Sadly Over-hyped

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Director: LOWELL SHERMAN. Screenplay: Mae West, Harvey Thew, John Bright. Based on the stage play Diamond Lil by Mae West. Photography: Charles Lang. Film editor: Alexander Hall. Art director: Robert Usher. Costumes designed by Edith Head. Songs by Ralph Rainger (music) and Leo Robin (lyrics). Choreography: Harold Hecht. Stills: Woody Bredell, Eugene Richee. Assistant director: James Dugan. Producer: William LeBaron. Runs only 66 minutes. NOTES: Nominated for Hollywood's most prestigious award for Best Film, "She Done Him Wrong" was passed over in favor of "Cavalcade".For an outlay of only $200,000, this movie earned a marvelous initial rentals gross of $2.2 million on the domestic market alone, placing it in sixth position for the year. (Another West vehicle, "I'm No Angel", was third).COMMENT: Surely the most famous invitation in the whole history of the movies is Mae West's "Come up and see me sometime!" (as it is usually slightly misquoted). I've heard this line quoted in other movies, I've seen it emblazoned across advertising bill-boards, I've read it again and again in books, and I've listened to its use time after time as a popular catch-cry. It's been repeated so often in fact in so many ways among so many people, it's become a household phrase, part of the language, an intrinsic euphemism in everyday speech. The only other words of screen dialogue that have come anywhere near it in popularity are Clint Eastwood's challenging "Go ahead, make my day!"As for the movie itself, it is every bit as delightful today as it was on first release, way back in 1933, just as the Great Depression was starting to bite!

Mae West is certainly entertaining with her wisecracks and sexual innuendo. Unfortunately, she's the only entertaining thing about this whole film. The other actors, even a young Cary Grant, aren't given terribly interesting characters to inhabit. The whole thing is set-bound and the story is nonsense.Okay, maybe not nonsense, but it is cluttered with too many subplots and one-note characters which fail to hold interest. The first ten minutes are a pain to sit through, mainly because West isn't there to enliven the proceedings. That should not be.She Done Him Wrong (1933) is an interesting curio and a showcase for Mae West, but as entertainment, it is lacking.

Readers might wonder what I'm referring to - the movie or Mae West. "She Done Him Wrong" is a Mae West product from start to finish, as she has all the best lines and steals every scene she's in. Plus, she's here recreating her Broadway stage success and even gets a writing credit on the picture. As everyone has noted, this was the movie that made Cary Grant a star, and the scenes where the two are on screen together are the best in the picture. On hand are several familiar old faces, including Noah Beery, Sr. and David Landau. The picture won an AA nomination for Best Picture, remarkable in itself as this is an audacious movie for its time.I thought that some of the acting was forced and unnatural, whether by accident or on purpose. The most egregious overactor was Owen Moore, who plays Mae's old flame who has 'taken the rap' for her and wants her to wait for him to be released. But Mae is the whole show and does some scenery-chewing herself. Her act is dated and exaggerated but is fascinating to watch.

She Done Him Wrong staring Mae West is one of those old black and white flicks that entertains as well shows off a little "naughtiness". It was said that this is the film that saved Paramont Studios when they were having financial woes. The film is a reproduction of a Broadway play called Diamond Lil. She Done Him Wrong has a fine cast of players ranging from Cary Grant(an unknown at the time but made a star) But the real star is a tough Brooklyn born actress named Mae West.Mae came from a rough and tumble background. A daughter of boxer named "Battlin" Jack West and her mother, a corset maker with Burlesque connections, Mae grew up in a challenging environment. But she loved the Burlesque theater so much that she left school and performed on the stage. She wasn't a raving beauty, a bit overweight and not so much a voice but Boy! she seemed to steal the scenes with a sexy purr, gorgeous clothes and a erotic glow with her eyes. Mae knew how to use her rubinesque physique to walk off the scenes with captivating sexuality that one of her co-stars remarked "she stole every scene including the camera" * a note to the young Believe it or not, this film was considered risqué at the time and the Hays Decency code in Hollywood watched Mae West like a hawk so she wouldn't violate any decency public laws. Compare it to the films of today, you hardly believe that some people thought this film was indecent. I think that is part of the magic of Mae West. She appeared naked or did hardcore sex scenes in her films but she showed a sexual being in a very original and stylistic character that it is still copied somewhat today.So I would say see this little gem! Come up and see me! and let the fun begin!