Mae West fue la mujer mejor pagada de los años 30 y la primera mujer fatal del cine. Detrás de sus provocativas miradas y frases ingeniosas había una defensora de las libertades de las mujeres y los más débiles.

Mae West achieved great acclaim in every entertainment medium that existed during her lifetime, spanning eight decades of the 20th century. A full-time actress at seven, a vaudevillian at 14, a dancing sensation at 25, a playwright at 33, a silver screen ingénue at 40, a Vegas nightclub act at 62, a recording artist at 73, a camp icon at 85 - West left no format unconquered. She possessed creative and economic powers unheard of for a female entertainer in the 1930s and still rare today. Though a comedian, West grappled with some of the more complex social issues of the 20th century, including race and class tensions, and imbued even her most salacious plotlines with commentary about gender conformity, societal restrictions and what she perceived as moral hypocrisy. Mae West: Dirty Blonde is the first major documentary film to explore West's life and career, as she "climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong" to become a writer, performer and subversive agitator for social change.

Tissé d’archives de ses films, d’interviews et d’éclairages – critiques, amis et émules, dont Dita Von Teese qui la définit comme une "gangster sexuelle" −, ce documentaire retrace l’audacieux parcours de cette pionnière au féminisme radical, à côté de laquelle Madonna apparaît aujourd’hui Like a Virgin. Pulvérisant les conventions avec une autorité doublée d’un humour ravageur, Mae West, femme fatale moins glamour que son amie Marlene Dietrich, s’est emparée du pouvoir dans un monde d’hommes, en utilisant son corps avec esprit comme un instrument imparable pour conquérir sa liberté.