She Done Him Wrong (film)
"She Done Him Wrong" is a 1933 American musical comedy-drama film centered around Lady Lou, a saloon singer who finds herself entangled in romantic and criminal intrigues in New York City during the Gay Nineties. The film, which marked Mae West's first starring role, was both a commercial success and a critical favorite, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Its suggestive content played a significant role in prompting stricter enforcement of the Hays Production Code, which governed moral standards in Hollywood films.
Notably, the film also helped launch Cary Grant's career, as he starred alongside West, who is widely regarded as delivering one of her best performances. The film's playful innuendos and West's iconic line, "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?", have cemented its place in cinema history. Despite initial controversies and censor cuts, "She Done Him Wrong" not only saved Paramount Pictures from financial ruin but was also selected for preservation in the National Film Registry for its cultural significance. The film has been recognized as one of the funniest American films by the American Film Institute, further highlighting its enduring impact on the genre.
She Done Him Wrong (film)
- Release Date: 1933
- Director(s): Lowell Sherman
- Writer(s): John Bright; Harvey F. Thew
- Principal Actors and Roles: Cary Grant (Capt. Cummings); Mae West (Lady Lou); Noah Beery (Gus Jordan); Owen Moore (Chick Clark); Rafaella Ottiano (Russian Rita); Dewey Robinson (Spider Kane); Gilbert Roland (Serge Stanieff)
- Book / Story Film Based On: Diamond Lil by Mae West
She Done Him Wrong is an American musical comedy-drama about a saloon singer who falls in love with a mission worker. This black and white film was such a box office hit that it saved Paramount Pictures from bankruptcy. It also earned an Academy Award nomination for outstanding production, which is now called best picture.
The film’s suggestive sexiness is believed to have been a major factor in the stricter enforcement of the Hays Production Code. The Code had moral and ethical guidelines for what was acceptable in films but it was not rigidly enforced until after She Done Him Wrong.
This was Mae West’s first starring role in a film, although she was already a successful stage actress. Many critics consider She Done Him Wrong to be her best movie role. One of West’s most famous lines from both the play and the film, though it is often misquoted, is "Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?" The film is also notable for boosting young Cary Grant to stardom. Grant later said he learned most of what he knew about comedy from watching Mae West.
Mae West’s tightly corseted costumes influenced the fashion of the day. The famous Edith Head, who went on to win eight Academy Awards for best costume design over the course of her career designed the extravagant gowns, though not included in the credits.
The actors had only one week of rehearsals and the movie took only eighteen days to film. Filming began under the title Ruby Red. Diamond Lady, Diamonds, Honky Tonk, and Lady Lou were other working titles.
Plot
In the Gay Nineties in New York City, Lady Lou loves diamonds and any man who can give them to her. Chick Clark is in jail for trying to steal diamonds for her and he expects her to be waiting when he gets out. But Gus Jordan is giving Lou diamonds now and she is singing in his Bowery saloon where nearly every man is in love with her. The one exception may be Captain Cummings, the head of the religious mission, who frequents the saloon in hopes of reforming the customers.
When a young woman named Sally tries to commit suicide in the saloon, Lou helps her and Gus offers to find her a job. Unknown to Lou, Gus and his cohorts Russian Rita and Sergei Stanieff are running a counterfeiting ring. A romantic rival, Flynn, warns Lou that a detective called the Hawk is gathering evidence against Gus.
Lou uses one of her diamonds to save the mission when the building’s owner is planning to evict them. She admonishes the former owner to make it look like the mission bought the building, not Lou.
Cummings tells Lou that Sally’s father is looking for her and demands to know where she is. Lou says all she knows is that Gus gave her a job. Cummings is relieved to realize Lou knows nothing about Gus’s business.
Chick Clark breaks out of jail to reunite with Lou, saying he will kill her if she has been unfaithful. Meanwhile Sergei says he loves Lou and offers her a diamond pin that belongs to Russian Rita. When Rita hears that he loves Lou, she is furious and follows Lou, demanding her pin back. She tries to stab Lou and when they struggle over the knife, Rita ends up dead.
While Lou is singing on stage, Chick hides in her room and police raid the saloon. Chick shoots Flynn; the police shoot him and arrest Gus and Sergei. Captain Cummings, who is really the Hawk, leads Lou to the police wagon, too, but he puts her into a separate carriage. He removes all her diamond rings, replaces them with one of his own, and says that he will be her jailer for a long, long time.
Significance
She Done Him Wrong cost $200,000 and earned four million in domestic and international sales, saving Paramount Studios from financial trouble.
Mae West adapted her successful, but controversial and risqué, Broadway play Diamond Lil, for She Done Him Wrong. At one point the play had been banned and Paramount Studios changed the name of the film so it would not be associated with the play. However, the censors said that was not enough. So scriptwriter John Bright was hired to work with West to make the film more acceptable. He tried to make the film more of a crime drama but West objected, and it was suggested that the script be rewritten as more of a comedy. Bright left and Harvey Thew was brought in, and together West and Thew changed anything overtly sexual in the film to innuendo and entendre. The plot’s crime was changed from white slavery to counterfeiting, making some of the action somewhat confusing.
When the film was previewed to see if it conformed to the Hays Production Code, the censors demanded that certain lines be cut or altered. They also had objections to West’s singing of "Where Has My Easy Rider Gone?" and "Slow Motion Man," also called "A Guy What Takes His Time," and several verses were cut. Once the film was released, local censors continued to cut out pieces of the film. She Done Him Wrong was banned in several countries and contributed to the stricter enforcement of the Production Code.
She Done Him Wrong was nominated for an Academy Award for best picture and both Film Daily and The New York Times named it one of the best films of 1933. It was selected for the National Film Registry in 1996. The National Film Registry chooses films that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" to be preserved in the Library of Congress.
In 2000 the American Film Institute (AFI) included She Done Him Wrong in "100 Years . . . 100 Laughs," a list of the 100 funniest American films of all time. The film was ranked seventy-fifth. West’s line "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" was ranked twenty-sixth in AFI’s "100 Years . . . 100 Movie Quotes," a list of the 100 top film quotes of all time.
Awards and nominations
Nominated
- Academy Award (1932/1933) Best Picture
Bibliography
Bloom, Ken, and Jane Powell. Hollywood Musicals: The 101 Greatest Song-and-dance Movies of All Time. New York: Black Dog, 2010. Print.
Hischak, Thomas S. The Oxford Companion to the American Musical: Theatre, Film, and Television. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. Print
Kniffel, Leonard. Musicals on the Silver Screen. Chicago: Huron Street, 2013. Print.
Petersen, Anne Helen. Scandals of Classic Hollywood: Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema. New York: Plume, 2014. Print.
Schneider, Steven Jay. 1001 Movies You Must See before You Die. Rev. Ed. Hauppauge: Barron’s, 2013. Print.
Zinman, David. 50 Classic Motion Pictures; The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of. New York: Crown, 1970. Print.