The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsDo you have a favorite Pre-Code movie?
If so, what is it and why do you like it?
http://pre-code.com/what-is-pre-code-hollywood/
Laffy Kat
(16,386 posts)Man, they were HOT!
lapucelle
(18,305 posts)She was in a Thin Man movie, a Marx Brothers movie, and a Woody Allen movie, as well as being the veddy proper but subversively sexy partner of Tarzan. And she was the sweetly beautiful Jane Bennet. What a career!
FSogol
(45,524 posts)Zorro
(15,749 posts)W. C. Fields at his finest. Cab Calloway singing "Reefer Man". Gracie Allen at her ditziest.
frazzled
(18,402 posts)But I highly recommend the Constance Bennett, Joel McCrae vehicle, "Bed of Roses," directed by Gregory LaCava in 1933. Saucy!
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)One of the greatest fantasies of all time - lots of deleted scenes until VHS came out!
Everyone knows Tim Curry's iconic reference: "Whatever happened to Fay Wray?"
Just saw another fantastic remake a few weeks ago - beauty never killed this beast!
sarge43
(28,942 posts)sarge43
(28,942 posts)Released just before the code went into effect.
The first and, I think, the best of the screw ball comedies.
mitch96
(13,924 posts)Howard Hughs... I love old airplane movies.. Nothing sexy though..
m
lapucelle
(18,305 posts)with Jean Harlow in it is bound to be at least tangentially sexy, if only for her presence.
mitch96
(13,924 posts)I like that combination. You can mix and match the words any way and it still comes out neat..
Jean Tangentially, Harlow sexy, sexy Jean, Harlow tangent etc..
And the movie was neat too!!
m
rurallib
(62,444 posts)someplace in the cobwebs of my mind I seem to recall reading about Betty Boop cartoons causing quite a stir in this era.
annabanana
(52,791 posts)and her skirt lowered to her knees.
LongTomH
(8,636 posts)Here are a few with Cab Calloway's singing:
HeiressofBickworth
(2,682 posts)During that period, she played a number of sexually liberated woman. She won an Oscar for The Divorcee in 1930. My favorite of her films isn't a pre-code one, but one made in 1939 -- The Women. I've watched it a dozen times and still love it. The entire movie was about relationships with men without a single man actually IN the movie. The final scene where she runs to her husband (who is off-screen) is such an out-dated, trite, submissive gesture, I laugh every time! I watch TCM a lot and look particularly for pre-code movies. Some are good, some aren't, but it's always worth watching because they showed so much more than post-code movies did.
Gidney N Cloyd
(19,846 posts)A young woman, sexually exploited all her life, decides to turn the tables and exploit the hapless men at a big city bank -- by gleefully sleeping her way to the top.
LeftInTX
(25,515 posts)I would like to see more pre-code gangster movies. I saw Public Enemy, but Scarface (1932) was better.
Diary of a Lost Girl (1929 - silent) is an exploitation type film. Vulnerable girl is at the wrong place at the wrong time. Gets in trouble and bad things just keep happening. Although there are a lot of silent films with this theme, this one has the most drama. With these types of films, you can put yourself into the star's shoes and imagine, "This could have happened to me". (Stars Louise Brooks)
Of the musicals: Footlight Parade followed by 42nd Street (Both feature Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell - choreography by Busby Berkeley)
mucifer
(23,559 posts)Especially since I am a pediatric nurse and at one time I did work the night shift for 6 years. It was a bit of a cult film for me and my coworkers. We would walk around talking to each other like characters in the movie "you said it in a big way sister"
The end of the movie is totally awesome and I won't give it away.