Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7805 in VHS
• Released on: 1992-03-01
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 66 minutes

Amazon.com
In her first starring film vehicle, She Done Him Wrong, Mae West is Lady Lou, a saloon singer and "slick article" who drives every man who sees her mad with desire. She positively oozes sex, but always with sly, self-mocking humor. Lady Lou remarking on the nude painting of her hanging over the bar: "I gotta admit that is a flash, but I do wish Gus hadn't hung it over the free lunch." West warbles several numbers in her Brooklyn-accented, sweetly nasal voice, accompanied by her famous suggestive roll of the eye and flip of the hip: "Frankie and Johnny," "Easy Rider," and "A Guy What Takes His Time."

Based on West's Broadway play Diamond Lil, the film is set in the Gay '90s, "a lusty, brawling, florid decade, when there were handlebars on lip and wheel and legs were confidential." The corny plot involves the eternal male rivalry for Mae's favors, as well as a white slavery ring that is shipping unsuspecting girls to the Barbary Coast. But the movie's real treat is the cat-and-mouse game between West's Lady Lou and the Hawk, a detective disguised as a missionary, played by a devastatingly handsome young Cary Grant. West: "Why don't you come up some time, see me? I'm here every night." Grant: "Yeah, but I'm busy every night." West: "What're you tryin' to do, insult me?... You can be had."

In She Done Him Wrong, Mae West is absolutely in her prime. Her one-of-a-kind intermarriage of eroticism and humor, worldly wisdom and scalding wit are presented with perfect panache. --Laura Mirsky

Customer Reviews

Good News or Bad? Time Will Tell
I greet the release of She Done Him Wrong on DVD with mixed emotions.

First, my review of the film - She Done Him Wrong was Mae West's personal favorite among her 12 movies, and 75 years after its release, it is still considered a classic by most critics and many fans. The film is often credited with saving Paramount Studios from bankruptcy, and made Mae West the box-office sensation of 1933. Thanks to this film, the phrase, "Come up and see me sometime" entered the language and immortalized a woman now long-revered for her comic timing and salty double-entendres (although her most famous phrase was something of a misquote; her actual line to Cary Grant was, "Why don't `cha come up sometime, see me? Don't be afraid, I won't tell. Come up, I'll tell your fortune. Ooohh, you can be had!"). Based on her notorious Broadway smash Diamond Lil, Miss West was forced to change the lead character's name (if not the basic plot) to appease the censors, and Diamond Lil became Lady Lou, "One of the finest women ever walked the streets". Peppered with hilarious bons mots such as, "When women go wrong, men go right after them", the script, which she wrote herself, contains more wit in each scene than some modern so-called comedies have in a whole movie. For a film that runs a mere 62 minutes, it's packed with fun, drama, wonderful period atmosphere and great performances from an ensemble cast, many of whom appeared in the stage version. Mae's sultry singing of the song, "A Guy What Takes His Time" was so suggestive that the censors removed all but one verse of it from her filmed rendition, although she managed somehow to simultaneously release it on a 78 record that contained verse after verse of uncensored, ribald, raw sexuality.

While I am thrilled to finally have this movie available on DVD, it dashes my hopes that some of Mae West's more obscure films will ever find a digital release.

Universal Studios (who owns the rights to all Paramount titles) previously released on individual DVD's only three Mae West classic titles: I'm No Angel (1933), Belle of the Nineties (1934), and Klondike Annie (1937). Each of these early DVD releases has been long out of print. Early in 2005, My Little Chickadee (1940) was released as part of the W. C. Fields collection, and later that year, Universal released five titles in the "Mae West Glamour Collection", Night After Night (1932), Go West, Young Man (1935), Goin' To Town (1936) and the previously mentioned I'm No Angel and My Little Chickadee. I was hoping that a "Mae West Glamour Collection, Volume Two" would eventually contain the out-of-print Belle of the Nineties and Klondike Annie, along with She Done Him Wrong, and her remaining two classic films, Every Day's A Holiday (1937) and the rarely seen, The Heat's On (1943), both of which have never been on DVD at all. Curiously enough, the UK version of the Mae West Classic Collection included The Heat's On, although it was originally released by Columbia; I guess this means that Universal does have the rights. BUT, the release of She Done Him Wrong as a single DVD has now dashed my hopes that the other classic titles will ever be released. This is a pity. Some critics - and I concur - consider Klondike Annie (more of a drama than a comedy) to be Mae's finest effort, and Every Day's A Holiday is one of her more hilarious outings on celluloid.

I am hoping against hope that this release signals the forthcoming issue of the few of Mae West's classics that have not been seen in a digital format, but only time will tell.

Bowery Bruiser With A Comic Edge
Mae West had a Broadway smash when she penned the bawdy tale of DIAMOND LIL for herself--and with a few tweaks here and there the story came to the screen as SHE DONE HIM WRONG. The film was an immediate hit and the role of Lady Lou remains one of West's best remembered performances. The script is jam-packed with some of West's most famous lines, including the memorable "Come up'n see me sometime. I'm home every evenin'" and "You can be had." West throws her lines with style, aplomb, enough innuendo to make a censor cringe, and considerable humor--but, somewhat surprisingly, the movie is not really a comedy.

SHE DONE HIM WRONG is a hard-knocks tale of Bowery bruisers who dance attendance upon the 'Lady Lou' and often resort to crime to keep her dripping in the diamonds she prizes above all else. But although she has one lover already locked up in jail, another one mixed up in the white slavery rackets, and still a third waiting to step into the gap, the Lady Lou is more interested in seducing missionary Cary Grant... only to find him less interested in her body than her soul, a circumstance that prompts West to utter one of the most how-did-that-get-past-the-censors lines in 1930s cinema: "Maybe I ain't got no soul."

This is a surprisingly tough little movie, and in addition to West's zinging lines and occasional musical numbers SHE DONE HIM WRONG also offers a glimpse at a very young (and still slightly wooden) Cary Grant; it also has an ensemble cast that plays in a very enjoyable grand manner, truly first rate production values all the way, and A surprisingly brisk running time. West did funnier films than this, but the mix of her sharp wit and the rough story is particularly memorable. This is where the fire started really started, and I recommend it very strongly.

BASED ON MAE'S "DIAMOND LIL"
This is a most enjoyable vehicle for Mae West's comedic talents;her timing,inflection and phrases are pure fun. The spicy humor and double entendres that characterized West's career are all evident here and the film made a fortune for Paramount when it was first released in 1933. It was this movie which ignited the attention of the notorious Hays Code which was in existence since 1930 yet largely ignored by it's creators. Mae West was revolutionary in early thirties cinema; her demeanor and carriage brought to the screen a playful sexiness which alternately shocked and delighted the public. This was one of designer Edith Head's very early assignments and her gowns for West's Lady Lou were exactly right.