SHE DONE HIM WRONG (1933)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Comedy / Drama

Director: Lowell Sherman

Cast: Mae West / Cary Grant / Dewey Robinson

Plot

Singer Lady Lou is the queen of the New York Bowery, with several men vying for her affections.  Things threaten to go wrong, however, when jealousy bubbles over into violence.

What I Liked

Mae West turned the moral watchdogs of America rabid with her bawdy sexuality and dialogue in “She Done Him Wrong.”  She is sex incarnate, swaying her hips in skin tight dresses shimmering with diamonds and mesmerizing her many suitors with innuendos she never bothers to veil, thinly or otherwise.  The best moments are when she not only throws out suggestive insinuations but uses them to decorate a terrific put-down that most of her beaus fail to even recognize before it’s too late.  In terms of physique and the modern standard for beauty, West would not be able to compete with today’s leading female sex symbols.  However, for sheer erotic charisma, she would rate among the most potent women to ever grace a movie screen.  That her infamous dialogue, complete with one-liners scathing enough to put Groucho Marx to shame, was co-written by West herself is all the more impressive.

What I Didn’t Like

Some films are classics less for their quality or artfulness than for their historic relevance.  “She Done Him Wrong” seems to me to be such a case.  In terms of originality or talent, this is a quality film, but not a truly great one.  What does make it great, as I indicated earlier, is West’s physical and verbal voluptuousness, which was downright scandalous in the early 1930s.  With lines like “Why don’t you come up sometime; see me” (cooed to a young Cary Grant), this film was almost singlehandedly responsible for the rise to prominence of the Motion Picture Code that would control and censor film content for decades to come.  It was one of the last and most salacious products of an era of freedom in American filmmaking that was soon to come to an end.  For that, “She Done Him Wrong” is an interesting piece of motion picture history.  However, without Mae West to give this film it’s raison d’etre, this film would have really been a below average bore.

Most Memorable Scene

The oft-repeated invitation to Cary Grant mentioned before is certainly the most enduring piece of this film’s scandalous legacy.  Personally, I prefer when morals-minded Grant later asks her, “Haven’t you ever met a man that can make you happy?”  And West replies, “Sure,” and then gets a half-cocked smile on her face before continuing, “Lots of times.”  But the truth is any scene where Lady Lou is working her magic over the lovesick criminals of New York makes this movie sizzle.

My Rating: 3 out of 5