Belle of the Nineties

Kaunotar ja lemmenoikut. US (c) 1934 Paramount. D: Leo McCarey. SC: Mae West. DP: Karl Struss. COST: Travis Banton. M performed by: Duke Ellington's Orchestra.
    "Pom Tiddley Om Pom (Beef Trust Chorus)" (comp. Walter Passmore, lyr. R. H. Douglas, arr. Sam Coslow)
    "My Old Flame" ( Arthur Johnston, Sam Coslow)
    "Troubled Waters" (Johnston, Coslow)
    "My American Beauty" (Johnston, Coslow)
    "I Met My Waterloo" (Johnston, Coslow)
    "I'm In Love With A Tattooed Man" (Johnston, Coslow)
    "When A St. Louis Woman Comes Down To New Orleans" (Johnston, Coslow, Gene Austin)
    "Meet The King" (Arthur Johnston, Leo McCarey)
    "The Royal Wedding" (Johnston, McCarey)
    "Memphis Blues" (trad.)
    CAST: Mae West (Ruby Carter), Roger Pryor (Tiger Kid), John Mack Brown (Brooks Claybourne), John Miljan (Ace Lamont), Katherine de Mille (Molly Brant), Duke Ellington's Orchestra. 73 min
    A brilliant Universal Paramount print.
    Viewed at Cinema Orion, 18 March 2009.

Revisited: a marvellous Mae West film. She is a master of sexual parody, making fun of sexual hype and sexual inhibition. "My American Beauty" where she transforms from a butterfly to the Statue of Liberty could be her signature production number. This film has her best music numbers, thanks to Duke Ellington, and their "Memphis Blues" would be my all-time favourite Mae West performance. This film, one of the working titles of which was "It Ain't No Sin", fell victim to the tightening of the Production Code, but there is still enough life in it.