Go West Young Man (Paramount). When Mae West made her cinema debut in 1932 (Night After Night), wiseacres predicted her career would be short-lived. When she became a star (1933), critics considered her a fad. When the Legion of Decency was formed (1934), Mae West seemed its most likely victim. Currently, though she slipped from fifth to eleventh in Motion Picture Herald's star-rating, Mae West is still one of Hollywood's highest paid ($150,000 per picture) celebrities, unique in two respects: 1) She writes her own scripts. 2) While other producers are trying to be dainty, she tries to be ribald. In Go West Young Man, derived from Lawrence Riley's play Personal Appearnace, her efforts are, as usual, successful.
Mavis Arden, a famed cinemactress on tour with her publicity agent (Warren William), has only one insterest in life, which it is his job to frustrate. The interest is men. In Washington, Mavis meets a Congressman (Lyle Talbot), makes an engagement for the next night in Harrisburg. To prevent her from keeping it, Pressagent Stevens sees to it that her car breaks down en route. Forced to stay over a country boardinghouse, she wastes no time getting down to business. She spots a young mechanic under her car, murmurs, "Look at those strong and sinewy muscles," sidles outdoors to make his acquaintance.
The mechanic (Randolph Scott) has an invention. Says Mavis: "I'd just love to see your model." The examination takes place in a barn. When it is over, Mavis Arden decides that she will take the young inventor back to Hollywood. Her plan is frustrated by Pressagent Stevens. By dangling tiny garments in front of her, he convinces her that the young man's fiancée is pregnant, causing Mavis to snort: "Fine goings on around here!" By the time she learns that the young man's relations with his fiancée are not premature, the situation has considerably changed. She loses interest in both the inventor and the Congressman, rides off wrapped around the pressagent. Greater than her importance to the U. S. cinema public, which could presumably get along without her, is Mae West's importance as a lexicon of those slouching wisecracks, grimy proverbs and reckless, light-hearted double-entendres without which the great mass of the U. S. population would be almost inarticulate. In go West Young Man, she delivers a full quota which will doubtless become, immediately and indelibly, part of the U. S. jargon. When her escort demands a quiet table for two, her comment is, "You know, seclusive." Worried, she remarks: "I must have a moment or two ... to commute with myself." To her young inventor she coins a proverb: "I always said 'Science is Golden'."