SHE DONE HIM WRONG (1933) B/W 66m dir: Lowell Sherman

w/Mae West, Cary Grant, Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland, Noah Beery Sr., David Landau, Rafaela Ottiano, Dewey Robinson, Rochelle Hudson, Tammany Young

The best West film. Grant is a Salvation Army captain who meets his match in Mae. This film version of West's play Diamond Lil was written by West, Harvey Thew, and John Bright.

From The Movie Guide: "Marvelously crude melodrama dished up with generous portions of undiluted West in her first starring vehicle. Recreating her bediamoned demimonde, Diamond Lil, for the screen, she wriggles her way through some lowdown dirty blues ditties, seduces young Cary Grant's Salvation Army crusader, kicks asses and takes names. Little-known director Lowell Sherman ably evokes the gaudy squalor of the Bowery at the turn of the century, and West establishes herself as a persona happiest squabbling among the chiselers and moneylenders.

"West already reigned supreme on Broadway when Hollywood beckoned her at around age 40 (West was hazy about age) to support George Raft in NIGHT AFTER NIGHT. With SHE DONE HIM WRONG West became an enormous star. She made 12 movies all together, 10 of which she wrote either alone or with collaborators. Amazingly, SHE DONE HIM WRONG was shot in 18 days, plus one week of rehearsal, as West fiddled with the lines to mislead the censors. ...

"West's original character of Lil was derived from her mother, a former French corset model whose husband (West's Irish prizefighter father) referred to her affectionately as 'Champagne Til.' And some of Lil was undoubtedly West herself: as a child, West's mother spoiled her outrageously, always dressing her in miniature versions of her own elaborate gowns. West never lost her taste for long skirts, fancy fabrics, wasp waists and cornucopic picture hats.

"She had spotted Grant on the Paramount lot and asked to have him in the picture, a request that pleased director Lowell Sherman, who liked Grant's work with Marlene Dietrich in BLONDE VENUS. But West, who never saw other women's movies, didn't know that. Eying Grant up and down, West said to Sherman, 'If he can talk, I'll take 'im.' In the years to come, West always played variations on this 'Diamond Lil' role in everything she did, tacking on other character names. 'Why should I go good, when I'm packin' 'em in 'cause I'm bad?' West once asked."

SHE DONE HIM WRONG was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture.