spoken to Cary Grant, here, and in SHE DONE HIM WRONG, but each time in different ways. In spite of Grant's name billed second in the cast, his character appears very late into the story.

I'M NO ANGEL also consists of Mae West's personal traits. For instance, it's been written that West, born under the sign of Leo (month of August, a "hot" month) usually visited her astrologer for advice and never went through the day without reading her horoscope. Her character of Tira does just that, having her fortune told by the Rajah (Nigel De Brulier), who, while looking into the crystal ball, tells her he sees a man in her life. The surprised Tira responds, "Only ONE!" Later on in the story, one of her maids tells says she's a "one man woman." She quickly quips, "Yeah, one man at a time."

I'M NO ANGEL was thankfully produced before the production code went into effect, thus making this a "pre-code" comedy that has stood the test of time. It had become one of many Mae West/Paramount comedies of the 1930s to be distributed on video cassette in 1992. to commemorate West's centennial birth (1892). I'M NO ANGEL, along with SHE DONE HIM WRONG, became the movie package acquired by Turner Classic Movies, with I'M NO ANGEL having made its premiere on that station on January 6, 2001. For anybody who has never seen a Mae West comedy, especially her two prime comedies released 1933, I'M NO ANGEL should make a good introduction, and a suitable companion piece with SHE DONE HIM WRONG, both co-starring the only actor to appear opposite West on screen more than once. His name, of course, being Cary Grant. (**1/2)

Knowing that I enjoy watching some of the older movies, a friend at work lent me a VHS copy of `I'm No Angel'. It's not really something I would have picked up on my own. I guess I had some preset ideas about Mae West movies. For some reason, unknown even to myself, this is the first time I ever watched an entire Mae West movie. What a pleasant surprise it was to find my preconceived notions were totally wrong. Cary Grant and Mae West were great together. Very good acting all the way around and some interesting characters really helped to make this a very enjoyable viewing. This movie had a bit of drama, lots of comedy, it was a bit of a musical, and had some romance. All of this was combined into a masterful blend to make this movie very entertaining. I was really surprised that the comedy was so effective for today's audience considering the movie was made 71 years ago. This was a very good movie that I recommend. Glad I watched it.

Considered by many to be Mae West's finest film appearance (with only 1933's SHE DONE HIM WRONG and 1940's MY LITTLE CHICKADEE even coming close), the legendary star of the stage and screen has rarely been in better form than in this seminal film. Based on her own stage hit, the film's storyline is naturally preposterous, but West and director Wesley Ruggles wisely keep the focus on the then-salty dialogue and the still hilarious word play. Although he doesn't make his first appearance until nearly two-third of the film is over, Cary Grant remains the ideal straight man to West's zany antics. The film moves at a brisk pace, and its concluding courtroom sequence is unarguably one of the funniest scenes in film comedy.