Tira works as a dancer and lion tamer for a fair, when she becomes in urgent need of money she decides to accept a crazy challenge. Putting her head in the mouth of one of the lions.
This then allows her to travel to New York and through many other states, romancing rich men and receiving lovely presents. She is searching for the love of her life and only knows he will be rich and have black hair. But everything doesn’t always go in her favour and is not simple at all when she eventually meets Jack.
Only Mae West could pull of this type of role and she really does own every single scene she is in throughout the film. She over powers the incredible (and young) Cary Grant in this one as well. She is a man-eater and surely that is very shocking back in the 30’s. I can understand how she didn’t really get to make many films at all.
This film has a few songs which will get you humming along to and enjoying as they fit in so well with the tone and direction of the story. She seduces men and makes them fall in love with her, while she doesn’t really care about them at all. Surely that is quite a role reversal and would still look rather strange now! She acts more like the man, especially the way she treats them and moves onto the next.
The chemistry with Grant is very good and believable. She throws in some of her brilliant lines in this film and the court scene will make you laugh as she totally owns it all over again. You will want more as the film finishes and that can only be a good thing. For something which is based around love (and without actually mentioning it sex) you don’t ever see any of the characters actually kiss. Obviously due to censorship reasons, but it totally gives the film even more. As it is all then in your mind and you make up what has actually happened, which is more powerful in my opinion than actually seeing everything happen on-screen.
Be prepared for more reviews of Mae West films as I work back through the box set I have had for a few years now. She is definitely one of my all time favorite actresses, she was no angel.