"Pre-Code Hollywood" refers to a five year stretch in the American film industry between the advent of sound pictures in 1929 and the arrival of the Motion Picture Production Code, popularly known as the "Hays Code," in mid-1934. With these new and rigid censorship guidelines in place, the so-called "adult" material previously enjoyed by viewers - anything from a sexual innuendo to outright violence - was promptly banned. Hey, the censors meant well. They didn't want our impressionable minds corrupted by the evils of moviedom.
This month The Film Detective presents a special "Pre-Code Playlist" with 16 titles from the 1929-1934 period. You may watch these features - many are new to the app - and wonder what the fuss was all about.
You'll also be delightfully entertained. The list includes:
The Great Gabbo (1929)
Ventriloquists and their dummies have provided screenwriters with an unending source of drama since the beginning of the movie business. Perhaps the earliest example was The Great Gabbo, a strange melodrama starring Erich von Stroheim. Disowned by MGM after several of his directorial features had gone over budget, von Stroheim found himself hired out as an actor for poverty row studios. Director James Cruze, whose own career was soon to crash, was the first to use von Stroheim during this period. The result is an old fashioned show business fable, where an arrogant star mistreats those around him only to end up alone and destitute. The premise sounds dusty, but it's worth watching for von Stroheim's paranoid rages and some truly bizarre musical numbers. (Von Stroheim is also alleged to have directed a few of his own scenes here.)
As Gabbo, an eccentric stage performer who best communicates through a wooden dummy named Otto, von Stroheim created the archetype for all nutty ventriloquists to come. If you can look beyond the cheap appearance of this feature, and can endure a few too many dance sequences, you'll see that it's a showcase for one of von Stroheim's most poignant performances. The story - written by noted playwright Ben Hecht - actually mirrors what was going in von Stroheim's life at the time.The film also stars Betty Compson as Gabbo's assistant. At one time a very popular performer, Compson was married to director Cruze. His career downfall left her in a financial mess that took years to resolve. Here, she is quite touching as Mary, the well-meaning girl who tries to see the best in Gabbo despite his madness.
According to von Stroheim biographer Richard Koszarski, von Stroheim enjoyed the role of Gabbo so much that he would bring Otto the dummy home with him after shooting. Years later, von Stroheim hoped to do a remake, only to learn that the story rights had been purchased by famed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen.
East of Borneo (1931)
The jungle was a favorite location for movies during the Pre-Code era. Where else could people enact the savage behavior that the censors would find so objectionable? In this quickie from Universal, Rose Hobart is searching for her missing husband, a doctor who mysteriously vanished years earlier. She finds him in the secluded village of Maradu, drunk as a skunk but administering to a creepy character called Prince Hashim (It's actually Georges Revenant, dressed up like Chandu the magician and yammering about his Aryan ancestors). As the jungle fates would have it, the prince finds Hobart quite enticing. This weird triangle plays out amidst the usual assortment of exotic critters, including tigers, a giant snake, and an armada of crocodiles. There's also a menacing volcano not far from Hashim's castle. Can Hobart get her husband back before Maradu is buried under lava?
This feature was produced by Carl Laemmle Jr, son of Universal Studio chief Carl Laemmle. By the way, much of the East of Borneo crew had worked on Universal's Spanish version of Dracula, including the saucy Lupita Tovar.)
Jungle Bride (1933)
Here's another Pre-Code adventure with a jungle setting. This one is about a young woman (Anita Page) who journeys to South America to help clear her brother of a murder charge. She and her two friends end up stranded on an island where they run into more trouble, most of it involving naughty chimpanzees.
There are plenty of scenes where Page's dress slips down to reveal some healthy 1930s flesh; she also swoons convincingly in the arms of hunky co-star Charles Starrett. Thankfully, the censors would soon be on the lookout for such filth!
The script is by Leah Baird, who had been a popular actress during the early days of silent movies. Meanwhile, co-director Harry O. Hoyt was behind the camera for one of the great silent epics, The Lost World (1925).
A Shriek in the Night (1933)
Lyle Talbot and Ginger Rogers star as rival newspaper reporters trying to solve a series of murders in a luxury apartment building. This is the sort of romantic thriller that was quite common during the Pre-Code years, with plenty of shadowy figures creeping along the walls, bodies plummeting from penthouse windows, and wisecracking newsroom dialog. The screenplay is by Francis Hyland, known as the first female comedy writer ever hired by Universal Studios.
Ginger Rogers was only 22 when she appeared in this feature for Allied Pictures, but was already a veteran of more than 20 movies.
The Kennel Murder Case (1933)
"A beautiful debutante trapped in a house of hate...A glamorous stage star keeping a tryst with a "dead" man...A corpse walking upstairs to commit suicide...A wounded dog that knew the solution to the most baffling mystery ever tackled by the most fascinating sleuth since Sherlock Holmes! It's Guess-Proof!"
From Warner Bros comes a whimsical murder mystery starring William Powell as debonair detective Philo Vance. Though it was the last time Powell would portray Vance, many consider this the best of the series. And why not? Starring along with Powell is Mary Astor, who less than a decade later would appear memorably in The Maltese Falcon and win an Oscar for her supporting role in The Great Lie. The screenplay was by Oscar winner Robert N. Lee (Little Caesar) and the direction was by Michael Curtiz, already an old hand in the business, having directed his first short in 1914. He'd go on to direct such iconic films as The Adventures of Robin Hood, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Casablanca, and Mildred Pierce. In other words, this is one Pre-Code entry that comes with an impeccable pedigree. Speaking of pedigrees, Asta the dog does his share of scene stealing in The Kennel Murder Case. This same wire-haired terrier would star with Powell and Myrna Loy in The Thin Man series for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
***
Other titles in our Pre-Code Playlist include: Woman to Woman (1929), Reaching for the Moon (1930), Kept Husbands (1931) Vampire Bat (1933), and Palooka (1934), plus the following features never before shown on our app: Dixiana (1930), High Gear (1933), Big News (1929), Millie (1931), The Big Chance (1933), and Glorifying the American Girl (1929).
Learn more about The Film Detective and our sensational classic movie app by visiting thefilmdetective.tv
It's where classic entertainment is reborn!
No comments:
Post a Comment