''She Done Him Wrong'' is a 1933

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...

American crime/comedy film starring

Mae West Mary Jane "Mae" West (August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980) was an American actress, singer, comedian, screenwriter, and playwright whose career spanned more than seven decades. Recognized as a prominent sex symbol of her time, she was known ...

and

Cary Grant Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English and American actor. Known for his blended British and American accent, debonair demeanor, lighthearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing, he ...

, directed by Lowell Sherman. The plot includes melodramatic and musical elements, with a supporting cast featuring

Owen Moore Owen Moore (12 December 1886 – 9 June 1939) was an Irish people, Irish-born American actor, appearing in more than 279 movies spanning from 1908 to 1937. Early life and career Moore was born in Fordstown Crossroads, County Meath, Ireland. A ...

Gilbert Roland Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso (December 11, 1905 – May 15, 1994), known professionally as Gilbert Roland, was a Mexican-born American film and television actor whose career spanned seven decades from the 1920s until the 1980s. He was twice no ...

Noah Beery Sr. Noah Nicholas Beery (January 17, 1882 – April 1, 1946) was an American actor who appeared in films from 1913 until his death in 1946. He was the older brother of Academy Award-winning actor Wallace Beery as well as the father of characte ...

, Rochelle Hudson, and Louise Beavers. The film was adapted from the successful 1928 Broadway play '' Diamond Lil'' by Mae West. The film is famous for West's many double entendres and quips, including her best-known "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?". ''She Done Him Wrong'' was a box-office success and the film was nominated for the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for Best Picture. In 1996, ''She Done Him Wrong'' was selected for preservation in the United States

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

by the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

The story is set in New York City in the

1890s The 1890s (pronounced "eighteen-nineties") was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1890, and ended on December 31, 1899. In American popular culture, the decade would later be nostalgically referred to as the "Gay Nineti ...

. A bawdy singer, Lady Lou, works in the Bowery barroom saloon of her boss and benefactor, Gus Jordan, 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 traffics 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 and Rita's lover, the suave Sergei Stanieff. 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 is located next door to the bar. Its young director, Captain Cummings, 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, 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 left ring finger.

Cast

as Lady Lou *

as Capt. Cummings *

as Chick Clark *

as Sergei Stanieff *

as Gus Jordan * David Landau as Dan Flynn * Rafaela Ottiano as Russian Rita * Dewey Robinson as Spider Kane * Rochelle Hudson as Sally * Tammany Young as Chuck Connors *

Fuzzy Knight John Forrest "Fuzzy" Knight (May 9, 1901 – February 23, 1976) was an American film and television actor. He was also a singer, especially in his early career. He appeared in more than 180 films between 1928 and 1967, usually as a cowboy hero' ...

as Ragtime Kelly * Grace La Rue as Frances Kelly * Robert Homans as Doheney * Louise Beavers as Pearl (Lou's maid)

Production

The film was directed by Lowell Sherman and produced by William LeBaron. The script was adapted by Harvey F. Thew and John Bright. Original music was composed by Ralph Rainger, John Leipold and Stephan Pasternacki. Charles Lang was responsible for the cinematography, and the costumes were designed by

Edith Head Edith Claire Head (née Posener, October 28, 1897 – October 24, 1981) was an American film costume designer who won a record eight Academy Awards for Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Best Costume Design between 1949 and 1973, making he ...

. '' Blonde Venus'' (with

Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however, Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...

) and '' Madame Butterfly'' (with

Sylvia Sidney Sylvia Sidney (born Sophia Kosow; August 8, 1910 – July 1, 1999) was an American stage, screen, and film actress whose career spanned 70 years. She rose to prominence in dozens of leading roles in the 1930s. She was nominated for the Academy ...

), both predate ''She Done Him Wrong'' but West always claimed to have discovered Grant for her film, claiming that until then Grant had only made "some tests with starlets". The

Hays Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as th ...

declared the play '' Diamond Lil'' banned from the screen and repeatedly demanded changes to remove associations with or elements from the play, including suggested titles with the word "diamond". The adaption was finally allowed under the condition that the play not be referred to in publicity or advertising.

Joseph Breen Joseph Ignatius Breen (October 14, 1888 – December 5, 1965) was an American film censor with the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America who applied the Hays Code to film production.Staff report (December 8, 1965). Joseph I. ...

, who oversaw the more effectual enforcement of the Code beginning in 1934, blocked ''She Done Him Wrong'' from being rereleased in 1935 and again in 1949. Rafaela Ottiano, who portrayed Russian Rita in the Broadway version, was cast on West's recommendation in the same role, which led to work with West throughout her career. Louise Beavers was the only African-American actress to be brought onto the film by West personally. She wanted a black woman to appear with her. When she did stage and screen work, West made it a point to act with black American actors and actresses, helping to break racial discrimination in entertainment. West's stage shows resulted in her arrest for saucy material and her having black actors on stage was extremely controversial. With this film, she and her Paramount bosses called the shots: Black stars appeared in a few of her films after this one.

Reception

The film was a box-office success, grossing $2,000,000 domestically with a budget of $200,000. ''Varietys "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, despite the presence of extremely well-known actors

and

, not to mention up-and-comer

Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael often defied the conse ...

wrote: "Mae West, the great shady lady of the screen, wiggles and sings "Easy Rider" and seduces virtuous young Cary Grant. A classic comedy and a classic seduction."

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...

gave it four of four stars: "West repeats her stage role of Diamond Lil... in her best film."

Leslie Halliwell Robert James Leslie Halliwell (23 February 1929 – 21 January 1989) was a British film critic, encyclopaedist and television rights buyer for ITV, the British commercial network, and Channel 4. He is best known for his reference guides, '' Fi ...

gave it three of four stars: "As near undiluted Mae West as Hollywood ever came: fast, funny, melodramatic and pretty sexy; also a very atmospheric and well-made movie." ''She Done Him Wrong'' was nominated for the

for Outstanding Production, now known as Best Picture. At 66 minutes, it is the shortest film to be so honored. The film is recognized by

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...

in these lists: * 1998: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated * 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #75 * 2004: AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs: ** " Frankie and Johnny" – Nominated * 2005: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes: ** Lady Lou: "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?" – #26 * 2007: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated

Note

West's famous line to Cary Grant is "Why don't you come up some time and see me?" in ''She Done Him Wrong''. She changed it to "Come up and see me sometime" in her next movie '' I'm No Angel'', released the same year and co-starring Grant. ''She Done Him Wrong'' bears some resemblances to '' The Bowery'', a film released later the same year by

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

starring

Noah Beery Noah Nicholas Beery (January 17, 1882 – April 1, 1946) was an American actor who appeared in films from 1913 until his death in 1946. He was the older brother of Academy Award-winning actor Wallace Beery as well as the father of characte ...

's brother Wallace. The two films each include a saloon owner named Chuck Conners as a main character (played by Wallace Beery) in ''The Bowery'' and a smaller role (played by Tammany Young) in ''She Done Him Wrong''. The animated cartoon short '' She Done Him Right'' followed in 1933 as a parody spinoff of ''She Done Him Wrong''.The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia: 1933
Archived 2011-05-14. Retrieved 6 June 2019.

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

, through its EMKA division, currently handles distribution of the film.

References

External links

''She Done Him Wrong''
essay by Randy Skretvedt at

* * * * *
Reprints of historic reviews, photo gallery at CaryGrant.net

''She Done Him Wrong''
at Virtual History
''She Done Him Wrong''
essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 , pages 204-205 {{Authority control 1933 films 1933 romantic comedy films United States National Film Registry films American black-and-white films Films set in the 1890s Paramount Pictures films Films directed by Lowell Sherman American romantic comedy films Films set in New York City American crime comedy films American films based on plays 1930s American films Films scored by John Leipold