Here are some of the best lines attributed to Mae West -

Comedienne Mae West (1892-1980) was Hollywood's first blonde bombshell. She also worked in burlesque, vaudeville and on Broadway, writing much of her own material. She broke new ground in double-entendre and sexual humor ("Come up and see me sometime..."). Her Broadway play 'Sex' (1926) got her arrested on obscenity charges. She starred opposite Cary Grant in 'She Done Him Wrong' (1933) and W.C. Fields in 'My Little Chickadee' (1940). Playing the self-deprecating vamp (epitomized by her Diamond Lil character) made her the highest paid woman in the United States in 1935. She last appeared in film in 1978.

FIND MAE WEST MOVIES HERE

Some of Mae West's best lines (trying hard to keep it clean) -

It's hard to be funny when you have to be clean.

I like restraint, if it doesn't go too far.

To err is human, but it feels divine.

Too much of a good thing is wonderful!

It's not the men in my life that counts--it's the life in my men.

When choosing between two evils I like to try the one I've never tried before.

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.

from 'Night After Night' -
Woman: Goodness, what beautiful diamonds.
Mae West: Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.

Woman: Do you believe in love at first sight?
Mae West: I don't know but it saves an awful lot of time.

from 'She Done Him Wrong' -
Cary Grant: Haven't you ever met a man who could make you happy?
Mae West: Sure, lots of times.

Those who are easily shocked should be shocked more often.

I believe in censorship. After all, I made a fortune out of it.

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Review from Amazon.com
In her first starring film vehicle, She Done Him Wrong, Mae West is Lady Lou, a saloon singer and "slick article" who drives every man who sees her mad with desire. She positively oozes sex, but always with sly, self-mocking humor. Lady Lou remarking on the nude painting of her hanging over the bar: "I gotta admit that is a flash, but I do wish Gus hadn't hung it over the free lunch." West warbles several numbers in her Brooklyn-accented, sweetly nasal voice, accompanied by her famous suggestive roll of the eye and flip of the hip: "Frankie and Johnny," "Easy Rider," and "A Guy What Takes His Time."

Based on West's Broadway play Diamond Lil, the film is set in the Gay '90s, "a lusty, brawling, florid decade, when there were handlebars on lip and wheel and legs were confidential." The corny plot involves the eternal male rivalry for Mae's favors, as well as a white slavery ring that is shipping unsuspecting girls to the Barbary Coast. But the movie's real treat is the cat-and-mouse game between West's Lady Lou and the Hawk, a detective disguised as a missionary, played by a devastatingly handsome young Cary Grant. West: "Why don't you come up some time, see me? I'm here every night." Grant: "Yeah, but I'm busy every night." West: "What're you tryin' to do, insult me?... You can be had."

In She Done Him Wrong, Mae West is absolutely in her prime. Her one-of-a-kind intermarriage of eroticism and humor, worldly wisdom and scalding wit are presented with perfect panache. --Laura Mirsky

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