Belle of the Nineties (1934)

Belle of the Nineties: Directed by Leo McCarey. With Mae West, Roger Pryor, Johnny Mack Brown, John Miljan. Ruby Carter, the American Beauty queen of the night club-sporting world, shifts her operations from St. Louis to New Orleans (which kind of belies the Western genre designation), mostly to get away from prizefighter Tiger Kid. Installed as the prize attraction of “The Sensation Club

“Mae Westu0026#39;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 Ellingtonu0026#39;s orchestra. It was the first time a white singer shared the screen democratically with black musicians, and itu0026#39;s said that West fought hard to make it happen. With Ellingtonu0026#39;s orchestra backing her up, she sings u0026quot;Memphis Blues,u0026quot; u0026quot;Troubled Waters,u0026quot; and the unforgettable u0026quot;My Old Flame.u0026quot; 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”