Vice drench films of the Pre-Code era showcased the complete spectrum of depravity, excessive boozing druging, picturesque violence, and sexual liaisons. (Thomas Doherty)
Sound on film became mainstream in 1930, the same year Pre-Code began. The exquisite four year era of these flicks ignored the Christian critique of the times and mainstreamed crime with Tommy Gun totin' hoodlums making wads of cash in the era of bootleggers, babes and bullets. The eloquence of Thomas Doherty is griping and incisive. I've watched many of these movies because of him. The second I heard Joan Blondell say she was APO, Ain't Putn' Out in 1931s "Other Men's Women," I've been impressed with Doherty's taste in vintage cinema.
Today's movies are far more gratuitous obviously, yet the Pre-Code films from March 1930-July-1934 had all the elements of today's movies. The sex was implied, not shown, as was the violence. In 1931s "Public Enemy," James Cagney, brandishing a pistol is standing behind a man playing the piano. The scene then shows his friend in the same room look over in shock as the audience hears a gun shot. Cagney causally walks away from the man he just killed and tells his friend to have the girls meet them for dinner. "Public Enemy" inspired Martin Scorsese he said on a documentary.
Anti-war movies presented World War I as a horrific farce and medals meaningless. Anyone who reads and thinks knows wars are bullshit and the Pre-Code writers got flack from the government and other people who buy into the lies of wars and what the government tells us. "All Quiet On the Western Front," a 1930 film depicting the stupid politics of war and how rich world leaders dupe their nations young into hating people they don't even know and send other people's children to die in vain.
I didn't expect this book to be political, yet the elements covering this sordid subject illustrated the current fiasco and shame of the Republican party nearly a 100 years ago. Even in the early 1930s, Hollywood flicks took their jabs at the Republicans.
"The Hobo's Psalm"
Hoover is my Shepard, I shall not want
He maketh me to lie down on park benches
He leadeth me beside the still factories
He arouseth my doubt in the Republican Party
He leadeth me in the path of Destruction
For his party's sake I fear evil, for thou art with me.
In 1933s "Heroes For Sale," economic institutions, politicians and all other figures of authority are depicted as unjust, corrupt and unfeeling. Movies have always been an opiate to the senses, and I'm impressed how many of these films empowered women. In 1931s "Big Business Girl," Loretta Young portrays a college graduate in business and moves to New York to seek out a job in her field to pay off her $2,000 student debt. In 1932s "Miss Pinkerton" Joan Blondell portrayed a nurse helping a detective solve a murder case. In 1933 Fay Wray was Ann Carver, a lawyer in "Ann Carver's Profession."
Jean Harlow as Lil, flirting with her married boss in 1932s "Red-Headed Woman"
The above picture is a scene from "Red-Headed Woman" in which Lil, Jean Harlow flirts with her married boss and gets between the sheets with him. Lil is a woman who moves up the economic ladder via horizontal means. Lil plays several wealthy men in this movie, and in the end she marries a very rich and much older man, and it's obvious she's doing "The dance with no underpants" with his young good looking chauffer. Her quote unquote sins go unpunished, and even rewarded. If this movie was made in 1935, she would have had to have something bad happen to her by the ending of the movie.
A year later, this much skin was forbidden to be shown in the movies, and even Betty Boop, the iconic cartoon character could not be shown in her garter belt after 1934.
This 1999 book details the insane rules movie writers had to go through because of urging priests and politicians who got Biblical with written rules; Thou shall not photograph girls in scenes which femmes pull up their skirts to show a lengthy display of legs and the unfasting of garters. The motion picture industry of America started following these ludicrous guidelines in August of 1934 and it wasn't until the 1950s when Hollywood started to wake up again. The current rating system used in the movies today began in 1968.
The beffy of information Thomas Doherty sets forth in "Pre-Code Hollywood Sex, immorality and insurrection in American Cinema 1930-1934," is amazing. I've simple scratch the surface of information laden throughout this four star read.
Mark Izzy Schurr
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