Watching a Mae West film is a blast and a half. I just watched this one back-to-back with "I'm No Angel", and it's a toss-up as to which film has more innuendo packed one-liners and bawdy situations. Both have Cary Grant as well, so that's a bonus for his fans, even if he plays a secondary character. This was West's second feature, and it pretty much pulled Paramount Pictures out of the red and into the black single handedly, staving off financial disaster for the company. One can see why, audiences of the day would have gone crazy over the contrived situations and double entendre laced dialog. The way her lines are delivered make it feel like West was coming up with them on the fly, they're just as natural as can be.
Speaking of dialog, this is the picture that gives rise to Mae West's signature phrase and most 'mis-remembered' line this side of 'Play it again, Sam'. It's when she says to Captain Cummings (Grant) - "Why don't you come up sometime and see me". Personally, I prefer that 'sometime' at the end of the sentence, and I wonder why West didn't see it that way, it just seems more appropriate.
Politically correct viewers will have some trouble with not only this, but many period films in their treatment of black characters. As Lady Lou's personal servant, Pearl (Louise Beavers) is a likeable character but winds up on the short end of the stick a few times, including that one instance when Lou calls her 'Eight-Ball'. That was just an 'ouch' moment in the story, but somewhat typical for the era if you've seen any of the Charlie Chan flicks for example.
Now I had to think about the picture's title after watching the story, and one would be hard pressed to come up with the 'Him' that Lady Lou (West) done wrong. After all, most of the principals involved with her character wound up in a bad way, including Chick Clark (Owen Moore), Gus Jordan (Noah Beery Sr.), Dan Flynn (David Landau), and the smooth talking Serge Stanieff (Gilbert Roland). Serge's partner Rita (Rafaela Ottiano) didn't fare too well either; how Spider Kane (Dewey Robinson) managed to make her body disappear will forever remain a mystery.
If it weren't for some innuendo laced dialog that Lady Lou pitched at Captain Cummings, it would probably come off as a total surprise to see him place that ring on her finger at the end of the story. I did have to wonder about that myself, but in the grand scheme of things, he was the only one of Lou's admirers that didn't get done wrong. Who wants to bet how long the marriage lasted?
Speaking of dialog, this is the picture that gives rise to Mae West's signature phrase and most 'mis-remembered' line this side of 'Play it again, Sam'. It's when she says to Captain Cummings (Grant) - "Why don't you come up sometime and see me". Personally, I prefer that 'sometime' at the end of the sentence, and I wonder why West didn't see it that way, it just seems more appropriate.
Politically correct viewers will have some trouble with not only this, but many period films in their treatment of black characters. As Lady Lou's personal servant, Pearl (Louise Beavers) is a likeable character but winds up on the short end of the stick a few times, including that one instance when Lou calls her 'Eight-Ball'. That was just an 'ouch' moment in the story, but somewhat typical for the era if you've seen any of the Charlie Chan flicks for example.
Now I had to think about the picture's title after watching the story, and one would be hard pressed to come up with the 'Him' that Lady Lou (West) done wrong. After all, most of the principals involved with her character wound up in a bad way, including Chick Clark (Owen Moore), Gus Jordan (Noah Beery Sr.), Dan Flynn (David Landau), and the smooth talking Serge Stanieff (Gilbert Roland). Serge's partner Rita (Rafaela Ottiano) didn't fare too well either; how Spider Kane (Dewey Robinson) managed to make her body disappear will forever remain a mystery.
If it weren't for some innuendo laced dialog that Lady Lou pitched at Captain Cummings, it would probably come off as a total surprise to see him place that ring on her finger at the end of the story. I did have to wonder about that myself, but in the grand scheme of things, he was the only one of Lou's admirers that didn't get done wrong. Who wants to bet how long the marriage lasted?