Mae West's mere dozen motion pictures were mostly comedies, but they generally included her shimmying languorously though a song or two. Musically, this is probably the best Mae West film, notable for the inclusion of Duke Ellington's orchestra. It was the first time a white singer shared the screen democratically with black musicians, and it's said that West fought hard to make it happen. With Ellington's orchestra backing her up, she sings "Memphis Blues," "Troubled Waters," and the unforgettable "My Old Flame." She was ahead of her time in almost every way, a one-woman liberation movement who wrote her own material and wrote plays dealing with everything from interracial love to homosexuality. The Hays Code almost did her in, but no survey of musicals would be complete without the inclusion of Mae West. --from Musicals on the Silver Screen, American Library Association, 2013
Review of Belle of the Nineties
