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Goin' To Town

1935, Movie, NR, 74 mins

Goin' To Town: Review

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Not one of Mae West's best, GOIN' TO TOWN tried to pack too much into 74 minutes. West wrote the screenplay, so you know there are plenty of smart and sassy wisecracks, but it covers so much ground that we barely have enough time to get interested in something. This time around, West is a cattle baroness who inherits an oil field from a guy who has won her in a dice game (Kohler). Next thing you know, she's the wealthiest woman in the state. Kohler has been shot but gave her the deed to the oil before he turned up his toes. She has her property surveyed by British engineer Cavanagh and falls for him. (There's a scene where she actually ropes him with a lariat after he ignores her advances.) She tries to win him over but he resists. He is then sent to Buenos Aires on business and she follows him there. She finds a copy of a posh magazine and sees a photo of Gateson, a real lady, and she realizes that the only way she can charm the stiff-upper-lip of Cavanagh is to become a lady. With the help of an employee, Emery, she does a Pygmalion on herself and is soon the doyenne of Buenos Aires. She is going to run her horse in a huge race against the horse owned by Gateson. Gateson, who will stop at nothing, has her lover, Lebedeff, attempt to drug West's horse the night before the race. To insure her winning, West has her trainer, Coral, stand at the finish line to fire a gun when her horse nears the wire. The only way the animal responds is when hearing sharp noises (not unlike "Jeepers Creepers" in GOLD DIGGERS OF '33, who would only calm down when he heard Louis Armstrong sing). Lebedeff sees the horse win, then changes his allegiance from Gateson to West, but she sees right through him for the gigolo he is. West wants Cavanagh, but he still won't tumble, so she arranges a marriage, in name only, to Gateson's nephew, Owsley, who was just about to take his own life due to financial losses at the gaming tables. They get married and move to Southhampton where she is now in residence as a pillar of society. She invites Gateson and some of her snobbish friends over, but it's a bust. Now Gateson hires a private eye to find out if West is a woman of low morals. She also hires Lebedeff and brings him in from Argentina so he can be found in West's bed. There's a big gala, and Cavanagh, who is now an earl, arrives and declares his love, finally, to West and asks that she marry him. Meanwhile, Owsley goes to get West's money from the bedroom safe because he is still in heavy hock. He catches Lebedeff in the bedroom, there's a fight, and Owsley is killed with the gun he had in his hand. Lebedeff races off and goes into hiding. Downstairs, there is a huge opera being performed with West singing one of the leads for the assemblage. At the interval, she goes up to her bedroom and finds her dead husband as well as a monogrammed case left behind by the killer. The private detective attempts to blame West for the murder, but Lebedeff is apprehended by Coral, admits his guilt, and reveals Gateson's plot to discredit West. With no husband to stand in the way, West marries Cavanagh and goes off to Jolly Olde England as the wife of the Earl of Stratton. Now that's enough for two movies, but, in between all the action, there's time for such songs as "Now I'm A Lady," "He's A Bad Bad Man But He's Good Enough For Me," "Love Is Love In Any Woman's Heart," as well as the aria known as "My Heart at Thy Still Voice" from Saint-Saens' opera "Samson And Delilah." Phew. Some good one-liners from West and a few sharp moments from others in the cast, but it's a misfire, mostly because it doesn't quite know if it wants to be funny or not. For example, West plays the opera totally straight, but that was a perfect spot for humor against the mayhem that was taking place upstairs between her husband and the hired lover. Not everything West did was perfection, and this one was the proof of that pudding. leave a comment
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