Product: Sextette (1978)
Rating: 1.0
Don't go West, young man
Mae West became a sex symbol not because of the way she looked but because of the way she spoke. Her unique delivery coupled with memorable, highly quotable double entendres ("Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?") were the highlights of her early-'30s movies. In SEXTETTE (1978), her final film, a fossilized, eighty-something Mae delivers the same kind of dialogue that made her famous way back when, and the result is a textbook example of how not to grow old gracefully.In this West-scripted endeavor, Mae immodestly casts herself as sex queen Marlo Manners, the World's Most Desirable Woman (yikes!), who can't seem to keep men from pursuing her, even when she's on her honeymoon. The once-in-a-lifetime supporting cast includes Timothy Dalton, Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr, George Hamilton, Alice Cooper, Dom DeLuise, Keith Moon, George Raft, and Regis Philbin. People say you can't go home again and it's true; embarrassingly, the respirator-ready West apparently felt she never left home to begin with. Yet, no matter how bleak a picture I paint, this is one movie some folks will insist on experiencing for themselves. Good luck.