GO WEST YOUNG MAN (1936)

The sex symbol actress Mavis Arden (Mae West) makes a personal appearance at the premiere of her new movie "Drifting Lady," claiming to be a totally different person than her onscreen self (which is pretty much just like Mae West's). But we see that is not necessarily so. Her much publicized studio contract bars her from getting married, though she has been seeing politician Francis Harrigan (Lyle Talbot) on the sly. She's not happy with Morgan (Warren William), her publicist, who is accompanying her on her PR tour and trying to keep an eye on her amorous activities. He tells her that her private life has to be an open book, and she replies, "It is, I’m just lookin' for someone to read it." Her car breaks down near a small rural town and, stranded while the car is being fixed, she and her entourage stay at a boarding house run partly by spinster lady Aunt Kate (Elizabeth Patterson). When hunky young mechanic Bud Norton (Randolph Scott) shows up to work on the car, Mavis makes a point of flirting, mentioning his "sinewy muscles" while casually checking out his ass. She promises to take Bud to Hollywood where he can try to sell the studios a movie sound invention he's come up with. Plot points pile up. While the sweet but naive Bud is quite taken with Mavis, his girl Joyce, Aunt Kate's niece, is upset. When Harrigan tries to track Mavis down, he mistakenly believes that she's been kidnapped and the press goes crazy. Starstruck housemaid Gladys (Isabel Jewell) hears the news and leads the cops to Morgan, who is not unhappy about all the fuss. In the end, as complications get cleared up, Morgan admits his love for Mavis, and she reciprocates with a kiss.

Mae West, who also wrote the screenplay, was past her prime here, at least commercially, as the restrictions of the 1934 Production Code hurt her career, and in the first ten minutes, West seems frozen in her old-fashioned persona, but once the movie gets on the road, she loosens up and delivers a likable performance, making mild fun of herself. Critics have claimed that West's leading men often came off as weak up against West, but both Randolph Scott (exuding a healthy and charming cornfed sexiness) and old pro Warren William hold their own. Alice Brady is fine as the manager of the boarding house, but Elizabeth Patterson as the aunt steals most of the scenes she's in; her fuddy-duddy surface is belied by her sharp tongue. When Gladys asks her about the concept of "It" (as in Clara Bow, the It Girl), Aunt Kate replies that her generation had It, "but we didn't photograph it and put it to music." She also says to a complaining boarder, "Oh, go stuff yourself a duck, you old fussbudget!" Other good lines: Mavis calls herself "susceptible" to love and Morgan says his job is "to make sure that she doesn’t suscept too easily"; Gladys does a Marlene Dietrich impression and when Morgan asks her to do the Marx Brothers, she says, "All at once?" and he replies, "Gradually if it's any easier for you." There are silly subplots about the government encouraging marriage and about a fake pregnancy, but in the end, it's harmless fun and goes down easy. Pictured are Scott and West. [TCM]