I'm No Angel [Blu-ray]

Overview

Mae West's second starring vehicle, I'm No Angel casts the divine Miss West as the star performer in a seedy circus. Though she lives with Ralf Harolde, West allows herself plenty of time for other men. When Harolde runs afoul of the law, West secures extra money by becoming a lion tamer. While thus employed, West is "discovered" by playboy Kent Taylor; she willingly accepts his gifts and other favors, but she only has eyes for Taylor's cousin Cary Grant. Still, love takes second place to commerce in West's life, and she ends up suing Grant for breach of promise. When Grant allows her to win the case, she realizes she's truly in love with him after all. By rights, I'm No Angel should have been as big and bawdy a success as West's earlier She Done Him Wrong, but by late 1933 the censors were beginning to have their way with Hollywood. Several of the more ribald (and more hilarious) elements of the film were toned down--not least of which was the title, which was supposed to have been It Ain't No Sin.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/29/2021
UPC:	0738329253493
Original Release:	1933
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Language:	English
Time:	1:27:00
Sales rank:	17,628

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Mae West	Tira
Cary Grant	Jack Clayton
Edward Arnold	Big Bill Barton
Ralf Harolde	Slick Wiley
Kent Taylor	Kirk Lawrence,Maid
Gertrude Michael	Alicia Hatton
Dorothy Peterson	Thelma
Russell Hopton	Flea Madigan
William B. Davidson	Ernest Brown
Gregory Ratoff	Benny Pinkowitz
Gertrude Howard	Beulah Thorndyke
Hattie McDaniel	Maid
Nat Pendleton	Harry, a Trapeze Artist
Tom London	Spectator
Nigel de Brulier	Rajah
Irving Pichel	Bob, the Attorney
Morrie Cohan	Chauffeur
Walter Walker	Judge
George Bruggeman	Omnes
Monte Collins	Sailor
Ray Cooke	Sailor
Dennis O'Keefe	Reporter
Edward Hearn	Courtroom Spectator
Monte Collins Jr.	Sailor
Harvey Brooks	Composer

Technical Credits

Mae West

Harlan Thompson

Wesley Ruggles	Director
Mae West	Screenwriter
Harlan Thompson	Screenwriter
William Le Baron	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Mae West's reputation for tweaking the noses of film censors was well-established by the time she made I'm No Angel, generally considered her most successful picture. The frank-speaking blonde bombshell delivered some of her most classic double entendres in this 1933 film, her second consecutive outing opposite the luminous Cary Grant. The two had made She Done Him Wrong earlier that year, and in I'm No Angel West does Grant wrong again, to hilarious effect. West plays her typical floozy, a carnival dancer, who escapes a murder charge and cozies her way into high society, where she famously tells her maid: "Beulah, peel me a grape." Eventually, she wins Grant, then drops him and sues him for breach of contract. Rarely has a more intelligent, sexually powerful, and dominant female figure been seen on screen, and West is at her sizzling comic peak. Already a major entertainment figure, West rode the popularity of I'm No Angel to greater notoriety, but she never again teamed up with a male superstar so successfully. West's movies were among those most responsible for bringing a new era of censorship after the early 1930s.