I'm No Angel (1933)

After the release of Mae West’s breakthrough film She Done Him Wrong Paramount would immediately put into production her follow up picture in I’m No Angel. The buxom, middle-aged blonde with the quick wit and suggestive of humor would bring audiences to Paramount theaters to see this new risqué star, in the process helped to save the studio from bankruptcy.  In less than a year’s time Mae West went from a Hollywood import from controversial Broadway plays to the top drawing star on the silver screen. Along for the ride was her handsome co-star, Cary Grant, whom she loved to say she on her own discovered. This fact may not be true, and somewhat upset Grant, but that would not matter as swarms of people came to see what they brought to the movies.

I’m No Angel, West’s third film and second as a headliner, is a musical comedy about a burlesque/circus performer whose engagement to a wealthy man is hit with major difficulties when he discovers of her other relationships. Tira (West), a burlesque performer in a traveling circus with many sugar daddy admirers, works her way up to being a well known lion tamer in shows within the big city. Most of the film is about how she gets what she wants from men until she finds one man, Jack Clayton (Cary Grant), whom she falls in love with. Tira even quits her act to marry Jack. Their engagement is however broken off when Tira’s boss Big Bill (Edward Arnold) stages to have Jack discover one of Tira’s former lovers, Slick (Ralf Harolde) in her penthouse. Upset by the turn of events, Tira sues Jack for breach of promise and with her charm and savvy, despite showing off her many lovers in court; she wins the case and the respect of Jack. Ultimately they reconcile when Jack goes back to see Tira after the case.

The story is weak and really does not go anywhere, but that was not the point of the picture. The point was you, the audience, were to be entertained by West. She alone was the draw. West wrote the story and the screenplay, at least that is what the credits say. No doubt she played a major role in the creative process, but I am sure there was staff members helping her fill up the entire storyline to make it a little better-rounded. All in all the movie is a vehicle for West to perform and be, well, Mae West. There would be set ups  for her to create the punch lines, and opportunities for her to show off her singing skills. In time West’s persona would become clique, but for 1933 she and this film were fresh. Her jokes were risqué and her character worldly, but it sold tickets, which in the motion picture business is all that matters.

This was West at the top of her game. This mark the second film she stared in in 1933, released within months of her first major hit. Paramount was desperate is this point of the depression and they found a new marketable star that would save the studio from financial difficulties. The stories she provided were based off her stage plays she had perfected for years of the stages of New York. With a little tweaking and a few sets built on the sound stages, Paramount was able to make two rather low cost movies that made high profits for that year. I’m No Angel would be the eight highest grossing film in 1933, and executives could never be happier to see the profits.

For this picture Paramount would hire Wesley Ruggles to direct. Ruggles was a poorly known director, after being a rather even poorer known actor of silent comedies. He had only one picture with any merit to his credit, but it was a big one in the Academy Award winning picture Cimarron. Despite having an epic western to his credit, he did not provide too much creativity to the film. The extent of his creative mind was in placing the camera in certain spots that added to the drama of Mae West performing in a circus with live animals, but much everything else in the film played like a run of the mill stock director. Put into proper context, this was not intended as a major film, so a major director was not needed for this picture. The point was to show off West and let her do her thing. West would perform many of her own stunts, few as they may be, including riding an elephant and performing around and touching live lions. There is one special effects shot to speak of, where West puts her head in the lion’s mouth. However, it is a rather poor effect shot as it is clearly executed by simply using a double exposure, shooting West and the lion separate, but having both images burned onto the celluloid frame to keep her away from any real harm.

Despite having been in many other films during his two short years in the movies, Cary Grant would get increased exposure from starring alongside Mae West the their two films together in 1933. West loved to tell her story of her discovery of the young Grant walking the studio lot, but Grant would always deny the legend for he had plenty of work beside his two films with West.

I’m No Angel would be one of those films that censors had troubles with. West’s character was so risqué with how she acted and reacted towards men. She loved to use sex as her humor and people loved it too, that is except for moralists. One song “No One Does It Like a Dallas Man” was altered to “No One Loves Me Like a Dallas Man” to make the sexual innuendo a little less prominent. People say it is with the help of movies such as this one that helped push Hollywood’s production code into place the following year. When it came to attempts to reissue the film years later, twice the studio was rejected by the Hays Office, showing just how powerful morality became in Hollywood after the production code was set by the studios.

You can say that this film helped save a studio and helped change Hollywood. Soon censors controlled the screen and Mae West would lose a bit of her creativity. She would go on to do many other things, more movies, stage, and recordings, but never would she be as on top as she was here. Despite the success never being the same, her legend would grow as her personality transcended time. For one year she would be on top of the motion picture world, and I think West would loved to have said it in that manner, for she would have it no other way.