She Done Him Wrong

Infobox Film
name = She Done Him Wrong


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director = Lowell Sherman
producer =
writer = Mae West (play "Diamond Lil")
Harvey F. Thew (writer) and
John Bright (writer)
narrator =
starring = Mae West
Cary Grant
Owen Moore
Gilbert Roland
Noah Beery
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor =
released = January 27 1933
runtime = 66 min
country = USA
language = English
budget =
gross =
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amg_id =
imdb_id = 0024548

"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".

ynopsis

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 trafficks 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.

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.

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?"

Cast

*Mae West as Lady Lou
*Cary Grant as Capt. Cummings
*Owen Moore as Chick Clark
*Gilbert Roland as Serge Stanieff
*Noah Beery, Sr. as Gus Jordan
*David Landau as Dan Flynn
*Rafaela Ottiano as Russian Rita
*Dewey Robinson as Spider Kane
*Rochelle Hudson as Sally
*Tammany Young as Chuck Connors
*Fuzzy Knight as Ragtime Kelly
*Grace La Rue as Frances Kelly
*Robert Homans as Doheney
*Louise Beavers as Pearl (Lou's maid)

External links

*imdb title|id=0024548|title=She Done Him Wrong
* [http://www.archive.org/details/She_Done_Him_Wrong Complete film to download or watch] at Internet Archive