The best Mae West’s documentary movies
We present our ranking of the best Mae West’s movies. Do you love cinema? Or are you looking for a movie of your favorite actor to watch tonight? Surely you have some to see or that you did not know yet about Mae West.
Complicated Women
7.7/10
A look at actresses who starred in films with thought-provoking subjects made between 1930 and July 1934, before the Hollywood Production Code —the infamous Hays Code— was enforced.
Hollywood Uncensored
5.9/10
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Peter Fonda host an examination of the history of decency standards for movies from the early 1920s onwards.
The Love Goddesses
6.9/10
This insightful documentary features some of the major and most beautiful actresses to grace the silver screen. It shows how the movie industry changed its depiction of sex and actresses' portrayal of sex from the silent movie era to the present. Classic scenes are shown from the silent movie 'True Heart Susie,' starring Lillian Gish, to 'Love Me Tonight' (1932), blending sex and sophistication, starring Jeanette MacDonald (pre-Nelson Eddy), and to Elizabeth Taylor in 'A Place in the Sun' (1951), plus much , much more.
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
7.8/10
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.
Hollywood Without Make-Up
7.2/10
A collection of behind the scenes and home movies from the golden age of Hollywood.
Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
6.3/10
Before the G, PG and R ratings system there was the Production Code, and before that there was, well, nothing. This eye-opening documentary examines the rampant sexuality of early Hollywood through movie clips and reminiscences by stars of the era. Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Marlene Dietrich and others relate tales of the artistic freedom that led to the draconian Production Code, which governed content from 1934 to 1968. Diane Lane narrates.
Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
7.1/10
Period music, film clips and newsreel footage combined into a visual exploration of the American entertainment industry during the Great Depression.
The Good, The Bad, and the Beautiful
6.7/10
A documentary reflecting on women in film and the entertainment industry through the ages led and hosted by some of its most beloved female icons.
The Women Who Run Hollywood
7.1/10
The first talkie was directed by Alice Guy, the first color film was produced by Lois Weber, who directed more than 300 films over 10 years. Frances Marion wrote screenplays for the Hollywood Star Mary Pickford and won two Oscars, Dorothy Arzner was the most powerful film director in Hollywood. And what do all of them have in common? They are all women and they have all been forgotten. Incredibly, it also took until 2010 for the first woman, Kathryn Bigelow, to win the Oscar for Best Director. Even if underrepresented women have always played a big part in Hollywood and it is this part of the film history left untold that this documentary sets out to uncover.
Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood
7.4/10
A look at the forces that shaped Pre-Code Hollywood and brought about the strict enforcement of the Hays Code in 1934.
Mae West and the Men Who Knew Her
7.2/10
As the first "blonde bombshell," Mae West reigned supreme and changed the nation's view of women, sex and race- on stage, in films, on radio and television. Including clips from Night After Night, She Done Him Wrong, I'm No Angel, Belle of the Nineties, and Klondike Annie. In addition to home movies and archival footage, Anthony Quinn, Rex Reed and Robert Wise provide interviews.
Mae West: Dirty Blonde
7.6/10
Mae West achieved great acclaim in every entertainment medium that existed during her lifetime, spanning eight decades of the 20th century. A full-time actress at seven, a vaudevillian at 14, a dancing sensation at 25, a playwright at 33, a silver screen ingénue at 40, a Vegas nightclub act at 62, a recording artist at 73, a camp icon at 85 - West left no format unconquered. She possessed creative and economic powers unheard of for a female entertainer in the 1930s and still rare today. Though a comedian, West grappled with some of the more complex social issues of the 20th century, including race and class tensions, and imbued even her most salacious plotlines with commentary about gender conformity, societal restrictions and what she perceived as moral hypocrisy. Mae West: Dirty Blonde is the first major documentary film to explore West's life and career, as she "climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong" to become a writer, performer and subversive agitator for social change.
The Fashion Side of Hollywood
5.8/10
Compilation of lighting and costume tests from various films, most notably Sternberg's The Devil Is a Woman (1935).
