She Done Him Wrong
Encyclopedia
She Done Him Wrong is a Pre-Code
1933 Paramount Pictures
comedy romance film
starring Mae West
and Cary Grant
. Others in the cast include Owen Moore
, Gilbert Roland
, Noah Beery, Sr.
, Louise Beavers
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
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 entendre
s 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."
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 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 Sergei Stanieff (Roland). One of Gus's rivals and former "friend" of Lou's, named Dan Flynn, spends most of the movie dropping hints to Lou that Gus is up to no good, promising to look after her once Gus is in jail. Lou leads him on, hinting at times that she will return to him, but eventually he loses patience and implies he'll see her jailed if she doesn't submit to him.
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 worries only that Cummings will reform his bar and scare away his 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.
Warned that Chick thinks she's betrayed him, she goes to the prison to try to reassure him. All the inmates greet her warmly and familiarly 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. She lies and claims she has been true to him.
Gus gives counterfeit money to Rita and Sergei to spend. Chick escapes from jail, and police search for him in the bar. He comes into Lou's room and starts to strangle her, breaking off only because he still loves her and cannot harm her. Lou calms him down by promising that she will go with him when she finishes her next number.
After Sergei gives Lou a diamond pin belonging to Rita, Rita starts a fight with Lou, who accidentally stabs her to death. Lou calmly combs the dead woman's long hair to hide the fact Rita is dead while the police search the room for Chick Clark. She has her bodyguard Spider, who "would do anything for you, Lou" dispose of Rita's body. She then tells Spider to bring Chick, who's hiding in an alley, back to her room upstairs. Then, while she sings "Frankie and Johnny", she silently signals to Dan Flynn that he should go to her room to wait for her, even though she knows Chick is in there with a gun. Chick shoots Dan dead and the 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 Sergei. Chick, still lurking in Lou's room, is about to kill Lou for double-crossing him, when Cummings also apprehends him.
Cummings then takes Lou away in an open horse-drawn carriage instead of the paddywagon into which all the other criminals have been loaded. He tells her she doesn't belong in jail and removes all her other rings and slips a diamond engagement ring onto her marriage finger.
"Where'd you get that . . . dark and handsome?" Lou asks.
"You bad girl", he scolds.
"You'll find out", she coos.
Variety magazine's "Bige" gave She Done Him Wrong a negative review stating that Paramount was attempting to rush Mae West to stardom by giving her her own film and top billing, and that the film was not very good without known actors and an entertaining story.
She Done Him Wrong was nominated for an Academy Award
for Outstanding Production
, now known as Best Picture. At 66 minutes, it is the shortest film ever to be so honored.
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".
American Film Institute
recognition
Note that, "Is that a pistol in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?" never appeared in this movie. It's a frequent well-known misquote from this film.
Pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor and it did not become rigorously...
1933 Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
comedy romance film
Romance film
Romance films are love stories that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate involvement of the main characters and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story or the search for love the main plot focus...
starring Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
and Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
. Others in the cast include Owen Moore
Owen Moore
Owen Moore was an Irish-born actor in American films, appearing in more than 279 movies spanning from 1908 to 1937.-Life and career:...
, Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland was a Mexican-born American film actor.He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was...
, Noah Beery, Sr.
Noah Beery, Sr.
Noah Nicholas Beery was an American actor, who appeared in films from 1913 to 1945.-Early life:His parents originally came from Switzerland. Beery was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He and his brothers William C. Beery and Wallace Beery became Hollywood actors...
, Louise Beavers
Louise Beavers
Louise Beavers was an African-American film and television actress. Beavers appeared in dozens of films from the 1920s to the 1930s, most often in the role of a maid, servant, or slave. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Beavers was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, one of the four African-American...
and Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson
Rochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.-Career:...
.
The film was directed
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
by Lowell Sherman
Lowell Sherman
Lowell Sherman was an American actor and film director....
and produced
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
by William LeBaron
William LeBaron
William LeBaron was an American film producer. His credits included Cimarron, the film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 4th Academy Awards ceremony for 1930/1931....
. The script
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
was adapted by Harvey F. Thew and John Bright from the successful Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
Diamond Lil
Diamond Lil (play)
Diamond Lil is a 1928 play by sultry American actress and playwright Mae West. Prior to Diamond Lil, she had written a number of plays that were closed down due to either poor ticket sales or censorship issues with the establishments of the time, despite the fact that many high ranking officials...
by Mae West. Original music was composed by Ralph Rainger
Ralph Rainger
Ralph Rainger was an American composer of popular music principally for films.-Biography:Born Ralph Reichenthal in New York City, Rainger embarked on a legal career before escaping to Broadway where he became Clifton Webb's accompanist...
, John Leipold and Stephan Pasternacki. Charles Lang
Charles Lang
Charles Bryant Lang, Jr., A.S.C. was an American cinematographer.Early in his career he worked with the Akeley camera, a gyroscope-mounted "pancake" camera designed by Carl Akeley for outdoor action shots...
was responsible for the cinematography, while the costumes were designed by Edith Head
Edith Head
Edith Head was an American costume designer who won eight Academy Awards, more than any other woman.-Early life and career:...
.
The movie is famous for West's many double entendre
Double entendre
A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
s 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."
Blonde Venus
Blonde Venus
Blonde Venus is a 1932 is a Pre-Code drama film starring Marlene Dietrich and Cary Grant. The movie was produced and directed for Paramount Pictures by Josef von Sternberg with a screenplay by Jules Furthman and S. K. Lauren adapted from a story by Furthman and von Sternberg. The music score was by W...
, starring Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...
and Cary Grant, predates She Done Him Wrong by a year even though Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
always claimed to have discovered Cary Grant for her film, elaborating that up until then Grant had only made "some tests with starlets."
Plot
The story is set in New YorkNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in the 1890s
Gay Nineties
Gay Nineties is an American nostalgic term that refers to the decade of the 1890s. It is known in the UK as the Naughty Nineties, and refers there to the decade of supposedly decadent art by Aubrey Beardsley, the witty plays and trial of Oscar Wilde, society scandals and the beginning of the...
. 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
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
and runs a counterfeiting ring to help finance her expensive diamonds. He also sends young women to San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
to be pickpockets. Gus works with two other crooked entertainer-assistants, Russian Rita (Ottiano) and Rita's lover, the suave Sergei Stanieff (Roland). One of Gus's rivals and former "friend" of Lou's, named Dan Flynn, spends most of the movie dropping hints to Lou that Gus is up to no good, promising to look after her once Gus is in jail. Lou leads him on, hinting at times that she will return to him, but eventually he loses patience and implies he'll see her jailed if she doesn't submit to him.
A city mission (a thinly disguised Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
) is located next door to the bar. Its young director, Captain Cummings (Grant), is in reality an undercover Federal
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
agent working to infiltrate and expose the illegal activities in the bar. Gus suspects nothing; he worries only that Cummings will reform his bar and scare away his 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.
Warned that Chick thinks she's betrayed him, she goes to the prison to try to reassure him. All the inmates greet her warmly and familiarly 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. She lies and claims she has been true to him.
Gus gives counterfeit money to Rita and Sergei to spend. Chick escapes from jail, and police search for him in the bar. He comes into Lou's room and starts to strangle her, breaking off only because he still loves her and cannot harm her. Lou calms him down by promising that she will go with him when she finishes her next number.
After Sergei gives Lou a diamond pin belonging to Rita, Rita starts a fight with Lou, who accidentally stabs her to death. Lou calmly combs the dead woman's long hair to hide the fact Rita is dead while the police search the room for Chick Clark. She has her bodyguard Spider, who "would do anything for you, Lou" dispose of Rita's body. She then tells Spider to bring Chick, who's hiding in an alley, back to her room upstairs. Then, while she sings "Frankie and Johnny", she silently signals to Dan Flynn that he should go to her room to wait for her, even though she knows Chick is in there with a gun. Chick shoots Dan dead and the 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 Sergei. Chick, still lurking in Lou's room, is about to kill Lou for double-crossing him, when Cummings also apprehends him.
Cummings then takes Lou away in an open horse-drawn carriage instead of the paddywagon into which all the other criminals have been loaded. He tells her she doesn't belong in jail and removes all her other rings and slips a diamond engagement ring onto her marriage finger.
"Where'd you get that . . . dark and handsome?" Lou asks.
"You bad girl", he scolds.
"You'll find out", she coos.
Reception
The film was a box-office success, grossing $2 000 000 domestically with a budget of $200 000.Variety magazine's "Bige" gave She Done Him Wrong a negative review stating that Paramount was attempting to rush Mae West to stardom by giving her her own film and top billing, and that the film was not very good without known actors and an entertaining story.
She Done Him Wrong was nominated for an Academy Award
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Outstanding Production
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
, now known as Best Picture. At 66 minutes, it is the shortest film ever to be so honored.
In 1996, She Done Him Wrong was selected for preservation in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
by the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
recognition
- 2000: AFI's 100 Years... 100 LaughsAFI's 100 Years... 100 LaughsPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs is a list of the top 100 funniest movies in American cinema. A wide variety of comedies were nominated for the distinction that included slapstick comedy, screwball comedy, romantic comedy, satire, black comedy, musical comedy, comedy of...
#75 - 2005: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie QuotesAFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie QuotesPart of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes is a list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema. The American Film Institute revealed the list on June 21, 2005, in a three-hour television program on CBS...
#26- "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?"
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."Note that, "Is that a pistol in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?" never appeared in this movie. It's a frequent well-known misquote from this film.
Cast
- Mae WestMae WestMae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
as Lady Lou - Cary GrantCary GrantArchibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
as Capt. Cummings - Owen MooreOwen MooreOwen Moore was an Irish-born actor in American films, appearing in more than 279 movies spanning from 1908 to 1937.-Life and career:...
as Chick Clark - Gilbert RolandGilbert RolandGilbert Roland was a Mexican-born American film actor.He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was...
as Serge Stanieff - Noah Beery, Sr.Noah Beery, Sr.Noah Nicholas Beery was an American actor, who appeared in films from 1913 to 1945.-Early life:His parents originally came from Switzerland. Beery was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He and his brothers William C. Beery and Wallace Beery became Hollywood actors...
as Gus Jordan - David LandauDavid Landau (actor)David Landau was an American film actor who appeared in 33 films between 1931 and 1935.He appeared on Broadway in 12 plays from 1919 to 1929....
as Dan Flynn - Rafaela OttianoRafaela OttianoRafaela Ottiano was an Italian-born American stage and film actress.-Early life:Born in Venice, Italy, she emigrated with her parents to the United States, and was processed at Ellis Island in 1910.-Career:...
as Russian Rita - Dewey Robinson as Spider Kane
- Rochelle HudsonRochelle HudsonRochelle Hudson was an American film actress from the 1930s through the 1960s. Hudson was a WAMPAS Baby Star in 1931.-Career:...
as Sally - Tammany YoungTammany YoungTammany Young was an American stage and film actor, who appeared with W.C. Fields in seven films.-Early life:...
as Chuck Connors - Fuzzy KnightFuzzy KnightJohn Forrest "Fuzzy" Knight was an American film and television actor. He appeared in over 180 films between 1929 and 1967, usually as a cowboy hero's sidekick.-Biography:...
as Ragtime Kelly - Grace La RueGrace La RueGrace La Rue was an American actress, singer, and Vaudeville headliner.-Early life:Grace La Rue was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1882 to Mrs. Lucy L. Parsons. La Rue was a stage name, more exotic than her original surname of Parsons. She began her career as part of the team Burke and La Rue,...
as Frances Kelly - Robert HomansRobert HomansRobert Edward Homans was an American film actor. He appeared in some 400 films between 1917 and 1946.He was born in Malden, Massachusetts and died in Los Angeles, California from a heart attack.-Selected filmography:...
as Doheney - Louise BeaversLouise BeaversLouise Beavers was an African-American film and television actress. Beavers appeared in dozens of films from the 1920s to the 1930s, most often in the role of a maid, servant, or slave. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Beavers was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority, one of the four African-American...
as Pearl (Lou's maid)
