MAE WEST

US, 1982, 95 minutes, Colour.
Anne Jillian, James Brolin, Piper Laurie, Roddy Mc Dowall, Chuck Mc Cann.
Directed by Lee Phillips.

Mae West is one of the many biographical films that came out in the 1970s and 1980s, going back into the cinema of the 1930s and 1940s. Biographies included those of Gable and Lombard, W.C. Fields.

Anne Jillian does an impersonation of Mae West. James Brolin is her husband. Piper Laurie is her show business forceful mother and Roddy McDowall? is a drag queen.

The film shows the life and pressures on West. It also shows her career on Broadway – and her imprisonment for ten days for indecency during the 1920s. While she had a successful career in Hollywood, her films clashed with the standards of the Hayes code and gave her a certain notoriety. She starred several times with Cary Grant and with W.C. Fields (and there are glimpses of these films here).

Mae West was famous for her name being used for the lifesaver for the forces during World War Two. She wrote a number of plays – always strong on innuendo and risqué lines, many of which are very funny. In her later life she appeared – to her disadvantage – in Myra Breckenridge with Raquel Welch and a terrible parody of her life and style in Sextette in 1978.

1. An entertaining telemovie? Enjoyment, interest? Impact? Impression of the celebrity actress?

2. The film's style: re-creation of period, a piece of Americana, the background of burlesque, theatre, Hollywood, Broadway? Contribution of songs, score, choreography?

3. The structure of the film: the focus on Mae West and the court case, the flashbacks, the moving forward from halfway through the film?

4. Mae West in retrospect: her skill in burlesque, the focus on sexuality and her frankness, humour and sexuality, her one liners, the quality of her films and performances, her writing? Her being a celebrity in World War Two? Sex symbol? The sadness of her later career (Myra Breckenridge and Sextet not mentioned in the film?) Her role as a symbol of America?

5. The focus on controversy and its impact, the police, the judge, the court? The issues? The effect on her ? as brassy as she sounded?

6. Her memories: her father and his boorishness, ridicule, harshness and change? Her mother and her support, training? Her mother living vicariously through her daughter? Her being a burlesque moppet? Her growing older, adolescent problems, relationship with boys, her mother's advice ? the permissive touch and Mae following it?

7. Her success at burlesque, her oomph style? Her discovering that she was style-less? The types in burlesque? The friendship with Frank Wallace, dancing with him? The irony of marrying him ? and her even forgetting it? The buying off of her contract, leaving Frank, her success?

8. Jim and the call, meeting, the infatuation, dinner, affluence? Her becoming his mistress? His becoming her manager? Toughness, her goals, Hollywood, Paramount Studios and the tantrum, her refusal to marry Jim, his being hurt, their continued contact over the years, his illness and her coming to him at the end? His loving her, protecting her? Loneliness?

9. Roddy McDowall's performance as the female impersonator? The style of his performances? His impact on Mae? His help, discussions about style, changing her appearance, coaching her, managing her? His advice for her to be an original? His character in himself? Relationship with Mae?

10. The transition from burlesque to theatre: songs, bawdiness, realism? Her mannerisms? Her developing her style to become an original?

11. The play, the director, the arrest, the court case? Jail and the warden infatuated with her? The importance of the newspaper reporter and his continued needling of her? His interviews? His presence in the theatre at the end and his applause?

12. Mae's cinema career: the clashes with Archie Mayo, with George Raft? Her writing her lines? Her encouraging Cary Grant in his career? Her being a box office success? The clash with W.C. Fields? The poor later films?

13. Her comeback on Broadway and its spectacular success, her acclaim? Her personal loneliness?

14. Audience knowledge of her later old age and career ? did her earlier life explain her later decay? Her being acclaimed despite her living too long?

15. An enjoyable portrayal of an original? Images of a period in American entertainment? Insight into theatre and star personalities?