I'm No Angel

'I'm no angel' is your average nineteen thirties comedy. It's made special by a female lead that is fat, not afraid to speak her mind, and not allowing any man to get the better of her. On top of that, she gets away very well with this attitude. A female lead, carrying a film in such a no-nonsense way, was highly unusual before 1940 -- to say the least. Mae West made herself a lasting reputation with it. Trying to explain an attitude, never shown so well before or since in the movies, one should look at the times Mae West peaked in. It was the very depth of the Economic Depression. Being out of job by the millions, and living through hard times, West's golden-hearted & down-to-earth performance must have given much emotional comfort to the hard-pressed Americans of those days. They must have felt she understood their desperate needs, sympathizing with them as well.

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.

This is one of only three vintage West vehicles I've watched so far (three more are upcoming from the R1 set); fairly recently, I did catch the star's two embarrassing showcases made forty or so years past her prime. The 1930s saw great development in the art of comedy, where you had remnants of the Silent slapstick style (Chaplin, Fields, Laurel & Hardy – in case of the latter two, they attained new heights with the coming of Sound), the arrival of new and ground-breaking talent from the stage where the emphasis was on dialogue, puns and innuendo (The Marx Bros., West herself), the sophisticated drawing-room style spearheaded by Lubitsch, and screwball comedy (the male lead of I'M NO ANGEL, Cary Grant, who also co-starred with West in SHE DONE HIM WRONG [1933], eventually became the most representative exponent of the form). Back to the topic at hand: West was never laugh-out-loud funny (her limited personality, bordering on narcissistic exhibitionism and reliant on an off-hand delivery of the wisecracks, is even more potentially off-putting than that of W.C. Fields – hence the two's perfect teaming in MY LITTLE CHICKADEE [1940]!) but this is an excellent film in its own right. What little plot there is, is simple enough – sultry carnival performer West (whose character actually shares my birthday!) turns the heads of all sorts of men. She's the girl of low-life Ralf Harolde who's jealous of her relationships with wealthy men but doesn't mind the goodies they shower her with; eventually, she herself falls for Cary Grant (who only appears halfway through the film!) and makes plans to marry him. Harolde – in cahoots with Edward Arnold, the carnival boss who's about to lose his meal ticket in West's tame {sic} lion-taming act – intervenes to disrupt the whole thing and, unaware of this, West takes Grant to court for breach-of-promise. Burly character actor (and later director) Gregory Ratoff plays the star's lawyer – even if, in an unlikely turn of events, West is allowed to defend herself in a terrific last act; Irving Pichel (curiously enough, another occasional dabbler in directing) appears unbilled as the Prosecuting Attorney. Uniquely for female comedy stars of the era, West (whose character is surrounded by stereotyped black maids) wrote her own scripts – this one, then, includes some of her best-known lines. Still, perhaps the most outrageous moment in the film is when, overhearing a young society woman make some disparaging remark about her outside her room, West opens the door wide enough to spit at the girl (whose back is turned and uncovered!).

Mae West not only starred in this film about a lion tamer and femme Fatale but she was also the writer. She had a genius wit in her comedy and was a woman ahead of her time. She was beautiful, smart, and talented as well. In this film, she played Tira, a lion tamer in the circus, where she becomes the hit of the town. She's not without her line of male gentlemen callers and suitors. In this film, we see Cary Grant as one of them. This film has many unforgettable moments. It's also rare to see the African American actresses who were cast as the maids to be treated more like friends of Tira than servants. I loved the interaction between Tira and Beulah especially in that time period. While I don't know the actual history of the film, Gertrude Howard's Beulah is one of my favorite characters even though she's relegated to the maid. The courtroom spectacle was ahead of it's time period when Tira takes control of cross-examining her ex-suitors.

The dancer and lion tamer of a circus Tira (Mae West) meets with an admirer at a hotel room and her lover, the pickpocket Slick Wiley (Ralf Harolde) try to steal the man and hits his head with a bottle. Slick believes that he had killed the man and flees, but he is arrested by the police. Tira fears to be betrayed by Slick and asks for a loan to Big Bill Barton (Edward Arnold) to leave the place. However, he offers her the money provided she accepts to put her head into the mouth of a lion. The show is a success and the circus move to New York, where the millionaire Kirk Lawrence (Kent Taylor), who is engaged but becomes her "protector", giving expensive gifts to Tira. But when she meets Kirk's partner Jack Clayton (Cary Grant), they fall in love with each other and decide to get married. But Big Bill does not want to lose his great attraction and plots a scheme with Slick to call off the engagement of Clayton and Tira. "I'm No Angel" is one of the most important films of the controversial Mae West, the actress who saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy after the Great Depression. This actress was responsible for the censorship code in Hollywood and her malicious quotes are great. For example, "When I'm Good, I'm Very Good. But, When I'm Bad... I'm Better"; or the song "No One Does It Like a Dallas Man", that was forced to be changed "No One Loves Me Like a Dallas Man". My vote is seven. Title (Brazil): "Santa Não Sou" ("Saint I am not")

This movie, which West had complete creative control over, is her masterpiece. While 'She Done Him Wrong' is uneven and confusing 'I'm no Angel' is brilliant throughout. West is all woman without a bit of cat or mouse, and there is delicious chemistry between West and Grant (although this movie was made the same year as 'I'm no Angel', Grant looks older and his acting is stronger). And as much fun as it is to see masters at work in 'My Little Chickadee' (and imagine West and Feilds writing together), this movie outshines even that. If you want to know what Mae West is all about, this is the film to see.

Mae West was one of the greatest comedians of cinema. She and her work are horribly under appreciated by the vast majority of viewers. I would compare much of her work with that of the Marks Brothers and would rate this film alongside, say 'A Night at the Opera' or a film which treats a similar subject, 'The Seven Year Itch.' In any case: see this film!

Easily one of the funniest comedies of the 193O's, this pre-code West-ern is a real treat. La West plays Tira, a carny gal who's been around the block a few times: in order to raise some dough, she sticks her head into a lion's mouth - and basks in the attention she receives from various fans. The scene between Mae and Gertrude Michael is hilarious: "You haven't a shred of decency in you!" spouts the snobbish Michaels to which Mae retorts "I don't show my good points to strangers!" A young Cary Grant is one of Tira's many admirers and Edward Arnold is memorable as Tira's loud, gruff boss, Big Bill Barton. Mae's courtroom plea, where she puts every man in his place - and wins the admiration of the judge is a gem. This film was made just after Mae's sensational hit SHE DONE HIM WRONG. Feeling indebted to West because the film's success single-handedly saved Paramount Pictures from impending bankruptcy, mogul Adolph Zukor promised Mae that she could do anything she wanted for her next film. Because she had been fascinated by lions since childhood, she had her fantasy written into the movie's plotline.

When Mae West selected a young contract player from Paramount named Cary Grant as her leading man, a star was definitely born. But make no mistake about it, this film and She Done Him Wrong are her films and no one else's In I'm No Angel Mae spends the entire time of the film proving she definitely ain't. Every man in the film is completely captivated by her free and easy sexuality. As this was pre-Code you have to listen hard to the dialog because Mae comes out with a gem every five minutes or so. Mae's a circus performer here and after her manager Edward Arnold persuades her to stick her head in a lion's mouth, her gate attraction increases with her notoriety. Young millionaire Cary Grant is the last of several in the film captivated by her. She's falling for him to, but Arnold breaks it up for his own reasons. The end of the film is a breach of promise suit brought by Mae against Cary and when she takes over the cross examination of the witnesses the results are a comedy milestone. Not that her lawyer, Gregory Ratoff, isn't capable enough, but he's rather distracted by her as well. Ratoff's performance in fact is the best one among the supporting cast. I'm No Angel is arguably Mae West's best film and I'm not one to argue.

The great stars are inimitable. With the very greatest, such as the outrageous one-of-a-kind Mae West, nobody else even mirrors the style. Bogart, Hepburn, Dietrich, Cagney, maybe a few others - all you ask is that the story not smother what they do best. Here is Mae West's finest movie, giving her the opportunities, sometimes denied elsewhere, to strut her stuff - all of it. Suggestive dialog, provocative poses, sashaying hips, and a young Cary Grant who makes her purr: the Production Code would not be far behind.