Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a re-watch.Screen legend Mae West would have celebrated her 128th birthday this week, and though she departed our world a long time ago, that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate.
Besides, Mae would have told us to.West, for the uninitiated, started her career on stage before hitting the movies, becoming a cause célèbre for her raunchy stage performances.
West, who wrote all her own material, loved to push the boundaries of censorship and good taste–a trick she learned by hanging out at gay clubs and drag bars.
She also adopted a few drag tricks when it came to body sculpting and make-up…not to mention the art of the double entendre..