Mae West's second starring role in director Wesley Ruggles' romantic comedy "I'm No Angel" surpasses her previous picture "She Done Him Wrong." Mae exerts more control of her surroundings and the people surrounding her in this film. She is not the kept woman she was in "She Done Him Wrong." Mind you, she still has the same mindset with regard to diamonds, but she isn't presented as a high class streetwalker. If she doesn't want to do something, she doesn't do it, but no man can spurn her affections. Furthermore, her romance with Cary Grant seems more plausible here than it did in "She Done Him Wrong." This lively little yarn about a singer-turned-female lion tamer named Tira who takes a wealthy, society gentlemen (Cary Grant)to court for breach of promise features some of Mae West's best dialogue. Incidentally, Mae wrote the screenplay without the interference from any collaborators as she had endured in "She Done Him Wrong." Okay, the credits state that West took some suggestions from playwright Lowell Brentano. Moreover, unlike "She Done Him Wrong," "I'm No Angel" boasts a better plot. The courtroom scenes during the last quarter hour are truly hilarious,especially when Mae decides to defend herself.
Tira performs a hootchie coochie act in Big Bill Barton's Wonder Show, a carnival where she wiggles her hips as little as possible (no doubt to please the Production Code censors) in a song & dance routine on stage while wolfish-looking guys crowd around to leer at her with lust in their loins while she shimmies behind a veil in front of her. About the only things that Tira does is raise her arms so she can flaunt her shaved armpits and swap cracks with the guys. After she finishes her song and dance routine, Big Bill (Edward Arnold of "Three on a Match") tries to persuade her to work the lions, but Tira refuses. She is tired of grinding her hips and has her eye on a chump. Before she heads out for town, she checks in with the carnival's astrologer, Rajah the Fortune Teller (Nigel D. Brulier of "The Green Goddess"), and he informs her that she is going to have a bad night, what's left of it, but her future looks fabulous.
A sleazy pickpocket who works with Barton and sometimes teams up with Tira on scams, Slick Wiley (Ralf Harolde of "Dixiana"), grows both jealous and suspicious when Tira tells him that she is going into town to get a hotel room. Actually, Tira has a date with Ernst Brown (William B. Davidson of "Murder on the Waterfront") who flashed his pinkie ring with a diamond in it at her during her song & dance act. Brown and she are about to get it on when Slick lets himself in and threatens to call the cops on Brown for messing with his wife. Tira tells Brown that she isn't Slick's wife and Slick slugs Brown (off camera) and they believe erroneously that Slick has croaked him. Tira orders Slick to put Brown's body out in the hall and they leave, but not before Slick steals Brown's pinkie ring with the diamond in it. When the police revive Brown, he screams that his diamond ring has been pinched. Meanwhile, Tira pleads with Barton to give her money while she calls a New York lawyer, Benny Pinkowitz (Gregory Ratoff of "Skyscraper Souls"), to help her. She agrees to work the lions if Barton will ante up some dough and agrees to stick her head in a lion's mouth. "Flea' Milligan (Russell Hopton of "Elmer, The Great") convinces Barton that Tira's lion taming act could put them in the big time, so Barton hands over the cash.
Naturally, Tira's act as a lion tamer who sticks her head in the lion's mouth is a success in New York City, a wealthy admirer comes calling after the show. The problem with Kirk Lawrence ("Blond Venus") is that he engaged to marry Alicia Hatton (Gertrude Michael of "Night of Terror"), and Kirk's buddy Jack Clayton (Cary Grant of "Blond Venus") intervenes and talks Tira into giving Kirk the cold shoulder. As it turns out, Jack becomes infatuated with Tira and they are heading to the altar when the conniving Barton and jealous Slick get together to sabotage Tira's plans to marry Clayton. Slick slips in and informs Clayton that he has come back for Tira. Actually, Slick and Barton have bribed Tira's chauffeur to stall her from getting back to her apartment to meet Jack. Idiotically, Clayton believes Slick and decides to leave town for several weeks. This is the weakest point in "I'm No Angel" because neither Tira nor Clayton follow up with a face-to-face meeting after Slick pulls his stunt. As it turns out, they don't discuss Slick's sneaky act until after Clayton has granted Tira the full amount of money that she sought in the court suit against him. As she did in "She Done Him Wrong," the Mae West character marries the Cary Grant character and they live happily ever after.
As usual, Mae saunters around with her hands braced on her hips as if she were a football coach concocting schemes on the sidelines. Again, the dialogue contains several memorable lines. One of the best is: "Always remember, honey. A good motto is: "Take all you can get and give as little as possible. Don't forget, honey. Never let one man worry your mind. Find 'em, fool 'em and forget 'em!" Another equally quotable gem is:"It's not the men in your life that counts, it's the life in your men." Men gravitate to Tira like bees to honey. Mae's casual but confident attitude and her haughty demeanor along with her velvet-like delivery with bits of improvisation made her a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. Only the great W.C. Fields could match her. Mae was not the only sex pot goddess of the cinema but she was the most notorious.
Tira performs a hootchie coochie act in Big Bill Barton's Wonder Show, a carnival where she wiggles her hips as little as possible (no doubt to please the Production Code censors) in a song & dance routine on stage while wolfish-looking guys crowd around to leer at her with lust in their loins while she shimmies behind a veil in front of her. About the only things that Tira does is raise her arms so she can flaunt her shaved armpits and swap cracks with the guys. After she finishes her song and dance routine, Big Bill (Edward Arnold of "Three on a Match") tries to persuade her to work the lions, but Tira refuses. She is tired of grinding her hips and has her eye on a chump. Before she heads out for town, she checks in with the carnival's astrologer, Rajah the Fortune Teller (Nigel D. Brulier of "The Green Goddess"), and he informs her that she is going to have a bad night, what's left of it, but her future looks fabulous.
A sleazy pickpocket who works with Barton and sometimes teams up with Tira on scams, Slick Wiley (Ralf Harolde of "Dixiana"), grows both jealous and suspicious when Tira tells him that she is going into town to get a hotel room. Actually, Tira has a date with Ernst Brown (William B. Davidson of "Murder on the Waterfront") who flashed his pinkie ring with a diamond in it at her during her song & dance act. Brown and she are about to get it on when Slick lets himself in and threatens to call the cops on Brown for messing with his wife. Tira tells Brown that she isn't Slick's wife and Slick slugs Brown (off camera) and they believe erroneously that Slick has croaked him. Tira orders Slick to put Brown's body out in the hall and they leave, but not before Slick steals Brown's pinkie ring with the diamond in it. When the police revive Brown, he screams that his diamond ring has been pinched. Meanwhile, Tira pleads with Barton to give her money while she calls a New York lawyer, Benny Pinkowitz (Gregory Ratoff of "Skyscraper Souls"), to help her. She agrees to work the lions if Barton will ante up some dough and agrees to stick her head in a lion's mouth. "Flea' Milligan (Russell Hopton of "Elmer, The Great") convinces Barton that Tira's lion taming act could put them in the big time, so Barton hands over the cash.
Naturally, Tira's act as a lion tamer who sticks her head in the lion's mouth is a success in New York City, a wealthy admirer comes calling after the show. The problem with Kirk Lawrence ("Blond Venus") is that he engaged to marry Alicia Hatton (Gertrude Michael of "Night of Terror"), and Kirk's buddy Jack Clayton (Cary Grant of "Blond Venus") intervenes and talks Tira into giving Kirk the cold shoulder. As it turns out, Jack becomes infatuated with Tira and they are heading to the altar when the conniving Barton and jealous Slick get together to sabotage Tira's plans to marry Clayton. Slick slips in and informs Clayton that he has come back for Tira. Actually, Slick and Barton have bribed Tira's chauffeur to stall her from getting back to her apartment to meet Jack. Idiotically, Clayton believes Slick and decides to leave town for several weeks. This is the weakest point in "I'm No Angel" because neither Tira nor Clayton follow up with a face-to-face meeting after Slick pulls his stunt. As it turns out, they don't discuss Slick's sneaky act until after Clayton has granted Tira the full amount of money that she sought in the court suit against him. As she did in "She Done Him Wrong," the Mae West character marries the Cary Grant character and they live happily ever after.
As usual, Mae saunters around with her hands braced on her hips as if she were a football coach concocting schemes on the sidelines. Again, the dialogue contains several memorable lines. One of the best is: "Always remember, honey. A good motto is: "Take all you can get and give as little as possible. Don't forget, honey. Never let one man worry your mind. Find 'em, fool 'em and forget 'em!" Another equally quotable gem is:"It's not the men in your life that counts, it's the life in your men." Men gravitate to Tira like bees to honey. Mae's casual but confident attitude and her haughty demeanor along with her velvet-like delivery with bits of improvisation made her a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. Only the great W.C. Fields could match her. Mae was not the only sex pot goddess of the cinema but she was the most notorious.