Go West Young Man *** (1936, Mae West, Warren William, Randolph Scott, Alice Brady) – Classic Movie Review 7530

Director Henry Hathaway’s 1936 comedy Go West Young Man stars Mae West, who takes over the star role from a 1934 Broadway hit play called Personal Appearance by Lawrence Riley (which featured Gladys George), as a movie star Mavis Arden whose car breaks down in a countryside small town, where she has to put up in a boarding house.

Mavis makes the best of a bad situation, and proceeds to amaze the local hick folks with her haughty, suggestive ways, and whiles away the time by vamping hunky young farmer/ mechanic Bud Norton (Randolph Scott).

Because of the controlling censorship power of the Legion of Decency on Hollywood at this time, West’s style is cramped by having to go for glamour instead of suggestively naughty fun. However, Go West Young Man is still highly amusing for her fans anyway.

Though stars themselves, Scott, Warren William (as Mavis’s watchful publicist, Morgan), Alice Brady as Mrs Struthers, Elizabeth Patterson as Aunt Kate Barnaby, Lyle Talbot as Francis X Harrigan and Isabel Jewell as Gladys do not get much of a look in on Mae’s show, with the star providing her own screenplay.

Also in the cast are Margaret Perry, Etienne Girardot, Maynard Holmes, John Indrisano, Alice Ardell, Nick Stewart, Charles Irwin, Walter Walker, Jack La Rue, G P Huntley, Robert Baikoff, Xavier Cougat, Lee Shumway, and Jack Perrin, Si Jenks and Dick Elliott.

Go West Young Man runs 82 minutes, is made by Emanuel Cohen Productions, released by Paramount, written by Mae West and shot in black and white by Karl Struss.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7530

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com