In "Every Day's a Holiday", Mae West is just terrible. And, considering she wrote the screenplay*, all the responsibility for this mess is on her. Why am I so hard on this film? Mae plays two parts---a huckster named Peaches O'Day and a 'French' actress, Mademoiselle Fifi. In the Fifi persona, she's just terrible and overacts....so much so that I wish she'd just been herself, as she could be quite funny playing herself.
The story is set at New Years Eve. It's 1899 and about to turn 1900 and folks announce that they're entering a new century...which is incorrect as the century actually begins 1901. I know this is a minor quibble. Anyway, Peaches is just returning to town as she often runs afoul of the law and disappeared for a while until things cooled down. Some time later, she's thrown out of town by the police captain (Edmund Lowe). Later, she returns in brown wig and is now Mademoiselle Fifi...and, oddly, folks don't recognize that she's Peaches!
Soon the scumbag party boss of the town, 'Honest' John Quade (Lloyd) is smitten with Fifi. But Fifi can't stand this crook...nor can the honest police captain...who was just fired by Quade. She convinces him to run for mayor against Quade....and you know that Quade won't allow for a fair or honest election.
There are so many problems with this film....beyond just West embarrassing herself with her Fifi persona. There's a lot of music...which is odd since West is not a singer. But the biggest mistake is that it's a comedy...and there's not a single laugh in the film. What makes this really amazing is that Charles Butterworth is in the movie to provide comic relief...and he's not even funny. Badly written and unenjoyable....it ranks with "Myra Breckinridge" as one of Mae West's worst films.
*While West did not write every script for every film she was in, when she didn't, she would re-write them. A very talented writer and great with the one-liners...though NONE of her terrific and suggestive one-liners are in "Every Day's a Holiday".
The story is set at New Years Eve. It's 1899 and about to turn 1900 and folks announce that they're entering a new century...which is incorrect as the century actually begins 1901. I know this is a minor quibble. Anyway, Peaches is just returning to town as she often runs afoul of the law and disappeared for a while until things cooled down. Some time later, she's thrown out of town by the police captain (Edmund Lowe). Later, she returns in brown wig and is now Mademoiselle Fifi...and, oddly, folks don't recognize that she's Peaches!
Soon the scumbag party boss of the town, 'Honest' John Quade (Lloyd) is smitten with Fifi. But Fifi can't stand this crook...nor can the honest police captain...who was just fired by Quade. She convinces him to run for mayor against Quade....and you know that Quade won't allow for a fair or honest election.
There are so many problems with this film....beyond just West embarrassing herself with her Fifi persona. There's a lot of music...which is odd since West is not a singer. But the biggest mistake is that it's a comedy...and there's not a single laugh in the film. What makes this really amazing is that Charles Butterworth is in the movie to provide comic relief...and he's not even funny. Badly written and unenjoyable....it ranks with "Myra Breckinridge" as one of Mae West's worst films.
*While West did not write every script for every film she was in, when she didn't, she would re-write them. A very talented writer and great with the one-liners...though NONE of her terrific and suggestive one-liners are in "Every Day's a Holiday".