Mae West - The Glamour Collection (Go West Young Man/ Goin' To Town/ I'm No Angel/ My Little Chickadee/ Night After Night)

Product Description

Sexy and curvaceous Hollywood icon Mae West made a name for herself with the five films gathered here. MAE WEST: THE GLAMOUR COLLECTION includes the films NIGHT AFTER NIGHT, I'M NO ANGEL, GOIN' TO TOWN, GO WEST YOUNG MAN, and MY LITTLE CHIKADEE. See individual descriptions for details.

Format: DVD MOVIE

Amazon.com

The triumph of personality is beautifully demonstrated in Mae West: The Glamour Collection, a bundle of five comedies featuring the never duplicated (if often imitated) Ms. West. Never altering her insouciant, sexed-up persona, Mae West sashays through these films like a tour guide in a well-lit bordello, cheerfully cracking herself up with a series of perfectly-timed one-liners. Since she wrote her own material, there was no separation between the lady (what a feeble word) and her scandalous dialogue.

If you doubt this, check out Night After Night, her film debut. The first half of the picture is an unremarkable gangster comedy: George Raft in his usual inert form, Constance Cummings the good girl, capable comic support from Roscoe Karns and Alison Skipworth. Then West blowses in, and it's all over. Within a minute she's tossed off an eternal signature line (hatcheck girl: "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds." West: "Goodness had nothin' to do with it, dearie") and disrupted the high-class aims of gangster Raft. The other actors look agog at this unapologetic force of libido. Watching this, you might recall the first time you ever saw Groucho Marx or Bill Murray on film--the movie itself disappears, replaced by gratitude that someone like this exists.

I'm No Angel followed her first starring vehicle (She Done Him Wrong, not included here), and its lunatic plot--Mae as a lion tamer taken up by New York society--does nothing to slow the barrage of sexual innuendo. West hums her way through the film with the kind of confidence that must have inspired countless fans to try something disreputable. Cary Grant is the bemused recipient of West's attention. Goin' to Town is nearly as good, as dance-hall gal Mae inherits an oil fortune, then sets her cap for the haughty Englishman working on her, uh, wells. West's style is undiminished (she was in her mid-forties already), although by this time the Production Code--concocted in part as a horrified response to her first films--was trimming her entendres.

Tamer still is the tongue-in-cheek Go West Young Man, although the spectacle of West (playing a "temperamental" movie star) leering after hunky Randolph Scott is pleasant. My Little Chickadee, made at Universal after her run at Paramount ended, is the legendary pairing with W.C. Fields. It's full of great bon mots from both drawlers, even if the sum is less than its parts. Disapproving Margaret Hamilton tells Fields of West, "I'm afraid I can't say anything good about her." Fields replies, "I can see what's good, tell me the rest." These five films are a good introduction to the rest. Beulah, peel me a grape. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

MORE MAE.......2007-05-24

I'm a big Mae West fan and this collection is terrific. My favorite Mae film is I'M NO ANGEL. I enjoy all of these titles and I've always thought MY LITTLE CHICKADEE is under-rated. I look forward to a second collection featuring BELLE OF THE NINETIES.

Written in my best Mae West impression .......2007-04-24

Boys, some of us are growing old here waitin' for the good stuff.

It's better than nothing.......2007-01-30

This is not the DVD treatment the real fans were hoping for. Far more lavish boxed sets and retrospectives have been put together for lesser talents from the past!

I've long suspected that the current owners of her films are oblivious of her cult potential, as shown by the long non release status of her films, and the general lack of a marketing plan that befits such a unique property. Much of the disappointment with this DVD set stems from the lack of obvious "star treatment".

Like the title suggests, it's better than nothing (i.e. non-release). We are going to buy this collection, because there is no better alternative.

I hope "they" come to their senses and do it better in the future. What this woman's memory deserves is:

1) A full boxed set with ALL of her films from 1932-1940, each on its own individual DVD disk.
2) Extras on each disk, including shorts, stills, historic materials and critic commentary.
3) For the copyright holders of these films to get a better clue and figure out how to rekindle this star's cult status.

Buy this crummy set! If you don't, then the powers- that- be will not have the $ incentive to consider repackaging her better in the future!

MY MAE WEST.......2007-01-23

MAE WEST WAS ONE OF THE MOST GREAT HOLLYWOOD ICON, I LOVE HER BEHAVIOR AS A WOMAN AND HER ACTING ...FOR ME IS NO ACTRESS TODAY THAT COMPARE WITH HER ...I LOVE OLD HOLLYWOOD , THE ACTORS AND ACTRESS CHARM IN THOSE TIMES WERE UNIQUE, SHE WAS A LEO LIKE ME , AND I KNOW THE MEANNING " WHATEVER LEO WANT ,LEO GETS" AND SHE WAS RIGHT ON THAT...IM A STRONG FAN OF HER AND NO HOLLYWOOD ICON TODAY WILL ABLE TO REPLACE MY MAE WEST ...NONE

Mae West looked like the gangster's moll to top them all..........2007-01-10

"Night After Night" was an otherwise unmemorable George Raft opus of the early 1930's... The scene was the entrance to a nightspot...

Enter Mae West, magnificently dripping in so much jewelery it must have given the lighting cameraman several heart attacks in his attempts to "damp it down" so that it didn't "flash up the bottle" as she moved...

Cries the hat-check girl: "Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!"

Mae West: "Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie."

Gangsters' molls... they are part of the legend of the mobster movie... And in "Night After Night" it was never openly established just what kind of a dame Mae West was playing, but with all those rocks she looked like the gangster's moll to top them all...

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Kiddy Up
Glenn Ford 'Cowboy'
The simple life
My review of this movie
COWBOY-1958

Cowboy
Starring: Glenn Ford , Jack Lemmon , Anna Kashfi , Brian Donlevy , and Dick York
Director: Delmer Daves
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000063UQO
Release Date: 2002-05-14

Amazon.com

This sturdy Delmer Daves picture--his third with Glenn Ford, following Jubal and 3:10 to Yuma--is one of the most offbeat Westerns ever. And it must be the most writerly, with Frank Harris's memoirs as the source and a picaresque screenplay by Edmund H. North and Dalton Trumbo (a blacklistee, credited only posthumously). There's a pileup of oddities and complications at the outset, with Chicago hotel clerk Harris (Jack Lemmon) already in mid-romance with a daughter of the Mexican aristocracy (Anna Kashfi--Mrs. Marlon Brando at the time), and Texas cattleman Tom Reese (Ford) storming in to commandeer an entire floor of the hotel for him and his drovers so they can party till, well, the cows come home. Partying is curtailed when Reese loses big at cards; Harris bails him out with his savings, and Reese finds he's taken on not only an unwanted partner but a tenderfoot besides. Soon everyone is headed south.

Cowboy merits its bedrock title. This is a rare Western in which the job of breaking horses, trail herding, etc. figures as a dynamic aspect of the storytelling. The film also has a blunt and original way of looking at death, not as a genre convention but as something abrupt, ungainly, and often absurd, in both senses of the word. (This applies equally to men and cattle, by the way.) The camerawork is trim, angular, and somehow precarious, and the jagged editing hustles the very eventful proceedings to a close in barely an hour and a half. Saddle up. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews:

Kiddy Up.......2007-06-08

If you are looking for a good western to sink your teeth into, this one is it. Great acting from a young Jack Lemmon and Glen Ford. Wonderful scenery and good story plot. Not a big western fan but this one is great!

Glenn Ford 'Cowboy'.......2006-11-10

I bought this DVD in a fit of nostalgia, having seen it many years ago.
I like Glenn Ford's understated acting, and, of course, Jack Lemon was an excellent foil. Don't know how they filmed the scene where Ford 'ringed the bull', but it looked real enough to me.

The simple life.......2006-10-29

Hotel clerk Frank Harris (Jack Lemmon in color, aged 32) watches the bellboys give renowned cowboy Tom Reece (Glenn Ford at the height of his career) an enthusiastic reception. Ford is tired of cattle-driving and longs for a bath and Chicago's opera-program. He is also tired of steaks. Lemmon reluctantly prepares the best suite for the new arrival - it is already occupied by his sweetheart (Anna Kashfi, who married Marlon Brando) and her class-conscious father (who makes short work of ardent admirers who write love poems; the real Frank Harris was apparently a big Casanova). Ford, on the other hand, is treated with due respect and - love lends wings - Lemmon decides to retrain.

Visualize the scene: Ford in the bathtub, cigar in one hand, gun in another, whiskey-bottle within reach. Lemmon does not get the cork off - no, don't use your teeth - but declares solemnly: "I'm a farmer". Ford: "That's what I thought". Lemmon pleads his cause while bullets buzz around his head. He also insists that he loves horses...Luck is not on Ford's side during the card-game and he accepts Lemmon's savings - $3800 - merrily. The sight of his "new partner" boarding the Santa Fe trail has a sobering effect - but there's no way back: Lemmon quit his job...

Ford's entourage includes gunman Brian Donlevy ("I prefer cows to people") and a guy who claims that women like men who smell like a horse. The cowboy-outfit suits Lemmon. Ford cedes him a "gentle" horse. The day is long...the sunset is in Technicolor...riding hurts - some parts of the body (the scene where a cowboy rubs salt water and whiskey into Lemmon's sores is charming). Ford however knows no pity: he orders his partner to be on guard.

The nutrition is unbalanced - steaks - and the sight of an unsuspecting rattle-snake gives the bored cooks the idea to play the - equally unsuspecting - tenderfoot a trick. Lemmon escapes - just. Another man is bitten - and dies. Lemmon explodes when somebody steals the dead man's boots, but Ford is a tough customer: he orders his partner to dig the grave...

Things take a turn for the worse in Mexico when Lemmon finds Kashfi the victim of a forced marriage. The Fiesta is colorful, Lemmon even volunteers as bullfighter (tries to cut the husband down to size), but this time Ford (or rather: Ford's stuntman) takes his place. Ford's attempt to set himself up as romantic adviser is the last straw: If you ever felt the desire to see Ford thrash Lemmon with a poker and go for his throat over the fire-place - enjoy the moment; it won't recur.

It's raining. Ford feels guilty. And Lemmon has become very efficient: he saves a calf (market value: $4). When he tries to catch some lost cattle he attracts the attention of Comanches who plan to shoot him and make the cattle their own. Suddenly - and contrary to his convictions - Ford decides to give Lemmon's life priority over his livestock. He drives the herd through the valley - many extras bite the dust. Worse: Ford gets small thanks for it. He has a bullet in his leg and Lemmon takes over ("I'm your partner"). It is a reign of terror (and a rare and therefore precious moment in Lemmon's career). He orders his men about, announces gloatingly: "We just found MY cattle - yours are lost", no knifing, no suicide affects him...Ford is haunted by his apt pupil. Lemmon comes to his senses when Ford saves him from being crushed by bulls in the stock-car (Lemmon made this scene without double; probably the most dangerous stunt of his career).

COWBOY has always been very popular. Even the critics - Variety, Time, Newsweek - loved it. People who live in the country always enjoy the sight of awkward townspeople and show me the master who does not pull his apprentice's leg...What a brilliant (and sadly overlooked) comedian Ford was: TEAHOUSE, SHEEPMAN...Lemmon told his biographers (Widener, Baltake) blood-curling behind-the-scenes-stories ("I bled"). The bulls in the stock-car were apparently sedated, but not much. What a pity that he made so few films during the 1950s (Ford's fans are luckier). I have always had a soft spot for the films that "break" Lemmon's image, when he comes out of his shell and safeguards his own interests. The best appraisal of Lemmon's performance comes from Anna Kashfi: She worries about eavesdroppers. Lemmon: "I thought your aunt speaks only Spanish?". Kashfi: "That's right. But she can see the expression in your face - which everybody understands".

My review of this movie.......2006-02-25

I am a western movie fan and I really like Glenn Ford,s acting.

COWBOY-1958.......2005-03-10

Here the great GLENN FORD(Who also starred with Jack Lemmon's wife,Felicia Farr.in.."3:10 TO YUMA"..now gets to star with Jack Lemmon...who(A GREENHORN)comes off very good I feel.He has this beleive..living under the stars with cattle is like heaven in the open range.RICHARD JAECKEL..who is so good himself..never seems to age.He has always looked youthful,sorry to say..he's gone now,like JACK LEMMON.When an actor like Mr.Lemmon does a western..he really pulled it off.Here he is city-slicker..wanting to move cattle with Mr.Ford.And good old Glenn takes him up on offer,only because he lost money playing poker.It's a western that moves right along...actor,Dick York is very good in his role also.The only thing that kept me from giving it 5-stars is..the dvd...should have been in widescreen.Westerns are outdoor adventures..it needs the Scope of the west.Columbia is getting very cheap lately.All they had to do is give both versions.I seen his western on Turner classic and taped it.It was presented then..in WIDESCREEN.

Adventures in Odyssey: Go West Young Man

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Adventures in Odyssey: Go West Young Man
Starring: Adventures in Odyssey
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson Publisher
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