Go West Young Man (1936)

A movie star, stranded in the country, trifles with a young man's affections.

Director:

Henry Hathaway

Writers:

Lawrence Riley (play), Mae West (screenplay)

Stars:

Mae West, Warren William, Randolph Scott

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Mae West	...	Mavis Arden
Warren William	...	Morgan
Randolph Scott	...	Bud Norton
Alice Brady	...	Mrs. Struthers
Elizabeth Patterson	...	Aunt Kate Barnaby
Lyle Talbot	...	Francis X. Harrigan
Isabel Jewell	...	Gladys
Margaret Perry	...	Joyce Struthers
Etienne Girardot	...	Prof. Herbert Rigby
Maynard Holmes	...	Clyde
John Indrisano	...	Chauffeur
Alyce Ardell	...	Jeanette (French maid)
Nick Stewart	...	Nicodemus (as Nicodemus Stewart)
Charles Irwin	...	Master of Ceremonies
Walter Walker	...	Andy Kelton

Storyline

Movie star Mavis Arden, as amorous in private as she is pure in public, gets involved with a politician despite her watchdog publicist Morgan. Planning to meet her beau again at the next stop on her personal appearance tour, Mavis is stranded at a remote rural boarding house, with a pretentious landlady, sensible old maid, rabid film fan waitress...and strapping young mechanic Bud Norton, whom to Mavis is just the plaything of an idle hour...

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Plot Keywords:

film in film | cardinal direction in title | four word title | based on play

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Taglines:

The story of the touring movie star...and the country boy!

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 November 1936 (USA)

Also Known As:

Personal Appearance

Filming Locations:

General Service Studios - 1040 N. Las Palmas, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Emanuel Cohen Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of over 700 Paramount productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

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Goofs

Story is set in mid-Thirties but at premiere of Mavis Arden's latest movie, stock footage of audiences watching the film are people dressed in fashions and hairstyles of some ten years earlier.

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Quotes

Mavis Arden: Listen, Rico, where I come from they call this "pulling a fast one on you, givin' you the business." Why don't you make yourself scarce? I'm betterin' myself.

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Connections

References The Blue Angel (1930)

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Soundtracks

"MOMENT"
Written by Arthur Johnston
Lyrics by Johnny Burke
(used instrumentally)

User Reviews

Mae West vs. Warren William

GO WEST YOUNG MAN is a good but yes, toned down comedy from Mae's pre-code days, but still fun to watch and not a waste of time at all.

Mae plays a movie star who stars in romantic drama and Warren William is her press agent who dreams up schemes to keep her from getting married, because her contract says that she cannot get married until 5 years. While they are on their way to Harrisburg Mae's custom-made car stuffed full of cold cream and shampoo breaks down. So, she is stuck in a rural colonial cottage boarding house with yummy Randolph Scott, twittering Alice Brady, and her biggest (and ditziest) fan Isabel Jewell.

While Mae West's acting and dialog was made tamer for the talkies, so was wonderful, handsome, cynical Warren William's, who was one of Warner Bros. top stars in the pre-code era. Warren William used to play ruthless bosses and all out cads, and while his role here is good and he gets to do some sleazy arguing and engineer some tricks on Mae West, GWYM was indeed a big step down for him. It was all because of that awful Satan MET A LADY (1934) which greatly hurt his career. Not to mention the awakening of the film censors by the Legion of Decency.

Elizabeth Patterson gives a great performance as the spunky Aunt Kate, and Isabel Jewell does a wonderful job as energetic, imaginative, movie-crazy Gladys. She does a funny imitation of Marlene Dietrich.

Oh yeah, and Randolph Scott was a total hunk with his "large and sinewy" muscles.