Marlo Manners has just got married to Sir Michael Barrington her 6th husband! As they try to start their life together an International conference in the same hotel is causing problem as one of her ex-husbands the Russian delegate wants one more fling with her, will the tapes about her affairs and life spoil or save everything?
This is Mae West’s final film role based on a play she both performed in and wrote. She didn’t manage to make many films during her career mainly due to censorship. But her early roles are pretty fantastic and showing she was ahead of her time. I remember searching for this film years ago and being unsuccessful to finding a copy of the DVD. Thanks to the power of Twitter and a channel in the UK I have now eventually seen it thanks to Talking Pictures TV (playing forgotten and lost films all day and night).
Although now I have seen it I am wondering if that is actually a good thing or not. Mae was 84/85 years old in the film, she died two years after its release. The thing is though she is acting like she always did and it becomes rather creepy and well quite frankly sad to watch as well. Sad that this was to be her last role and unfortunately for some, how she would be remembered.
The film does therefore turn out to be hilarious, but probably not in the way they actually intended it to be. Timothy Dalton attempts to sing and does not go with Mae at all I mean look at how awkward even those pictures are from the film! I cannot believe he went on to be James Bond after watching this one, he was awful. That isn’t unfair to say when everyone else and everything else about the film was awful as well, so maybe he actually fit in quite well? There’s something that does not work about being British when everything else is so American.
If I wasn’t determined to get through West’s final film appearance I honestly would have turned it off. But I wanted to be able to say that I had seen it, since then seeing the incredibly low 3.2 rating on IMDb and 25% (Critics) 20% (audience) on Rotten Tomatoes it feels ok to be shocked by how bad the film was. Surely by 1978 those one liners and sexual innuendos aren’t really groundbreaking anymore.
The musical numbers were very random and still in the same still to what she used to do back in the 1940s. Not that I am complaining about anything musical as they are usually very random and outbursts of song. She fumbles about on the screen and very rarely actually moves about with holding onto something. That’s what made it sad in all honesty to see her like that. I think I am going to have to watch her best (and groundbreaking) films to take this one away from my memory. I don’t think I actually have reviewed any of them for this blog. A new challenge I reckon!
I therefore cannot recommend anyone to watch this film, don’t worry I suffered and made it through it so you don’t have to! Although I would recommend trying to find the clip of Dalton attempting to sing, especially if you are having a bad day as I am sure it will be able to make you smile a lot!
