Directed by:
Henry HathawayCinematography:
Karl StrussComposer:
George StollCast:
Mae West, Warren William, Randolph Scott, Alice Brady, Elizabeth Patterson, Lyle Talbot, Isabel Jewell, Etienne Girardot, John Indrisano, Charles Irwin (more)Plots(1)
Hollywood star Mavis Arden has a clause in her contract prohibiting her from marrying for five years. So her press agent Morgan worries about her secret dinner with a congressional candidate and alerts the press, hoping to scare off her beau with a scandal. Their next assignation is thwarted when Mavis’ Rolls Royce breaks down on tour. She and Morgan end up in a rural boarding house, where Mavis turns her lustful eyes on the hunky car mechanic. And like the character she most recently played in “Drifting Lady”, she breaks her rival’s heart. But unlike in the film-within-a-film, real life proffers up a happy ending … In this comedy set in the film industry, the press agent figure functions as a kind of censor-on-the-hoof for his charge, and Mae West uses that construct to shake off all constraints on her erotic appeal. In both word and deed, Mavis defies any attempts to tame her promiscuous onscreen persona into the well-burnished image of a studio star. A long speech she is seemingly ordered to give, pleading for more marriages, is belied by the concise closing line spoken by the “Drifting Lady” – “men are my life”. (Berlinale)
(more)Reviews (1)
After a roaring success, and after the first problems with the film code of the infamous Hays Bureau of Bullshit, Mae West had a wonderful idea. She was going to make a film reflecting on her achievements. Lawrence Riley's play "Personal Appearance" served as the basis for the script, which she wrote herself. She's focused on the glorious film glitz, political corruption and a naive audience, not just in the countryside. Logically, then, she plays a movie star with her own history and fictional films, some scenes of which we even see (such as the exotic bar scene in Drifting Lady), while others are just talked about. It's a good film, a medium transcending itself. The only real problem is the silly country boy character who is a caricature of illiterate blacks. Whereas before Hays' influence on the film was cemented, West herself, for example, had three black maids in I'm No Angel who were interestingly written, funny, and acted as the main character's sidekicks. Unfortunately, this too changed in mid-1934.
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