Want to know the best Mae West movies? How about the worst Mae West movies? Curious about Mae West’s box office grosses or which Mae West movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Mae West movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which ones got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place…. because we have all of that information and much more.
Mae West (1893-1980) was an American actress, singer and writer. On American Film Institute’s Top 50 Screen Legends list, Mae West is ranked as the 15th best actress. Right behind #14 Ginger Rogers and right before #16 Vivien Leigh. West’s peak was between 1932 and 1937 when she appeared in 8 movies and became a Top 10 box office star. West only made 4 more movies from 1938 to 1978…for an average of one movie every ten years.
Her IMDb page shows 13 acting credits from 1932-1978. This page will rank 12 Mae West movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television appearances were not included in the rankings.
Mae West Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Mae West movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Mae West movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
- Sort Mae West movies by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations each Mae West movie received.
- Sort by how many Oscar® wins each Mae West movie received.
- Sort Mae West movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Use the sort and search buttons to make this table very interactive. For example…if you type in “Cary Grant” in the search box….the 2 West/Grant movies will pop right up.
Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Mae West Table
- Nine Mae West movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark. That is a percentage of 75.00% of her movies listed. I’m No Angel (1933) was her biggest box office hit.
- An average Mae West movie grosses $116.90 million in adjusted box office gross.
- Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter. 8 of Mae West’s movies are rated as good movies…or 76.66% of her movies. My Little Chickadee (1940) was her highest rated movie while Sextette (1978) was her lowest rated movie.
- Two Mae West movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 16.66% of her movies.
- Zero Mae West movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 0.00% of her movies.
- An average Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score is 39.86. 8 Mae West movies scored higher that average….or 66.66% of her movies. She Done Him Wrong (1933) got the the highest UMR Movie Score while Sextette (1978) got the lowest UMR Movie Score.
Possibly Interesting Facts About Mae West
1. Mae West was born Mary Jane West was born in Brooklyn, New York.
2. Mae West’s road to stardom Cliff Notes style….She began her career as a child star in vaudeville. When she got older she started writing and performing in successful plays. Diamond Lil was her most successful play. Paramount Pictures brought her to Hollywood for a supporting role in 1932’s Night After Night. The response to her role in Night After Night was so positive that she became a leading actress. By the end of 1933 she was a Top Ten box office star.
3. Mae West was ranked as the 8th biggest star of 1933 and the 5th biggest star of 1934.
4. Mae West’s nicknames were “Queen of the World” and “The Statue of Libido”.
5. According to the American Film Institute, Mae West is the 15th greatest female star of all-time.
6. Mae West was married one time in her life. She was married to Frank Wallace from 1911-1942. They had no children.
7. Mae West was famous for her sexual innuendos. Those innuendos drove movie censors crazy….but many of those one-liners are still famous today. We have attached a short You Tube video that shows Mae West at her best.
8. Check out Mae West’s movie career compared to current and classic stars on our Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time page.
I only counted nine (not ten movies that made the $100 million mark.
Hey Kevin….you counted correctly…I counted incorrectly….thanks for the catch…it has been fixed.
YOUR MAE WEST VIDEO
1 Short and sweet – I bet two pros like you and Cogerson each did this one in your sleep! Mae like Garbo has a legendary status that flatter their actual box office achievements but in Garbo’s case you guys had at least a reasonable number of movies to work from.
2 As Bruce says Mae was famous for her sexual innuendos and she kept that up right until the end. In Myra Breckinridge (1970) when she was 77 she is driving to a ball thrown by the local police department and she stops a policeman and asks “Can you show me the way to the policeman’s b—s?”
3 Even in her heyday when smoking was still fashionable she was apparently a fanatical non-smoker and guests to parties at her house would be met with signs everywhere that said NO SMOKING. An acquaintance of hers who loved his cigarettes quipped once that he was going to get his own back by inviting her to his house when he would plaster the rooms with signs that said NO SEX
4 I can’t really comment much about your selections as the only movie that I saw from her peak years was My Little Chickadee with W C Fields but from what I have heard most people would agree with that one and the two Cary Grant ones being in the Top 4.
5 Apparently she and Fields didn’t get on but then he got on with few people. It is reported that he had a house next door to my Deanna and that he complained that when she practised her singing in the mornings she gave him a headache; and he is said to have once cynically remarked “A man who detests children can’t be all bad.”
6 Unfortunately I always considered albeit from a distance that Mae was professionally ‘a one trick pony’ and if her films were repeated today I would be interested in only She Done Him Wrong and I’m No Angel but even then I would be watching them for just the young Grant though I might glance at Go West Young Man to see Randy in early action. However Mae must be given credit in her personal life for despite a promiscuous on-screen persona she had a marriage which according to Bruce above lasted over 30 years which was long and stable for the Hollywood of those days.
7 Anyway a fine video despite the limited material with which you had to work.
Thanks Bob, looking at Bruce’s AFI’s Top 25 Actresses chart on this page I’m surprised to see Mae West rated so highly, she’s in 15th place above the likes of Vivien Leigh, Hayworth, Harlow, Lombard and Pickford. I’ve only seen two films of hers, the top two, She Done Him Wrong and I’m No Angel.
Hey Steve I agree….her AFI ranking seems a little high….seems she should have been closer to 25th than closer to the Top 10. That being said…she was one of the most popular people on the planet for almost 50 years….so I think that had a lot to do with AFI’s thinking. Good comments as always between you and Bob.
They should have added Theda Barra to this list.
Hey Desiree…..interesting….though I have to admit I am not aware of Theda Barra…..but I am about to check her out. Thanks for the heads up on Ms. Barra.
She was a vamp, comedian also on the Radio too !!
Hey Anonymous……I agree….thanks for stopping by.
Hey Herbert…..I agree with you….she is not one of my favorites either…..but her witty one liners are still popular today….thanks for stopping by.