BELLE OF THE NINETIES

US, 1934, 75 minutes, Black and white.
Mae West, Roger Pryor, John Niljan, John Mack Brown, Katherine de Mille, Duke Ellington, and his Orchestra.
Directed by Leo Mc Carey.

Belle of the Nineties is an amusing Mae West comedy.

However, it ran into trouble with the censors in the '30s and some of its dialogue and scenes were cut. The screenplay is by Mae West herself, as was the case with all her films. It presents the stereotype of the blonde wearing '90s boa, feathers and elaborate dress. It also presents the stereotype of the blonde femme fatale - with a line in wisecracks. Points are made at the expense of this society and respectability, of men - some dashing, some crooked.

The film was directed by Leo Mc Carey, a Marx Bros director with Duck Soup. He was to go on to many popular films, including The Awful Truth, Love Affair, Going my Way.

1. An entertaining comedy? Mae West's presence and writing?

2. 'Thirties style: black and white '90s, New Orleans? The musical in the centre?

3. Leo Mc Carey as a director of comedies moving to make a number of celebrated films Going My Way, The Bells of St. Mary's.

4. Black and white photography, the atmosphere of the score? The songs? 'When a St. Louis Woman Goes Down to New Orleans', 'Old Flame'?

5. Mae West and her style, presence, dialogue, humour, puns, irony, innuendo? Her physical appearance and her exploiting this? Gowns and the 1890s style? Theatrical glamour? Her character of Ruby Carter? Background in St Louis, in New Orleans, with society, theatre, gamblers, the gentry? Ruby as a wisecracking survivor?

6. The men in her life: at the theatre, gambling, high society? The men as foils to her? Romance? The battle of the sexes, Mae West style? Tiger Kid in comparison with Brooks Clayborn? Ace Lamont?

7. The atmosphere of the theatre, style and glamour? High society and their response to Ruby? Newspapers etc? The theatrical style, Mae West's comedy? Wit, sex - entertainingly provocative?