framptonhollis Starring comedy legend Mae West, "She Done Him Wrong" is an acclaimed and hilarious classic, packed with the quickest of quips and raciest of innuendos. Infamous in its day for being a large reason for the addition of censors in Hollywood, it was also widely appreciated in its day. Nominated for Best Picture by the Oscars and being a big box office success, this wonderful film was a smash hit, and its legend still lives today.While it is normally listed as a straight up comedy, I believe that this film feels like a brilliant blend of multiple genres, with West's comic commentary running throughout. On top of a bawdy comedy, this movie is also a crime film, melodrama, musical, romance, and at times even suspense thriller! The genres never awkwardly collide, and instead are balanced out in an efficient manner. However, it is just interesting to me how practically none of this film's situations use any humor whatsoever and it is still hailed as a comedy classic, which serves as a true testament to Mae West's brilliant comic performance and witty-as-Hell rapid fire dialogue. The humor is purely verbal, and its some of the finest wit you'll ever see on the silver screen!

Dalbert Pringle In this completely contrived, 1933, star-vehicle (which was adapted from Mae West's Broadway play) - West (40 at the time) played Lady Lou, the quintessential "whore-with-a-heart-of-gold". (Yawn!) With hips that rivalled those of an overweight rhino - West (a total clothes-horse) repeatedly struck me as resembling the likes of Porky Pig in drag rather than looking like an actual woman.If you ask me - I think that Mae West (who's the epitome of the "one-note" actress) was pure vulgarity personified. Not only was she a terrible performer. But she couldn't sing worth a damn. And, when it came to delivering her famous "innuendo-loaded" one-liners, she made me absolutely cringe, big-time.With this film now being 83 years old - I really did try to cut it some slack - But, believe me - I found Mae West to be so downright revolting that only a measly 2-star rating was the best that I could do here.And, on top of all of that - This film's story ended on such a despicable "bum-note" that it actually made my skin crawl, like you wouldn't believe... The only thing that I was thankful for was that this unendurable picture only had a 65-minute running time.... Wow! What a relief that was!!

binapiraeus Hollywood producers had been thinking for years of bringing Broadway bombshell Mae West on the screen (especially since after 1930, the audience was slowly getting tired of the 'old' stars like Mary Pickford or Pola Negri) - but they knew it would take a LOT of guts to make her a film star: her fame was (besides her prominent curves) mainly built upon the HOT subjects of the plays she usually wrote herself, full to the brim with suggestive dialogs and witty double-entendres.So was, of course, her biggest Broadway hit, running since 1928: "Diamond Lil". And since 1931, this play revolving around a prostitute and a Salvation Army officer (who is really an undercover detective) was on Will Hays' black list of 'restricted' plays - which meant plays that were by no means to be turned into a movie...And yet, right after the Paramount bosses had finally made the decision to invite her to start a film career in "Night after Night" alongside her old friend George Raft, they DID decide to make "Diamond Lil" a movie! Without even bothering too much with making changes to the plot, only making Mae a singer instead of a prostitute, and toning down a little the VERY obvious sexuality of the play, they shot it as "She Done Him Wrong" - with the famous tale, of course, that Mae, still looking for a co-star, stumbled upon young and still unknown Cary Grant at the parking lot and told her producer decidedly: "If he can talk, I'll take him!"...And so, we find ourselves in the 'Gay Nineties' (Mae's favorite era), in a rather shady saloon (when her boyfriend whom she visits in jail asks her what she's doing, she answers: "Singin' at Gus Jordan's!" - and adds immediately: "It ain't what you think!"...), where Mae (now called 'Lou' instead of 'Lil'), clad in shiny, sparkling tight-fitting dresses, croons her risqué songs, and is the star of the show, and of course always surrounded by a whole bunch of men... And as young Serge (Gilbert Roland), who seems to be just her cup of tea, seems a little shy, she delivers her famous line: "Why don't you come up sometime, see me?" And to the utterly decent 'Salvation Army officer' Cary Crant, she unmistakeably declares when he hesitates to come too close to her: "You can be had!" And although, in the further course of the movie, things finally take a more or less 'right' turn, with all the bad guys of the saloon gang ending up in jail, and Lou in a carriage with her detective (who in fact DOES have something of a Salvation Army officer in him: he makes Lou understand that she HAS got a soul, in contrast to all those diamonds!) with a modest engagement ring instead of all her huge diamond rings on the third finger of her left hand - this must have been something like a 'last straw' for Will Hays, who'd been trying to make Hollywood films more decent in order not to 'corrupt' the average American cinema-goer's character, and especially lately raging with the impudence of movies like "The Maltese Falcon", "Baby Face" and "Of Human Bondage": The Production Code, a kind of Hays' 'Ten Commandments' on film morale, HAD to be enforced.Mae West managed to push through another one of her great sex comedies before the Production Code was finally REALLY enforced: "I'm No Angel" - in my opinion, in some ways (especially concerning the clothing) even more daring than "She Done Him Wrong"; but one thing's for sure: they're both among THE great pre-Code classics today, a part of film history... and, even 80 years later, still JUST as entertaining as ever!!

tavm I had watched a couple of Mae West's movies before but I really decided to pay attention to this one since this was the one that made her a star. Working as a singer at a dance hall among many lowlifes, she's a hoot with her many double entendres lines that were still allowed in this pre-Code era picture. And seeing her with an up-and-comer named Cary Grant doubles the pleasure of watching this. Part of the time, it does threaten to get a little monotonous when the drama takes effect but where this goes was worth it and also, you get to hear Ms. West singing her heart out especially when she gets to the "Frankie and Johnny" number. So on that note, She Done Him Wrong is well worth a look.