This month, TCM turns its Friday Night Spotlight on Classic Pre-Code Movies. What better way to end the week than to watch 24 hours of pre-Code musicals, dramas, gangster flicks, and comedies. Viewers are fascinated by the frank portrayals of sexuality, prostitution, illicit romances, and strong-willed women that are found in those movies released between the coming of sound and 1934, when the Motion Picture Production Code became mandatory. But, pre-Code movies are more than just sex, sin, and indiscretion. They dared to criticize America’s social institutions, expose the sexism and bias against women in the work place, depict the difficulties of child-bearing, and reveal the dark side of romantic relationships for women. Set your DVRs for these pre-Code gems that serve as a crash course in this brief but significant era of film history.
1. Baby Face (1933). Most viewers get a kick out of pre-Code movies because of their explicit, unromanticized depiction of sex. Few expect films that are 80 years old to be so bold. If you are looking for this characteristic of pre-Code movies, catch Baby Face this Friday, Sept. 5 at 8:00pm. Barbara Stanwyck stars as Lily, a girl from the wrong side of the proverbial tracks who escapes her factory town to make her way in New York City. There she uses her sexual wiles to land a job. She proceeds to sleep her way up the corporate ladder, which is revealed by the camera’s tilt up the office building whenever she moves one step closer to the big time. As with most pre-Code movies, Baby Face is sympathetic toward Lily: She survives a father who pimped her out to his barroom customers, and she manages to stay off the streets—a real threat to many single working women during the Depression. This example of freewheeling pre-Code sex is more interesting than others because Stanwyck’s only friend is an African American woman named Chico, played by Theresa Harris. Interestingly, when Baby Face is poor and disenfranchised, she and Chico are more or less equal; when Baby Face begins to go places, Chico becomes her maid.
CLARA BOW IN ‘CALL HER SAVAGE’
2. Scarface (1932). On September 26, the trio of gangster flicks that established the genre are airing back to back, beginning with The Public Enemy at 6:30, followed by Scarface and Little Caesar. In Scarface, the hint of an incestuous relationship between Tony Camonte and sister Cesca tends to get the most attention in regard to the film’s issues with the Code. However, the gangster genre in general serves as a criticism of American social institutions—something the Code disapproved of. In Scarface, Tony ruthlessly climbs the ladder of success in the mob much like a businessman ascends the corporate ladder on the backs of those beneath him. By comparing corporate tactics to gangsterdom, these films suggest the dark side of capitalist advancement. Tony also gets out of jail with the help of slick lawyers who maneuver and manipulate the legal system. Finally, his actions are romanticized by reporters eager to sell newspapers—a swipe at the media.
3. Call Her Savage (1932). In her penultimate role, Clara Bow stars as Nasa Springer, a wild girl from the Wild West who marries a cad to rebel against her father. Aside from Bow’s silky blouse that shows the imprint of her nipples, Call Her Savage defied the Code in other ways. For example, the suggestion of venereal disease would be forbidden under the Code two years later. In Call Her Savage, Nasa’s husband almost dies from the ravages of syphilis. The disease is not named specifically but references in the dialogue make it clear that the character has venereal disease. Sexual perversion was also prohibited under the Code, and homosexuality was considered a perversion by the PCA. In a scene in which Nasa and her love interest decide to enjoy a night out on the town, they end up in a cabaret in Greenwich Village. The entertainment consists of two waiters in aprons singing a bawdy song. The two are clearly gay as they prance and skip to the music—something viewers would not see after 1934. The film airs September 26 at 2:15am.
DOROTHY MACKAIL IS NOT ‘SAFE IN HELL.’
4. Safe in Hell (1931). If Baby Face flirted with the idea that the main character might end up walking the streets, Safe in Hell is the story of a woman who actually is a prostitute. Dorothy Mackaill stars as Gilda, a New Orleans prostitute who feels no guilt over her profession. When she believes she has murdered a john, she escapes to a Caribbean island, where she falls in love with a sailor. He sets sail and leaves her behind as the only female resident in their tropical hotel. We sympathize with Gilda as the male residents leer, ogle, and stare, and we root for her to fend off their advances. In Red Dust (September 12, 8:00pm), Jean Harlow costars as a prostitute whom we actually prefer to the other female character, a proper married woman played by Mary Astor. After the Code, films could only vaguely suggest prostitution, usually referring to professional women as bargirls or b-girls. Under the Code, no sympathetic explanation could be given for their circumstances, and they had to be punished for their bad moral choices. Don’t miss Safe in Hell on September 5 at 12:15pm.
MIRIAM HOPKINS IS VICTIMIZED BY JACK LA RUE IN ‘THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE.’
5. The Story of Temple Drake (1933). If the Production Code Administration was squeamish about prostitution, it was apoplectic about rape. In this pre-Code adaptation of William Faulkner’s Sanctuary, rape causes the emotional and spiritual breakdown of the title character. The depiction of Temple Drake’s rape occurs in a broken-down shack in the backwoods, where rednecks and gangsters drink and gamble in a sordid, marginal existence that society has forgotten. Depicted as an expressionistic nightmare, the whole sequence exudes degeneracy. Nothing about this film would have passed the Code a year later when it was enforced. Catch the underrated Miriam Hopkins as Temple Drake on September 12 at 2:30am.
6. Frisco Jenny (1932). My favorite storyline in pre-Code movies involves women protagonists who lose their virginity to immature, cowardly, irresponsible, or cruel men. After the young women get pregnant, they find themselves alone and on their own. In order to survive, and to do what is best for their child, they give up their bundle of joy. When the child matures, the mother crosses paths with him or her again, revealing that the mother’s great sacrifice was justified. In Frisco Jenny, which airs on September 5 at 1:30pm, the title character has a child out of wedlock and opens a brothel to support him. A brothel is no place for a child, so she gives him up for adoption. Years later, Jenny discovers her son is a crusading lawyer determined to clean up San Francisco from establishments like hers. This type of storyline reveals a gamut of bad male behavior towards women—lying beaus, irresponsible sweet-talkers, wealthy playboys who seduce working class girls, and cowards who can’t stand up to their families to marry the girl they love. Single women having children out of wedlock was a storyline that the PCA discouraged after the enforcement of the Code. With the disappearance of this type of story, the archetype of the badly behaved male disappeared as well. A new subgenre about relationships emerged after the code—the story of the separated couple who realize their split was a mistake. This type of story supported the Code’s view regarding the sanctity of marriage. The dark side of male-female relationships, in which women are abandoned by men, gave way to fairy tales about “happily ever after.”
7. The Ex-Lady (1933). Female protagonists were not always weighed down by life’s burdens in pre-Code movies. Another prominent storyline featured modern women with contemporary attitudes toward sex and marriage. In The Ex-Lady, Bette Davis stars as free-spirited Helen, a professional artist who is sleeping with her beau, Don, outside of wedlock. After much persuasion, Don convinces Helen to get married, which ruins their relationship. Their solution is to see other people while remaining married. Though ultimately, traditional marriage wins out in the end, it is refreshing to watch a career woman whose life is more than just romance. The Ex-Lady is not a very compelling movie, but watch it for its views on marriage on September 5 at 8:30am. Along the same lines, catch Female, about a woman executive more interested in business than marriage, later that afternoon at 2:45pm.
8. The Mind Reader (1933). Several stars have become associated with the pre-Code era. Some of them—such as Mae West—became notorious because of their sexualized star images, which could not exist after the enforcement of the Code. Others, such as Warren William and Joan Blondell, were simply under contract to Warner Bros. during this time, when the studio cast them in a dozen or more films per year. William starred as a cad in several pre-Code movies, including Skyscraper Souls (September 19, 3:30am) and Employees Entrance (September 26, 2:30pm). My new favorite Warren William flick is The Mind Reader (September 19, 2:30) in which he plays a carny whose act consists of reading people’s minds. When he meets Constance Cummings, he tries to go straight, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The film is also an example of a trend in pre-Code films for lurid carnival stories, including Freaks (September 12, 3:45am), The Clairvoyant, The Unholy Three, and The Circus Queen Murder.
9. Search for Beauty (1934). Nudity and partial nudity were completely forbidden under the Code as well as costumes that focused attention on sexual body parts. The ban was made because semi-nude scenes and risqué costumes had become common in the pre-Code era (Murder at the Vanities; Sign of the Cross; The Chiseler; Bird of Paradise). Less common was male nudity, though there are few films that boast a bare male bum here and there. The high point of Search for Beauty, about a trio of con artists who trick Olympic athletes into working for their skin magazine, is a locker room scene in which male athletes scurry toward the showers naked from behind. I am not sure if it is worth staying awake till 2:45am on September 5 just to see this scene, because the rest of the film is dull.
10. Heroes for Sale (1933). Addiction, drug fiends, and jokes about dope were all found in films during the pre-Code era. In Heroes for Sale, which airs September 26 at 1:15pm, Richard Barthelmess plays a drug-addicted veteran who tries to adapt to a new job in the business world. Another film in which a character suffers from drug addiction is Three on a Match, airing later that night at 1:00am. Ann Dvorak plays Vivian, who throws away her comfortable lifestyle with a wealthy husband and child when she becomes addicted to drugs and alcohol. After the Code, addiction and references to drugs were not allowed even if the film was showing the horrors of drug abuse.