I'm No Angel (DVD)

I'm No AngelLabel: Universal PicturesDescription: PRODUCT DESCRIPTION Mae West stars as dancer and lion tamer Tira in this romantic comedy. Short of cash Tira starts performing ever more dangerous stunts until her circus builds up an exciting reputation. But when she meets handsome Jack Clayton (Cary Grant) Tira ends up suing him for breach of contract after their relationship breaks up. Only when Clayton lets her win the case does she realise that she truly loves him. AMAZON REVIEW In I'm No Angel Mae West second star vehicle she's sideshow attraction Tira the girl who discovered you don't have to have feet to be a dancer. As usual West wrote all her own dialogue for the film and it's full of priceless wisecracks. A crowd of men ogles her as she tosses off a saucy little number They Call Me Sister Honky Tonk swinging her hips phlegmatically. Then she slithers offstage muttering Suckers. Bored with life Tira consults a fortuneteller. I see a man in your future he drones. What only one? quips Mae. Tira wants to quit the carnival so her boss (an unctuous Edward Arnold) makes her a proposition. If she'll become the show's lion tamer she can meet the swells. Just one little thing: she's got to put her head in the lion's mouth. (West insisted on performing this stunt herself to the horror of Paramount Pictures' executives.) Enter Cary Grant as Jack Clayton an aristocrat who falls for this floozie from the wrong side of the tracks. Some of the film's merriest scenes show Tira and her five black maids having a ball dancing and singing as she prepares for her dates with Jack. (West made it her business to keep as many of her black girlfriends working in movies as possible.) Tira's head maid Beulah played by Gertrude Michael is the object of that momentous line Oh Beulah peel me a grape. Mae slays 'em all in this picture dressed as always in fabulously flamboyant finery. --Laura Mirsky