I'M NO ANGEL is my favourite Mae West film: it's sassy, funny, and Mae is at her most assured before the censorship battles began.
Tira dances in a carnival while her pickpocket lover 'Slick' steals from her audience, sharing the proceeds with the carny owner, Bill. After Slick attacks one of Tira's fans, she asks Bill for help who suggests she becomes the lion tamer in his Manhattan circus - and she agrees!
Now the talk of the town, a wealthy playboy starts buying Tira gifts and a luxury apartment. His cousin Jack, trying to save the playboy's engagement, visits Tira to end the relationship. He is soon her new lover!
Jack proposes and Tira tells Bill she is quitting; Bill and Slick pursuade Jack that he and Tira are still together. After Jack cancels the wedding, Tira sues him and defends herself against her male adversaries in the courtroom climax.
Shelf or charity shop? Mae rules the roost in my plastic DVD storage box. Wesley Ruggles deftly keeps the action moving and surrounds Mae with a fine company of actors including Edward Arnold as the conniving carny boss, Gertrude Michael as the snobbish fiancée who Mae reads to filth, Gertrude Howard as her maid Beulah - "Oh Beulah, peel me a grape" and, in one brief scene, Hattie McDaniel. Repeating their onscreen partnership from SHE DONE HIM WRONG, Mae and Cary Grant work very well together but it's Mae's movie: with her sauntering walk and weaving stance, she is in practically every scene and you cannot watch anyone else. Her famous one-liners land effortlessly - when an admirer tells her he's a politician she replies "I don't like to work either" and is also an absolute feminist heroine: she wrote the script and dialogue and onscreen is nobody's fool - as she slinks off the carnival stage in her see-through gown and veil, she says "Am I making myself clear boys?" and as they whoop and holler, she says to herself "Suckers".
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