Belle of the Nineties

After the Code...still worthwhile
The Production Code certainly did its duty (and damage) with Mae West's films. Her lines and remarks were dramatically "toned down". If you compare this movie with its immediate Pre-Code predecessors "She Done Him Wrong" and "I'm No Angel", you'll know what I mean.

Anyway, still worthwhile to watch, West has a field day as "the flame" of both, St. Louis and New Orléans, with boxer Roger Pryor, upper-class Johnny Mack Brown and villainous casino owner John Miljan, at the top of the list of her admirers. Mae never looked so ravishing again as in this picture, in those awesome 1890s gowns designed especially for her by Paramount's top couturier Travis Banton. She also gets to sing a great deal here, mostly accompanied by a young Duke Ellington and his Orchestra.

A WEST-ERN GEM FROM 1934
More spectacular than Mae's first two vehicles, BELLE OF THE NINETIES cost more that her previous starrers combined, and still reaped a huge profit. The story was written by Mae herself and it's pretty weak - although the Hays office snapped its scissors on some of her best lines. West's unique presence, and command for innuendo - which could raise laughs from the most innocuous remarks, kept the movie simmering. So did the superb Duke Ellington Orchestra which ably helped Mae through four numbers - most notably the standard to be MY OLD FLAME. Looking like an upholstered egg-timer, the star was kept on the screen front and centre throughout by astute director Leo McCarey in this William Le Baron production from 1934. For trivia buffs, the working title of this flick was IT AIN'T NO SIN - however the censors disagreed, and the title was laundered along with the risque script. Mae struts her stuff as 1890's singer Ruby Carter who gets involved with a boxer.......... Such lines as...

Belle of the Nighties
One of Mae's five best films. Yes, the movie's original script was censored, but indications are that the original was much racier than even her early films (as one might expect given the production title IT AIN'T NO SIN) so it's not really any tamer than her first three films and Mae has several of her best lines, my favorite is "I'm in town - but not for good." The song numbers are the best Mae ever did in the movies. The movie also offers a rare look at "tableaux", the odd stage art popular in the 19th century of simply posing on the stage which climaxes with Mae posing as the Statue of Liberty, or as George Jean Nathan put it, The Statue of Libido.

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