Product Description

Smart, seductive and undeniably funny, Mae West is one of cinema’s most enduring comedy legends. Now this larger-than-life buxom beauty charms fans all over again in an amazing 5-movie collection of some of her most wildly popular films. Revel in Mae’s breakout performance in Night After Night; join her as a bewitching lion (and man) tamer in I’m No Angel; lasso up some fun with the wealthy and the wicked in the rags-to-riches tale of Goin’ To Town; delight in a comic country romance in Go West Young Man; and see how wild the West can really get in My Little Chickadee. It’s a must-own salute to one of Hollywood’s most outrageous and hilarious leading ladies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20743 in DVD
• Brand: WEST,MAE
• Released on: 2006-04-04
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .26 pounds
• Running time: 417 minutes

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

Please Don't Listen To The Complainers...
I purchased this set last week without having read any reviews previously. I only knew that I was a fan of Mae West and that I wanted a nice collection of her films. But before even putting the first DVD I decided to read some reviews on Amazon just for the heck of it. One reviewer here claims that the sound is horrible, that the picture is garbage, and that Warner Bros. is putting out "trash" sets. Well first of all, this is not a Warner Home Video release, this entire set is from Universal, despite the fact that these are Paramount films... Anyways, expecting the worst,I popped in the first disc. The picture begins. The sound is clear. The picture is clear. It's not shakey, really not much grain, only the usual specs here and there, and the mono sound is very clear. After viewing all 5 films, the only one with any real noticeable grain or scratches was "Going To Town" but even then, just barely, and only for a few seconds in certain scenes. However, the films are divided up rather strangely over the two disc. The division is as follows:
Disc one Side A : Night After Night & I'm No Angel
Side B: Going To Town
Disc two: Side A: Go West Young Man & My Little Chick-a-dee
Side B: Nothing
I haven no idea why side is B completely empty when two films are crammed onto Side A. The only extras are trailers for three of the films and the menu designs are identical for each film. But, most catalog classic releases are treated as such. The Garbo DVDs released earlier last year had picture quality that was not only about the same, it was worse in some places and those were apparently "digitally restored" (I'm talking about her talkies, not the silents which had more scratches on them than a cat post) and cost about $20 A PIECE.
As for the films themselves, they are screen gems indeed. Mae West exhibits both a strong and amusing presence on film. She was an actress who was ahead of as well as one of the most controversial of her time. Each film shows off her perfectly timed comic abilities as well as her vocal talents which aren't too shabby either. After comparing the quality ans price of these DVDs to previous releases of older films that belong in this genre, I've decided that this is really an excellent deal. So please, don't pay attention to angry reviewers who are bitter about lack of extras, this set is certainly worth it!

Wonderful But Incomplete
At last - 12 years after Universal released the entire Mae West collection on VHS to celebrate the 100th anniversary of her birth, they are finally putting out a boxed set of some of her classic films. I am particularly delighted that this set includes the often overlooked gem, Goin' To Town, one of Miss West's funniest comedies.

But I am of mixed emotions concerning this release, since it only includes five of Mae West's classics. I've waited a long time for these to be released on DVD, and what does Universal do? They put out only five of the ten films they have the rights to. Two of the films in this collection were already released on DVD - I'm No Angel was released several years ago, and My Little Chickadee was released last year as part of the W. C. Fields collection. So only three of the five films are new to DVD.

Worse, the set does not include She Done Him Wrong, Mae West's personal favorite among all her films, which was based on her stage hit, Diamond Lil. The inclusion of Go West Young Man (considered by many fans to be her weakest effort) is puzzling over She Done Him Wrong, but I suppose that just makes it more likely that they will do the right thing and release the rest shortly.

The box set released in the UK three months ago contains a whole different set of six films - including Klondike Annie (one of her few dramas, and one of her best films) and the seldom seen The Heat's On, a silly musical done at Columbia studios in 1943, which was the great lady's last screen appearance until Myra Breckinridge, 27 years later.

Universal saw fit to release virtually all of the Abbott and Costello films in its vaults before it got to Mae West, Carole Lombard and Marlene Dietrich (the release of The Glamour Collection: Marlene Dietrich and The Glamour Collection: Carole Lombard were both announced concurrently with the Mae West set). So hop to it, Universal! Fans of all three of these ladies are anxiously awaiting more.

Before you get too excited...
First.....it is NEVER a good idea to review ANY DVD title before it's released, as so many seem to have done for these latest Mae West titles. Unfortunately, they will have to eat most of their words, now that it has been released.

I am a HUGE Mae West devotee, with one of the biggest Mae West collections in the world (even have her tattooed on my arm!). That's why I was highly suspicious when five of her films were going to be released on DVD for such a small price. Why so cheap? And why re-release I'm No Angel and My Little Chickadee that are already out on DVD? And why not release one of her most loved films, 'She Done Him Wrong'?

Well, my fellow MW fans...what you might suspect, is true. These are NOT remastered by any stretch of the imagination, and are no clearer than the VHS versions. As well, they are on TWO DVD's and only a strange plastic divider separates them. You will always be worried you will accidentally scratch them. Only a few titles have the original trailers included, and the quality of them is GHASTLY. REALLY bad. There are also no extras. Wouldn't you have died for a glimpse at a few rare deleted scenes!? Or maybe some great newsreel footage?

What is good about this "boxed" set? Not much, other than it is Mae West, an American institution, who always delivers the goods. Also...it's nice to have these titles "preserved" on DVD, even if the quiality is far from remastered. It is clear that Universal wanted to make a quick buck and slapped together a semi-fancy outer package, housing less than high quality DVD's inside. Let's hope they get serious next time and release ALL of Mae West's Paramount titles, digitally remastered in a gorgeous boxed set. Mae West deserves that, and we as consumers (and fans) do too.