Vintage Visions

An insane doctrine written to control the mankind of silent and sound films began its dictatorship in June, 1934, and it wasn't until 1968, the rating system currently used was implemented.

Sexual liaisons, picturesque violence and toxic spirits more powerful than alcohol lurched into the souls of movie goers across the globe in Pre-Code Hollywood films from 1930-1934. Above picture is Joan Blondell from "Gold Diggers of 1933." 

Ginger Rodgers, "Gold Diggers of 1933"

A delectable array of delicious deceits has spawned from these Pre-Code classics. The complete spectrum of vice shrouded the critique of commercial Christianity. Sin in soft focus contained all the dark and lurid themes that are in today’s films. Writers and movie makers in the early 20th century dealt with a biblically written document tilted, "Code to Govern the Making of Talking, Synchronized and Silent Motion Pictures and the Reason Supporting It."  

Before 1935, lasciviously looking ladies in alluring and classy lingerie mainstreamed themselves in movie theatres across the globe.

Ginger Rodgers, 1933s, "Professional Sweetheart"

Women were allowed to show a lot more skin in moving pictures between 1930-1934. I challenge any reader right now to find a mainstream movie made in America before 1967 where a woman shows off more skin than Claudette Colbert did in 1934s “Cleopatra.”  

Actress’s Joan Blondell, Claudette Colbert,Toby Wing and Jean Harlow were a small fraction of ladies that ignored the Christian critique during the Pre-Code era. These women chased married men and juggled their boyfriends. Enthusiastic indulgences, both legal and illegal weaved its way into the cerebral and tangible desires between the two genders. 

The movies were a Cathedral of sin for many politicians and religious zealots. Writers and filmmakers thrust a visual assault upon their censorship foes in the Pre-Code Hollywood years, and no genre was sacred for the big screen.

Joan Blondell, "Gold Diggers of 1933" 

“Red Headed Woman,” starring Jean Harlow was a well-mixed cocktail of adultery and shady career advancement techniques. Harlow was a pioneering and definitive force in 1932 for even today’s female stars who showcase their flesh and display their fornication success.   

In “Gold Diggers of 1933,” Joan Blondell and Ginger Rodgers, among countless other dancing and singing beauties displayed their bodies in teddies and fancy lingerie.

All three pictures, James Cagney and Joan Blondell in 1931s 'Blonde Crazy" 

By 1935, movie audiences no longer saw Betty Boop in her garter belt, and her skirt was drawn closer to her knees.

Christianity and politics went hand in hand in combating creativity. Hollywood was not only depicting vice, but it was also glorifying it, some said.

All the gods are dead, and the faiths dazed via the movies. Delirious desires and social chaos amidst the masses has corrupted all movie-goers some said. Hollywood is a symbolic journey into the forbidden zone, and the book, “Pre-Code Hollywood, Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930-1934,” by Thomas Doherty was an insightful read. It's because of this book, I'm currently into all the movies I've seen and written about thus far.

Four stars for Doherty’s 1999 “Pre-Code Hollywood” book, which has ignited my passion to collect Pre-Code flicks. 

Mark Izzy Schurr