Review: Mae West Ropes Her a Man in 'Goin' To Town' Out Now From Kino

In " Goin' to Town," Mae West literally ropes her man!

The icon's fifth feature film was yet another genre mash-up, this time musical-comedy blended with western crime drama, and the results proved mixed, but ultimately rewarding.

West plays saloon singer Cleo Borden, who is being courted by a wealthy rancher and oil tycoon. Cleo is set to marry him, but on the day of the nuptials he is killed in a shootout (although, we're never told why). Per the agreement, she inherits all his holdings (he doesn't seem to have any family contesting – just one of the many plot holes). Now needing a crash course in cattle and oil, Cleo turns to Brit oil engineer Edward Carrington (a proper Paul Cavanagh), and is immediately smitten with him. He seems uninterested, which makes her even more determined to woo him. When he journeys to Buenos Aires on business, she follows with her racehorse. (Yep, stay with me.) There, she meets a shady Russian gigolo and is scorned by the ladies of high society. She returns to the states and, determined to win Carrington over, sets about becoming respectable by putting on an opera where she plays Delilah – okay, I'm going to stop here, because even I'm getting exhausted writing this! And the film is only 71 minutes long!

By this point in time (1935), the Production Code and Catholic Legion of Decency had restricted what West could do, say, and sing onscreen, but even with these outrageous limitations she manages to be sly and seductive, and sing a couple of bluesy ditties including "He's a Bad Bad Man."

Directed with surprising expedience by Alexander Hall ("Here Comes Mr. Jordan," "Little Miss Marker"), with a screenplay by West (story credit: Marion Morgan and George B. Dowell), "Goin' to Town" suffers from a lack of strong and interesting leading men for West to spar with, but when you have West, what else do you need? (That was probably Paramount and West's thoughts, to boot.)

The Blu-ray visuals are fine, with occasional blurs, but not as many as in previous West transfers. The sound is very good with little hiss.

The audio commentary by film historian Kat Ellinger (always a treat) mentions a scary footnote in West's career. Apparently once filming was over, West was blackmailed by people involved in the shoot who demanded $1000, threatening that otherwise they would throw acid on her face and ruin her career. The culprits were apprehended. Oddly, West never mentioned the incident in her autobiography and never discussed it.

Incidentally, The New York Times' Andre Sennwald (who?), in his review, took West to task for "distressing signs she's beginning to crack up," because her character chases a man and because of her weight gain. The fact that Sennwald, a male reviewer, felt the need to devote a few sentences to this galled me so I Googled him. Turns out he died a year later (in 1936), when his penthouse apartment exploded because of a gas leak. Huh.

Blu-ray Extras Include: