I can only say that when I saw this movie on Showtime I completely enjoyed it. Then, in the months that followed, when I would be flipping through the channels looking for something to kill a little time, I'd stop when I came upon Mae West. I'd think to watch it for a few minutes and go on. Inevitably I would watch it through to the end once again. I must have seen the last half or two-thirds of this movie twenty times or more and I never tired of seeing it again.

If I could find it on DVD or VHS I'd likely watch it twenty more times. I can't really say why but the story, the casting and the acting, mainly Ann Jillian made it memorable and endlessly enjoyable.

RODDY McDOWALL'S character Rene Valentine was based on the legendary stage and film star JULIAN ELTINGE, and not the drag queen that is mentioned above. Mr. Eltinge was quite influential in creating the sexy style and alluring mannerisms that became Ms. West's trademarks in the long run. Before she was tutored by him, she was nothing more than a raucous singer that had little style. The costume she wears in the scene at the vaudeville theater, after working with him, is based on factual information researched by Costume Desinger, JEAN-PIERRE DORLEAC, who was nominated for an Emmy for the film. The same goes for all the other costumes in the film.

Besides possibly Bette Midler, I can't think of anyone better to play Mae West in the 70's or 80's than Ann Jillian. Prior to that, only Mae West could play Mae West, and no one else outside of her and those two had what it took. Even made up as her in the same years "Best Little WH", Dolly Parton was playing Dolly. While the narrative is a bit all over the place, it's pretty well written in spite of hopping around from one year to earlier and back and forth in an inconsistent manner. The film starts with her being arrested for obscenity, flashing back to her youth and then her early days in vaudeville, finally taking her to Hollywood and how she upsets the status quo in regards to the production code. Along the way, she has a romance with handsome James Brolin but fails to mention to him that she's been married even though she hasn't seen her husband in years. Not much plotwise outside of her upsetting the moral majority, get completely beloved by the general public who enjoyed the subtlety of her insinuations in her own written dialogue.

Sexy without being vulgar and alluring without showing flesh, Jillian is one of the great nearly forgotten stars of her era, having gone from Broadway to TV to an occasional movie, and always commanding every moment she's on screen. She gets to sing, clown and be dramatic, greatly supported by Roddy McDowall as a female impersonator who aides her in creating her image. Piper Laurie is only seen briefly as her mother, having already played Carrie's mother and Judy Garland's mother prior to this. Recreations of some of her great scenes and her dealing with a drunk W. C. Fields are other highlights, but that's what the film is mostly all about. Highlights, not story. Jillian makes it worth watching though, very deserving of her Emmy nomination. She's really the whole show.