She Done Him Wrong

In Brief: She Done Him Wrong is the stuff of legend. It’s the film where Mae West scandalized the world by singing “I Wonder Where My Easy Rider’s Gone” and put her stamp on “Frankie and Johnny” (even if she doesn’t get to sing the whole thing). It’s the film where she brought Paramount contract player Cary Grant to the attention of the movie-going world by giving him his best role to date — in one of the most popular films of the year. It’s delightfully pre-code in the way she bring sex out into the open and pokes fun at it — and makes no bones about her own appetite for it. It also allows her to more or less get away with murder. (Yeah, it’s self-defense, but it’s obvious that she’s not even going to be arrested for it.) But one thing it isn’t is the film where she says, “Come up and see me some time.” She does ask Cary Grant, “Why don’t ya’ come up sometime and see me?” and offers, “Come up, I’ll tell your fortune,” but that’s as close as it gets — at least in this film. This excerpt was taken from a review by Ken Hanke originally published on Aug. 10, 2010.