She Done Him Wrong

As expected, She Done Him Wrong boasts few positive attributes or elements worth getting excited about aside from Mae West’s typically magnetic turn as the brash protagonist – with the film suffering from a tedious storyline that progresses at a disastrously deliberate pace (which is actually rather surprising given that the movie runs about an hour). The thin narrative follows nightclub singer Lady Lou (West) as she attempts to juggle the many men in her life, including Cary Grant’s Captain Cummings, Gilbert Roland’s Serge, and Owen Moore’s Chick Clark. She Done Him Wrong opens with a fair bit of promise, admittedly, as director Lowell Sherman does an effective job of initially establishing both the central locale and the various characters – with, in terms of the latter, Sherman effectively creating an atmosphere of anticipation surrounding Lady Lou’s first appearance (ie West doesn’t show up until around 10 minutes into the picture). Beyond that point, however, She Done Him Wrong devolves into a series of tedious, padded-out sequences that exist for no other reason than to provoke West’s anticipated one-liners (some of which are quite sharp, to be fair) – which ultimately ensures that the film is rarely able to approach the heights achieved by its star’s dynamic performance.

** out of ****