BEFORE: Well, tonight I'm going about as far back into Cary Grant's career as I can - heck, I'm darn close to the start of movies themselves. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit since tonight's film was released in 1933, and movies had been around for over 20 years at that point. But out of all the films I've watched in the last few years, only 24 are older than this one. (The oldest film so far is Chaplin's "The Kid".)
THE PLOT: In the Gay Nineties, a seductive nightclub singer contends with several suitors, including a jealous escaped convict and a handsome temperance league member.
AFTER: I'm occasionally surprised by which films appear on that list of "1,001 Movies to Watch Before You Die". This film is on that list, but last night's wasn't, and tomorrow night's won't be - there's just no rhyme or reason to it sometimes. OK, so this may be Mae West's first feature, does that by itself justify its inclusion on that list? Is it because this is one of the last films to be made before the Production Code? Is it significant for being somewhat racy, and proving the need for the Code?
Maybe it's because it's the film that made stars out of both Mae West and Cary Grant? That seems to be the prevailing mentality. I don't think it could be due to the elaborate story, because there's barely a plot worth talking about here - it comes off more like a character study of a showgirl, or perhaps a period piece trying to encapsulate the spirit of the 1890's. Perhaps people in 1933 were nostalgic for an early time, due to the Great Depression - in much the same way people now are romanticizing the 1980's or 1990's.
My wife and I have been watching repeats of VH-1's "I Love the 80's", during dinner if we don't have a show like "Hell's Kitchen" or "Top Chef" to watch - because that's our nostalgia jam. But it's starting to get depressing, like when they do a segment about Whitney Houston, followed by one about Robin Williams and Comic Relief. Of course, those people were alive when they made the show, but no longer.
I'm surprised that I don't get more depressed while watching a film like "She Done Him Wrong" - if I stop to think about how everyone appearing in the film and everyone who worked on the film is most likely deceased, that's always a sobering thought. I mean, it's nice that their images and the film they made will live on, thanks to film preservation efforts and now digital storage, but still...it's like I spend my nights being entertained by ghosts and shadows.
This is the shortest film (66 minutes) to ever receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture - it's also the film where Mae West says the often misquoted line, "Why don't you come up some time and see me?" It was based on a play titled Diamond Lil, but they changed her character's name to Lou for the film. It was shot in only three weeks, and I dare say it feels like it - it doesn't seem like anyone spent much time working on story details, or even worrying whether there was a coherent plot at all. There are also nearly as many continuity mistakes as there are saucy comebacks.
Also starring Mae West, Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland (last seen in "Around the World in Eighty Days"), Noah Beery Sr., Rafaela Ottiano (last seen in "Grand Hotel").
RATING: 3 out of 10 5-cent beers
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