This film is one which is beginning to become inaccessible in its attachment to the time it was made.

Films reflect the times they are found. The attitudes and sexualities of one generation are not those of the next. This film, made in 1833 is know - nearly four generations ago.

The past is a different culture 1920’s 1940’s a different world – pre WWII Theater still full of ethnic humor, ethnic stereotypes

Brooklynite (Bushwick) Mae West (Aug 17th 1893-Nov. 22 1980) appeared in stage productions, the first of which was called Sex and was closed down and the whole cast arrested on morals charges. Her next play (done in New Jersey because of NY’s laws) was The Drag and dealt with homosexuality. Her arrival into the movie worls at the advanced age of 38 (truly advanced for a “sex symbol’s first appearance).

Her plays and later her films railed against the strict conventions of the time. She was a strong advocate of gay and teansgendered rights. She regarded the ability to talk about sex a basic human rights issue

She Done Him Wrong was nominated for an Academy Award and gave Cary Grant one of his early starring roles. The second I’m No Angel cast Grant with her again and again was nominated for an Academy Award.

West’s innuendoes and double entendres were famous and often repeated. ("Come up and see me sometime"; "Its not the men in your life but the life in your men"). Even her spelling of Pinlowitz on the phone ("P" as in Pansy, "W" as in witch, no witch (she misunderstood me) "t" as in tomato" are all infused with sexual innuendo - pansy beiong a word for an effeminate male, the operator has presumably hear "bitch" rather than "witch" and "tomato" as a word for an attractive woman). Coupled with her “swagger” and voice, she was a kind of sexually liberated woman who took sex on her terms, hardly demur she was aggressive and perfectly aware of the way her sexuality could be used as something people (especially men) could use in “manipulating” others. West’s women are good at heart, caring (as exemplified in this film by her giving the jade to her friend and the money to Slick when he is down and out, and yet also recognizing that people are responsible for their own acts as is brought out in the courtroom scene, where for example she points out that Brown has been married five times and was married to his fifth wife when he wanted to date Tira.

The film does many things to “specularize” West’s glamour” from the runway constructed at the carnival like a burlesque runway, her playing with the “veil” like Salome’s dance of the seven veils. In her use of the veil and departure behind the screen, she exhibits one of the more well known aspects of sexuality – that of the hidden and the revealed. Like many other aspects of different genres, what is hidden is more potent than what is not. The imagination lets each individual imagine their most personal things about what is hidden rather than blatantly showing things directly (this is one of the things with pornography frequently is its blantantness). It is one fo the themes one can follow throughout the films on sex in film. How much (and what) is revealed and how much is kept hidden.. In keeping with this, you notice that West is frequently dressed in way which show little skin. Her gowns often have a high collar in the back which frames her face and appears occasionally almost like a halo in contradiction to the films title: I’m No Angel

Despite the fact that West is female, the gaze in the film is heavily male. The camera tends to look at what heterosexual men want to see, not what women want. It is west who is specularized and made the focus of attention not Grant. Of course, the fact that the character is West’s creation, shows a depiction of “woman” which is not the kind that men are typically seen as being interested in or creating. The “male gaze” is another aspect of films that needs to be traced throught the course. How does the camera look at the people in the film. Who is specularized and how are they specularized?

In what ways does the film indicate her upward mobility (e.g. at the carnival two men come out badly dressed in uniforms and blow trumpets badly. Later the same scene is repeated with more men all neatly uniformed playing horns well,