February 27th 2013. Pick Of The Day.

Classic screening choices are slim today as we experience a preview of March weather to come. Really slim. REALLY slim. Like I got the Film Forum's ongoing tribute to Hollywwod's year of transition, 1933, to pick from today. That's it. So either way I'm sending you to the same venue, and as it's a two-fer today I'm basically sending you to both films. But I remain true to the spirit of this column and make the difficult Sophie's Choice twixt these prime examples of cosmopolitan debauchery, both directed by Lowell Sherman and both of which reside comfortably among the titles that hastened the institution of the Motion Picture Production, or Hays, Code. Difficult, yes, but my devotion to you, my well-informed, loyal and generally really good-lookin' reader knows no bounds. You been workin' out? It shows. Let's commence, shall we?

Exhibit A in the Forum's brief is the prohibition era expose BROADWAY THROUGH A KEYHOLE. "Texas" Guinan ran what was arguably Manhattan's most prestigious speakeasy during those rough years, catering to the likes of Reggie Vanderbilt and Walter Chrysler, and featuring impromptu entertainment from cats like George Gershwin and Al Jolson as well as a fully choreographed showgirl revue. This flick is based on Walter Winchell's accounts of the doings behind these heavily guarded doors. Dance girl Constance Cummings falls in with racketeer Paul Kelly, and the road to Hell gains two more travellers. Also notable for early appearances from Lucille Ball and Ann Sothern. Although I've never seen it it tempts mightily based just on what I've read, but I reserve my Pick today for one of Hollywood's all-time glamour queens, a grand broad who only made twelve films but whose indelible mark is still felt to this day, her cultural resonance informing Pin-Up beauties like Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth, 50's bombshells like Marilyn Monroe, 60's sex goddesses like Raquel Welch, all the way up to modern sex kittens like Salma Hayek and Monica Bellucci. And really, you promised to come see her sometime. So today's too soon?

Mary Jane West was a real Brooklyn gal. Born in Bushwick to a prize fighter father and a corset model mom she constantly performed from a very early age at church socials and amateur shows, finally making her pro debut in vaudeville at age 14. She gradually worked her way up the revue circuit, eventualy appearing in the Shubert Brothers' SOMETIME. Never shy about rewriting her lines she eventually wrote, produced and directed a showcase for her talent. Entitled SEX. And why not? That wildly successful production got her 10 days in prison on indecency charges, during which she bragged of wearing her silk panties while dining with the warden. Her public persona was set in stone, oozing casual sexuality with none of the attendant shame the era enforced. Some time later Paramount Pictures, deep in the throes of financial woes in the lingering depression, offered the stage star a movie contract, which was pretty much their way of begging for help. The resulting film, which transposed her carefully crafted "Darling Lil" stage persona to the big screen, wound up the biggest hit of the year for the studio, saving it in the process, snagging a nomination for Best Pic, and providing its star with her immortal catchphrase. Which is wholly misquoted. Who cares? Here's a genuine opportunty to watch film history unspool before your eyes, and to celebrate one of the great movie stars the studio era ever produced.

Mae West's SHE DONE HIM WRONG screens all day today at the Film Forum. Cary Grant goes along for the ride. As it were.

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Bad weather means the folks at Occupy Sandy could probably use some help. In case you feel like checking in.

Be safe and sound and make sure the next guy is too, Stockers! New calendar coming in two days! Excelsior!

-Joe Walsh