Rent I'm No Angel / Belle of the Nineties (1934)
3.5 of 5 from 55 ratings
2h 41min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
When Mae West went to Hollywood in the early 1930's, she was already a major star. Having sensationalised Broadway, it was time for the movies to receive the same.
I'm No Angel (1933)Mae West plays Tira in this fascinating comedy romance. Come on this entertaining journey with Tira who works as the divine dancing beauty and lion tamer at a fair. Needing some money to pay to defend herself in a court case, Tira agrees to take part in a show where she has to put her head in the mouth of a lion as the big climax of a stunt. Tira's new act is a tremendous success and offers come to perform in the Big Show. She continues flirting with rich men. Is her future meant to be chasing an endless string of lavish men or is Tira's fate sealed with tall, dark and handsome Jack Clayton played by Cary Grant? A fortune-teller has all the answers as Tira becomes a victim of intrigue and this means much more romantic madness from the entire cast of this angel-less flick.
Belle of the Nineties (1934)
Tiger Kid (Roger Pryor) is an up-and-coming boxer who's concentrating on the wrong kind of "knockout" - the electrifying Ruby Carter (Mae West). When Tiger's manager tricks Ruby into leaving town, she travels to New Orleans to headline with Duke Ellington and his Orchestra at Ace Lamont's Sensation House. But Ace has eyes for Ruby's plentiful diamonds and plots a robbery. As always, Mae out-smarts her adversaries and proves she has no intention of losing her jewels, or her man. This Mae West classic features a spectacular opening act in which the enchanting temptress performs in a variety of unique costumes, ending with Mae as the Statue of Liberty.- Actors:
- Mae West, Cary Grant, Gregory Ratoff, Edward Arnold, Ralf harolde, Kent Taylor, Gertrude Michael, Russell Hopton, Dorothy Peterson, William B. Davidson, Gertrude Howard, Libby Taylor, Bobby Barber, Eddie Borden, George Bruggeman, Morrie Cohan, Monte Collins, Ray Cooke, Nell Craig, Nigel De Brulier
- Directors:
- Wesley Ruggles, Leo McCarey
- Producers:
- William LeBaron
- Writers:
- Mae West, Lowell Brentano, Jack Wagner
- Aka:
- I'm No Angel / Belle of New Orleans (Belle of St. Louis / That St. Louis Woman / The Constant Sinner / It Ain't No Sin)
- Studio:
- Powerhouse Films
- Genres:
- Classics, Comedy, Drama, Music & Musicals, Romance
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 13/12/2021
- Run Time:
- 161 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.37:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Mae West (1982): television movie biopic directed by Lee Philips, starring Ann Jillian as West, and co-starring James Brolin, Piper Laurie, and Roddy McDowall
- Audio commentary on 'I'm No Angel' with critic and writer Farran Smith Nehme (2021)
- Mae West at UCLA (1971): archival audio recording of the great performer in conversation at the University of California, Los Angeles Appreciation of My Little Chickadee with Dr Harriet Fields, granddaughter of W C Fields (2021)
- Appreciations by academic and film historian Lucy Bolton and critic and author Christina Newland of West's unique star persona (2021)
- Three Walter Lantz animations featuring caricatures of West and W C Fields: She Done Him Right (1933), The Merry Old Soul (1933), and Hollywood Bowl (1939)
- Two Super 8 versions of 'I'm No Angel': a pair of original cut-down homecinema presentations, each consisting of different scenes
- Original Theatrical Trailers
- Image Galleries
- World and UK premieres on Blu-ray
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Reviews (1) of I'm No Angel / Belle of the Nineties
Come Up and See Her Sometime - I'm No Angel / Belle of the Nineties review by griggs
Pre-Code Hollywood is a strange and wonderful country, and few citizens were stranger and more wonderful than Mae West. This 1933 romp isn’t a film so much as an extended, glittering monument to its own star — and West built plenty of it herself, writing the screenplay and several of the compliments people keep paying her, which she accepts with the gleeful self-assurance of someone who genuinely cannot see the problem.
The delivery is everything. Cary Grant is pretty to look at and game for whatever’s coming, but this is a one-woman show drenched in innuendo so thick you could chew it — a lion tamer who flirts her way through the circus, hustles men for jewels, collects admirers like costume jewellery, and then defends herself in court with a wit so sharp it feels almost unfair.
I’m No Angel is pure confidence as cinema: anarchic, self-invented, and absolutely delighted with itself.
Then the Hays Code arrived and put a censor’s boot on the fun. Belle of the Nineties was Mae West’s first film under its strict enforcement, and the difference from I’m No Angel is the difference between a woman in full flight and one navigating an obstacle course in heels.
The structure is tidier, Leo McCarey’s direction competent, and Duke Ellington’s orchestra provides genuine compensation. But West without full throttle loses something essential. The innuendo still flickers, the attitude remains, yet it’s been muffled at source. McCarey, who would go on to define screwball with The Awful Truth, seems oddly unsure how to work around the restrictions.
Belle of the Nineties is West at reduced wattage — still magnetic, but you can feel the dimmer switch.
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