Favorite Pre-Code Movies

[Wynbish]

Posted: 8/2/13 at 10:52pm

I've recently become fascinated the pre-code movies of old Hollywood, and I am wondering what some of the really good ones are for me to look into.

Any suggestions?

From what I've seen so far, my favorite pre-code line is "The longer they 'No', the harder they 'Yes'". Oh my.

Updated On: 8/2/13 at 10:52 PM

[Addison D.]

Posted: 8/2/13 at 10:57pm

'Our Dancing Daughters', MGM, 1928. With Joan Crawford as Diana Medford

from IMDb:

"Diana is outwardly the hit of the party but inwardly virtuous and idealistic. Her friend Ann is thoroughly selfish and amoral. Both are attracted to Ben Black, soon-to-be millionaire. He takes Diana's flirtations with other boys as a sign of disinterest in him and marries Ann. Big mistake. Ben and Diana begin to realize their true love for each other and plan a new life together as drunken Ann falls down the stairs to her death."


Great sets, handsome varsity boys in black tie and Joan Crawford dancing the Charleston like a wild thing.

Updated On: 8/2/13 at 10:57 PM

[Wynbish]

Posted: 8/2/13 at 11:44pm

Sounds good!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/3/13 at 12:59am

I once went to a Harvard Film Archive overnight marathon of pre-code movies. SO great. My favorite, I think, was George Cukor's "Girls About Town," about lady escorts. Second was Mae West and Cary Grant in "She Done Him Wrong." When Mae goes to jail she's particularly sympathetic to the male/male couples she finds there.

[tazber]

Posted: 8/3/13 at 1:08am

She Done Him Wrong is a classic.

And it includes her famous line: "Why don't you come up sometime and see me?"

Wyn, Warner Archive has a really great series of pre-code film collections called "Forbidden Hollywood". I think there are 6 or seven but the second volume has been my favorite.

It includes The Divorcee and Night Nurse among others.

[BornThisWay]

Posted: 8/3/13 at 5:47am

Baby Face is great. It stars Barbara Stanwyck as a girl that starts out with nothing and sleeps her way to the top.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/3/13 at 6:13am

I feel stupid that I have to ask: WHAT is a 'pre-code' movie. I realize it must have something more than just age.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 8/3/13 at 6:31am

dramamama611, "Pre-Code Hollywood" refers to films released before the Hays Code was enforced in mid-1934. These movies dealt with taboo subjects such as promiscuity, infidelity, prostitution, and included sexual innuendo, drug use, violence, and even nudity. They even made references to abortion and homosexuality.

But, by far, the biggest difference between Pre- and Post-Code Hollywood was the depiction of women. Pre-Code women were independent, sexual, and liberated. Afterward, women were often reduced to housewife/subservient roles. Here's a documentary that aired on TCM discussing this entitled "Complicated Women":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJsGKHqrT50

And here are a couple clips from a Buster Crabbe film, Search for Beauty, released in early 1934, which includes male and female nudity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSCYKET7K-k

Makes you wonder how far Hollywood would've dared to have gone in the ensuing years had the Code not been implemented.

[tazber]

Posted: 8/3/13 at 6:32am

It refers to the Hays Code Dramamamma.

The Hays Code was a list of what could and could not be shown in a motion picture. It was established in the early 30's and held sway over regulating content in movies until the late 60's when the industry switched to the rating system.

Pre-Code movies of the 20's and early 30's (it wasn't strictly enforced until the mid 30's) are fascinating to me because they give a window into what a burgeoning art form looks like before political interference.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 8/3/13 at 7:26am

Thanks for the info and the links. I am really suprised that I know nothing about this. I guess I need to do some research.

Very interesting.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/3/13 at 8:26am

I like the guys skinny dipping with bare behinds in "All Quiet On the Western Front."

[nmartin]

Posted: 8/3/13 at 8:46am

The king of pre-code movies is Warren William. Find anything with him. The Mind Reader and Skyscraper Souls are two of my favorites. Employee's Entrance is great also. Look him up!


Warren William Site Updated On: 8/3/13 at 08:46 AM

[strummergirl]

Posted: 8/3/13 at 8:50am

A lot of Busby Berkeley musicals but primarily, Gold Diggers of 1933. "Remember My Forgotten Man" might be one of the best musical finales ever.

[Addison D.]

Posted: 8/3/13 at 10:10am

Strummer--'Forgotten Man' is amazing--so incredibly *real* and emotionally intense, especially coming at the end of such a light, frothy and (wonderfully) brainless film.

It's like having a short featurette on poverty and homelessness as the ending to 'American Pie'.

'Gold Diggers of 1933' is one of my faves.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 8/3/13 at 10:24am

TCM Archives put out a series of DVDs under the label FORBIDDEN HOLLYWOOD with a lot of these films.

I can recommend BABY FACE -- a really interesting little film about a woman who sleeps her way to the top. Great fun, with Barbara Stanwyck.

[VeraCharles3]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 3:50am

Wynbish, great idea for a thread.
I agree with the Baby Face recommendation, good film.
Barbara Stanwyck is one of my fav actresses, worth a look is Bitter Tea of General Yen and The Miracle Woman.
Another fav actress Claudette Colbert bathing topless in milk in The Sign of the Cross
And surprisingly two Jeanette MacDonald musicals Love Me Tonight and The Love Parade - both great fun and full of innuendo - what would Nelson Eddie think.
Best12bars - I'm off to check out the bare behinds you mention
Stagemanager2 - I always liked Buster Crabbe

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 9:22am

Early Babs Stanwyck and Clark Gable as a villain! NIGHT NURSE also has Joan Blondell as--what else?--a wiseacre sidekick. And some rather brusque moments that genuinely shocked me.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 10:41am

Great explanation StageManager, but, please correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't liberated, career women continue to appear frequently in post-code 30s and 40s roles (notably in several well known classics by Rosalind Russell, Jean Arthur, Barbara Stanwyck, and Ingrid Bergman) with a much more sweeping change towards more subservient homemaking women happening in post-World War II American movies, a change corresponding to a neo-Victorian expectations of gender roles offscreen and off?

[Wynbish]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 4:30pm

Thanks, Vera, and thanks everyone for the suggestions and tidbits. I think "brusque" is a good word for what I love about pre-code female characters. Deliciously brusque.