Mae west 1930s censorship

West was funny, smart, and driven to succeed. She worked in any kind of production she could find, and even wrote her own plays. Her first starring role on Broadway was at age 33 in a production called Sexwhich West wrote under the name Jane Mast. The show ran for more than performances before police raided a performance in February and arrested the cast on charges of obscenity.

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How could the film measure up to its hilarious predecessors, which West developed to highlight her own sexuality? The panning of Hollywood in the play must have appealed to West. But I think she saw something else in the story too: She must have laughed to discover the following opportunities to satirize her nemesis: The camera darts back and forth between the screen and the crowd in the theater viewing it.

Mavis plays the role in a comfortable, bawdy style, and then abruptly regrets her cheating ways and loses her man. An artificial chill settles over Drifting Lady when she does. This would never happen in a pre-Code West film, we viewers remind ourselves.

West is supposed to get all of the guys, and celebrate every sexual conquest with a one liner. But when her lover is about to depart, the star holds out her arm in a stagey gesture and sputters sentimental bilge about April and blue skies and fond memories.

The actress adopts the same stagey line and tone when she talks to the crowd after her film. She then proceeds to share peculiar details about her life. Blaming the Studio After Mavis leaves the stage, Morgan selects a few token men to greet her, all of them homely.

But it does much more: It satirizes limitations on believable behavior onscreen thanks to the Production Code. Marriage as a Substitute for Sex West could no longer pen scenes of women seducing men without repercussions. In Go West Yong Man, she resolves this problem by referencing marriage when she means sex.

By following the letter, but not the spirit of the Code, West emphasizes the ludicrous nature of censorship. The plot of the film is fairly simple.

Morgan foils any romance Mavis attempts. My favorite brush off: Morgan invites the press to her date, causing the lover to panic and giving Mavis the chance to express her true nature. She soon departs, with the two planning to meet again in Harrisburg.

The delay annoys her until she spots a handsome young mechanic Randolph Scott. The Supporting Players William is brilliant as Morgan.

Unfortunately, the one black character in the film is a fool, or appears to be at first.

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Halfway through the movie, I became convinced he had just been smoking a lot of weed. It may be wishful thinking on my part, but could it be another snide jab at the censors, who would be unlikely to examine such a minor role closely?

Oblivious The funniest moments in the Go West Young Man are when Mavis tries to seduce the handsome mechanic, who completely misreads her blatant moves on him.

Busy displaying his invention, he misses the meaning of such subtle lines as these: Go West Young Man undermines the notion that sex can be discouraged by rules. I like to think of it as a reference to the star herself, with just one preposition and comma missing:Mae West is a name that comes up when discussing U.S.

censorship and film, mainly because she was a Hollywood star who danced the line between what was allowable and what was not. A great deal of her career as a Hollywood actress revolves around pushing the limits of the moral landscape.

Mae West and the Limits ofRadio Censorship in the by MATTHEW MURRAY ON DECEMBER 12, , Mae West appeared on network radio and the pat­ terns ofbroadcast censorship were never the same again.

In the space of thirty minutes, during what was West'sonly major radio performance, invio­. I'm No Angel is a pre-code film directed by Wesley Ruggles, and starring Mae West and Cary Grant.

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West received sole story and screenplay credit. West received sole story and screenplay credit. It is one of her films that were not subjected to heavy censorship. Mae West () American actress, singer, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades.

Known for her bawdy double entendres, West made a name for herself in vaudeville and on the stage in New York before moving to Hollywood to become a comedienne, actress, and writer in the . Photo: Paramount Pictures/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain Mae West was a maverick of her time challenging censorship standards with her bawdy, seductive characters.

Throughout the s, she appeared in such films as I'm No Angel, She Done Him Wrong and Klondike Annie. In Mae West caused a radio scandal performing a racy skit with Charlie McCarthy and Don Ameche, which led to the FCC tightening restrictions on indecency and NBC enacting new censorship .