She Done Him Wrong

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She Done Him Wrong
Directed by Lowell Sherman
Written by Harvey F. Thew
Starring Mae West
Cary Grant
Owen Moore
Gilbert Roland
Noah Beery
Release date(s) January 27, 1933
Running time 66 min
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
IMDb profile

She Done Him Wrong is a Pre-Code 1933 Paramount Pictures comedy/romance motion picture starring Mae West and Cary Grant. Others in the cast include Owen Moore, Gilbert Roland, Noah Beery, Sr., and Rochelle Hudson.

The film was directed by Lowell Sherman and produced by William LeBaron. The script was adapted by Harvey F. Thew and John Bright from the successful Broadway play Diamond Lil (1928) by Mae West. Original music was composed by Ralph Rainger, John Leipold and Stephan Pasternacki. Charles Lang was responsible for the cinematography, while the costumes were designed by Edith Head.

The movie is famous for West's many double entendres and quips, including her seductive, "I always did like a man in a uniform. That one fits you grand. Why don't you come up sometime and see me? I'm home every evening."

She Done Him Wrong was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. At 66 minutes, it is the shortest film ever to be so honored.

Blonde Venus, starring Marlene Dietrich and Cary Grant, predates She Done Him Wrong by a year even though Mae West always claimed to have discovered Cary Grant for her film, elaborating that up until then Grant had only made "some tests with starlets."

In 1996 She Done Him Wrong was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

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[edit] Synopsis

The story is set in New York in the 1890s. A bawdy singer, Lady Lou (West), works in the Bowery barroom saloon of her boss and benefactor, Gus Jordan (Beery), who has given her many diamonds. But Lou is a lady with more men friends than anyone might imagine.

What she does not know is that Gus traffics in prostitution and runs a counterfeiting ring to help finance her expensive diamonds. He also sends young women to San Francisco to be pickpockets. Gus works with two other crooked entertainer-assistants, Russian Rita (Ottiano) and Rita's lover, the suave Serge Stanieff (Roland).

A city mission (a thinly disguised Salvation Army) is located next door to the bar. Its young director, Captain Cummings (Grant), is in reality an undercover Federal agent working to infiltrate and expose the illegal activities in the bar. Gus suspects nothing; he only worries that Cummings will reform his bar and scare away the customers.

Lou's former boyfriend, Chick Clark (Moore), is a vicious criminal who was convicted of robbery and sent to prison for trying to steal diamonds for her. In his absence, she becomes attracted to the handsome young psalm-singing reformer.

When she goes to the prison to visit Chick, all the inmates know her as she walks down the cellblock. Chick becomes angry and threatens to kill her if she double-crosses or two-times him before he gets out.

Gus gives counterfeit money to Rita and Serge to spend. Chick escapes, and police search for him in the bar. He comes into Lou's room and threatens to strangle her. She tells him she will go with him when she finishes her next number.

Rita starts a fight with Lou, who accidentally stabs her. She has her bodyguard dispose of Rita's body. After she sings "Frankie and Johnny", gunfire draws a police raid. Cummings shows his badge and reveals himself as "The Hawk", a well-known Federal agent, as he arrests Gus and Serge. Chick threatens Lou with a gun, but is also apprehended.

Cummings then takes Lou away to jail in an open horse-drawn carriage instead of the paddywagon. He removes all her other rings and slips on his own diamond ring, which she notices is on her marriage finger.

"Where'd you get that . . . dark and handsome?" Lou asks.

"You bad girl", he scolds.

"You'll find out", she coos.

[edit] Notes

Though Mae West's famous line to Cary Grant is "Why don't you come up some time and see me?" in She Done Him Wrong, she changed it to "Come up and see me sometime" in her next movie, I'm No Angel, which was released the same year and also co-starred Grant.

She Done Him Wrong bears some resemblances to The Bowery, a film released the same year by a different studio starring Noah Beery's half-brother Wallace Beery in a similar role. Also, the part Wallace Beery played in The Bowery, a saloon owner named Chuck Connors, appears in She Done Him Wrong as a small role and is played by a different actor.

Mae West loved to take credit for "discovering" Cary Grant for She Done Him Wrong but Grant had already made seven movies, including playing Marlene Dietrich's leading man in Blonde Venus the previous year.

[edit] Quotes

""I always did like a man in a uniform. That one fits you grand. Why don't you come up sometime and see me? I'm home every evening."

"Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

[edit] Cast

[edit] External links

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