Sextette
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Movie Reviews of Sextette
Movie Review: Too Much of a Good Thing Can Be Wonderful
Summary: 4 Stars
Sextette is about an international sex symbol on her wedding day (Husband Number 6). Throughout the course of this one day, she and her husband are interrupted for a variety of interviews and interludes (with everyone except each other). I adore this movie (so much so I warped the tape and HAD to buy the DVD). I would only recommend it to a Mae West fan, however. After all, this movie was made for her fans. Therefore, it might be difficult for someone not familiar with her work to understand the magic and inferences. Although it is set in the 70s, there is a scene where she is trying on the different dresses for an upcoming movie. It is a true pleasure to see all those "Diamond Lil-esque" costumes in color. I encourage you to approach the movie in a campy frame of mind. Also, this is an older Mae West. While she is still delivering all her famous lines, due to Alzheimer's, her speech is a bit stilted at times (the dialogue was often being read to her through an earpiece). She is still glamorous, but this is not the face you are used to from her other movies (unless you're only familiar with her appearance in Myra Breckenridge). The technical aspects of the DVD are what caused me to give this movie only 4 stars. There is the perk of chapter selection, but the sound was horrible. My TV was at maximum volume, yet the dialogue was still very soft (good thing I have all the dialogue memorized). Also, it would have been great to have the movie trailer or some other little perk at the end (I guess I've been spoiled by all the DVDs with a million extras at the end). The picture quality was great. Overall, a very good movie, but I'd only recommend purchase of the DVD for West fans thoroughly familiar with the movie.Movie Review: File under "What Were They Thinking?"
Summary: 3 Stars
Ok, a lot of reviewers seem to love this film, and I must say I enjoyed watching it too...but only due to the constant jaw-dropping horror and surprise I experienced during this unfathomable exercise in "entertainment."The plot...well, simply it doesn't matter. Suffice to say that Mae West must be well over 80, but she plays a Hollywood sex bomb who has just married for the 6th time. She is greeted by a level of hysteria on arrival in London that rivals the second coming (albeit on a budget). Her new husband is a young Timothy Dalton, long before his James Bond years. The married couple book into a posh London hotel and there are plenty of "laughs" to follow as their planned night of wedded bliss is constantly interrupted by various capers and intruding ex husbands. My reaction to this was..."Thank God for that"! The notion of an 80+ year old woman fighting off the attention of all these 30 something young suitors is plain ridiculous. Its sooo obvious that Mae (game though she is throughout) is simply way too old to make this role believeable. She can barely walk, and her acting consists of little more than creaking around in tight, figure hugging gowns and feathers (mmm...), patting her platinum curls and reading out vulgar double-entendres in answer to any query from a male member of the cast. I don't think she had a single line in the whole film that a) wasn't dirty, and b) contributed something to the plot!
If you can suspend your disbelief about this situation long enough to concentrate on the rest of the film, you'll be blown away by the sheer ineptitude of it, not least of all the musical numbers. At one point, all the staff and guests in Mae's London hotel lobby suddenly break into "Hooray For Hollywood" as she checks in...so wrong, and for so many reasons! Then later, Mae and Dalton enjoy a (barely) sung duet of "Love Will Keep Us Together", and there are many more just as bad. Mae has a few brief solo numbers of her own, and its obvious that she didn't have the energy (or the voice) to pull them off, but they are here all the same. Its all so pitiful and there isn't a shred of irony about it. Some reviewers say the film is tongue in cheek, and is not taking itself seriously. I disagree. The film is obviously intended to be a tribute to the curvaceous charms of its star..it's just 40 years too late! But I'm glad, because the amount of laughs you'll get from watching it are doubled for this very reason. There are loads more howlers that I don't have the space to even go into, but nothing matches the bare-faced inappropriateness of the central issue. So do Mae and Tim ever get it together for a night of passion...? If the idea doesn't turn your stomach, get this DVD and find out!
Movie Review: Train wreck of a film that can now be called CULT!
Summary: 3 Stars
Why oh why would anyone green light this film? I can only imagine that Mae West must have put up the money for the film, because it just doesn't make sense!
Mae West was never an accomplished dramatic actress. She was a sex kitten - even a provacateur way ahead of her time - in mostly sexual comedies of the 1930's and 1940's. At that, West was tops.
In Sextette, West chose to resurrect a script she had written for production back in the 1930's. It is the same script some 40 years later. While that in and of itself is not a bad thing -West stars as the sex kitten once again! That is not good. The film is full of her famous inuendo (which is great), but it is also full of her famous inuendo uttered by her at the tender age of 150.
Honestly, Mae West couldn't look worse! She is shot through so much gauze that she actually looks plastic at times. The director has mentioned that she couldn't remember her lines, so they shot her by herself and fed her lines through a device in her ear. She just repeated the lines as only she could.
That her costumes and her gait are the same some 40 years later is less a testament to the film and her abilities than it is to the sad nature of her career. In an interview some years ago, a friend of hers noted that Mae West had long ago lost any semblance of who Mae West the woman was and only knew how to be "Mae West: Sex Kitten". It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that she was in her late 80's when she appeared in this film (in fact she died less than two years after the film was released).
The film is a quaint little sexual farce built inside a very light piece of intrigue. The whole of the film hinges on West and it is West that you pay the price of admission to see. However, to see Timothy Dalton play West's much younger husband is really icky. George Hamilton and Dom Deluise also appear in large parts.
It's a bizarre little film, that truly is a train wreck, but one worth the price of admission. However, if you are a Mae West lover, it is a sad footnote to a delightful career.
Movie Review: Goodness Had a Lot to Do With It!
Summary: 3 Stars
I just finished reading the reviews of others in this section. Now if this film was terrible why did they sit through long enough to review - I'm sure there was a review and the next one just went along with the first and so forth because they thought they were being clever. Mae West knew what she was doing - she did this film for her fans. Take another look at her and wonder if you or someone you know will look that good into their 80's. Just look at the auction sites on line and see just how popular Mae West is to this day. Who remembers Betty Grable or Jane Russell in the same way they remember Mae West. The trouble with this movie was bad direction and a poor screenplay - Mae West accomplished what she wanted in this film and if you are ready for a little escape and some silly fun buy this movie and enjoy Mae West's last film!Movie Review: A Movie So Bad, It's Actually Good!
Summary: 3 Stars
I've seen Sextette a couple of times. The first time I saw it, my jaw dropped at the absurdity of pairing Mae West with love interest Timothy Dalton. Then there were the assorted cameos of everyone from George Raft to Alice Cooper. Mae West was probably the only star out there who had the moxie to assemble such a diverse group of characters into the same picture. The second time I watched it, I took the movie for what it was -- a fun, campy pic that doesn't take itself seriously in the least. Kudos to Ms. Mae!