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.
Hi
Quite a change from Shirley Temple. Mae West was an original. I’ve only seen 3 of her films, She Done Me Wrong, I’m No Angel and Sextette, which was awful. The director Henry Hathaway, who directed her in Going to Town said that she was a nightmare, so self obsessed, every idea he suggested to add to the film, she would veto as it would take away from her. Seems she couldn’t bare anybody getting laughs over her.
I think that was sad as it obviously limited her career and pigeon holed her into one type of character. But I think today she is more famous for her quotes and sayings rather than her films.
You give the figure of $178m gross for She Done Me Wrong. In tickets sales, what would that equate to in 1933? because I read that film had helped save Paramount from bankruptcy.
Hey Chris…..I have a notebook (actually the latest of many notebooks) that I keep lots of box office numbers just waiting to be used in a page….well my little girl spilled a juice box all over the notebook…..so I decided to do a West and Temple page at the same time….so I would not lose that information when I throw the book away. So I ended up with polar opposites in West and Temple. Imagine if they made a movie together….that would have been classic.
Sextette is a brutal watch. I give her credit for being over 80 and playing the part…..but it is a stinker of a movie….too bad the Razzies were not alive back then….because it would have won all of those awards. I agree that she seems to have been somewhat difficult to work with….but I think she understood the things that made her a star….and some of those conflicts were about her trying to give her fans what she thought they wanted.
In 1933….West had two movies cross the 2 million box office rental mark…..She Done Him Wrong had rentals of 2.2 million….while I’m No Angel was at 2.3 million in rentals. That would translate to box office GROSSES of $5.06 million for Angel and $4.84 million for She Done Him Wrong. As for ticket sales…..it would have been about 22 million for Angel and 21 million for She Done Him Wrong. Without a doubt the success of those two movies saved the rear end of Paramount. Glad you check out my latest page. Pretty sure William Wyler will be coming out soon.
Well, I enjoyed the video. I do not believe that I have seen any of her movies in full but bits and pieces on TV. I liked her smart remarks. Looks like she did a good job in entertaining though.
Thanks again for another interesting and informative page. GOOD JOB ONCE AGAIN…
Hey BERN1960….glad you enjoyed the video….she was the queen of the one-liners….no doubt about that. Thanks for stopping by.
Hi, Bruce.
I’ve seen the top three of Mae West’s films. The two she did with Cary Grant and the one she did with W.C. Fields. The only other one which interests me is the one she did with Randolph Scott as I watch for her costars. I don’t really watch her films more than once. A far as sassy sex symbols go, I prefer Jane Russell and would rather see her on the AFI list instead of Mae West. She was a better actress
Cheers,
Flora Breen Robison
Hey Flora…wow! our tally counts are very small….you and me at 3 and Steve at 2…..that is a grand total of 8 for all three of us….plus we all saw She Done Him Wrong….which means the rest of her career has been ignored by all of us. For some reason I have always gotten Blonde Venus, She Done Him Wrong and I’m No Angel mixed up. I have seen two of these movies….but after reading about and seeing pictures from I’m No Angel….I realize this is a Cary Grant movie that has escaped me so far. West is a lion tamer in that one? I think West was more personality than actress….AFI picked her from her legend status than her movies….Jane Russell would have been a good addition….but Olivia de Havilland trumps Russell and West….and should have been included on that list.
That was 2 of AFI’s top 25 in the last two days….I am up to 68% done with the actresses….the % is starting to be a decent %….granted it is not as good as the 92% the AFI top…but it is a steady improvement. Thank you for the comment and the visit.
Believe it or not I’ve only seen 2 of her films – I’m No Angel and She Done Him Wrong – I don’t think I’ve seen My Little Chickadee. Watched that youtube video you’ve linked, she really was the naughtiest of the golden age actresses, the only other that came close was Marlene Dietrich. But the legendary Marilyn Monroe didn’t need dialogue, she was a lot prettier and sexier. Nice work Bruce. Voted Up.
Hey Steve…..thanks for checking out my Mae West page. My tally is 3 ……I thought it was 4 but I do not think I have seen I’m No Angel…or if I did I have no memory of watching it. I saw She Done Him Wrong years ago…..but I have watched My Little Chickadee and Sextette in the last year. Sextette is brutal to watch. Watching Timothy soon to be James Bond Dalton singing love songs to the 80 plus year old is probably one of the low marks in movie history.
Bette Midler has always reminded me of Mae West. I do not think I have seen any of her movies but I have heard her 1 liners many many times. You put together a very nice You Tube video of her career.