Category Archives: Pre-Code Reviews

Red-Headed Woman
Directed by Jack Conway
Written by Anita Loos from a book by Katharine Brush
1932/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 1

Lil Andrews: Listen, Sally, I made up my mind a long time ago, I’m not gonna spend my whole life on the wrong side of the railroad tracks.
Sally: Well, I hope you don’t get hit by a train while you’re crossing over.

Jean Harlow makes a good pre-Code temptress.

Lil Andrews (Harlow) works in an office and is roommates with the wise-cracking Sally (Una Merkel).  She has decided that her best route to wealth is through seducing her married boss Bill Legendre Jr. (Chester Morris).  Bill is not an easy catch because he is in love with his wife Irene (Leila Hyams) who he has known since he was a child.  But Harlow is absolutely relentless and, well, she is an expert at breaking down resistance.  Once she has hooked him, they are surprised by Irene.  A divorce soon follows and Bill marries Lil.

Bill ran with the country club set.  All his friends look down on Lil both because of their friendship with Irene and because her sense of taste and decorum are strictly from the other side of the railroad tracks.  Bill is quickly tired of Lil.  But Lil is determined to climb the social ladder and there are other patsies waiting in the wings.  With Charles Boyer as a chauffeur.

This film made an interesting contrast with Baby Face (1933).  I found Barbara Stanwyck the more sympathetic of the anti-heroines, probably because her film took time to show her backstory.  Harlow’s character comes off more like a stalker.  Don’t get me wrong the film is enjoyable and Harlow makes a gorgeous red head.  I love Una Merkel and her scenes were the best in the film as far as I was concerned.

Baby Face
Directed by Arthur E. Green
Written by Gene Markey and Kathryn Scola; story by Darryl F. Zanuck (as Mark Canfield)
1933/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Forbidden Hollywood Collection

Lily Powers: Of course, if Fuzzy Wuzzy really wants to give me something, he could put a few more pennies in my bank account.
J.P. Carter: My Dear, ask me something difficult.

To me this is the epitome of all that is Pre-Code.

Smart and sassy Lily Powers (Barbara Stanwyck) has been raised in squalor by her abusive father who runs a low-rent saloon and brews his own liquor.  She has been encouraged to be nice to the male clients since she was 14.  They all grab and paw at her. Now she hates men.  One night, her father empties the joint so she can spend some alone time with the politician who protects the saloon from the cops.  Lily breaks a bottle over his head.  Shortly thereafter, the saloon’s still catches fire killing her father in the process.

Friedrich Nietzsche: Face life as you find it – defiantly and unafraid. Waste no energy yearning for the moon. Crush out all sentiment.

Lily turns to a fatherly friend for advice.  He tells her that her youth and beauty gives her power over men and she should use it to get ahead.  Exploit or be exploited.

So Lily and her maid (Theresa Harris) hop a train bound for New York with $4 between them.  On arrival, they see a bank several stories high and Lily sets her sights on the top floor.  She gets advice from a friendly policemen and starts her career by seducing a personnel clerk and winning a job as a secretary.  She doesn’t stick to small fry for long, seducing each new boss in turn until she reaches the tippy top and makes bank president Courtland Trenholm (George Brent) fall in love with her. With John Wayne as one of the small-fry and Douglass Dumbrill as one of the bosses.

The plot description doesn’t convey how really fun and funny this movie is. Stanwyck is quick with some great one-liners and her procession of lotharios are comically dense. Little lingerie but this is about as risque as it gets.  Very highly recommended.

I watched the pre-theatrical release of the movie this time which includes scenes cut by censors before theatrical release.  I can’t remember my first viewing scene by scene.  I do know that the version I watched yesterday omits a scene where the fatherly guy is appalled by what Lily is doing and tells her she has got Nieztsche all wrong.

This is the end of my Stanwyck pre-code retrospective.  It has been great fun. I will next tackle the 40+ movies in TCM’s “Forbidden Hollywood” collection.  Red-Headed Woman (1932) up today.

Ladies They Talk About
Directed by Howard Bretherton and William Keighley
Written by Brown Holmes, William McGrath and Sidney Sutherland from a play by Dorothy Mackaye and Carlton Miles
1933/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Forbidden Hollywood Collection

Susie: Listen. Don’t think you can walk in here and take over this joint. There’s a lot of big sharks in here that just live on fresh fish like you.
Nan Taylor: Yeah, when they add you up what do you spell?

What could be more fun than a pre-Code women’s prison movie starring Barbara Stanwyck at her seductive bad girl best?  Not much, according to me.

Nan Taylor works with a bank robbing gang as sort of a shill and a watchdog. Although she is disguised as a blonde, she is easily recognized by a policeman as somebody he picked up before and the cops make short work of their investigation.

Dan Slade is both a prosecutor and an evangelist. He instantly falls for Barbara but also convicts her for her crime. She serves her sentence in the women’s prison at San Quentin, where she is as tough as any of the other girls .  She hates Dan and refuses his many requests to visit … at least until she can use him for her gang’s escape attempt.   With Lillian Roth as a fellow inmate and Ruth Donnelly as a guard.

I thought this was ultra fun. Stanwyck is absolutely gorgeous and beautifully dressed by Orry Kelly. The script is sharp and her delivery is spot on. This is the seductive bad Stanwyck we have learned to love. The women’s prison is a hoot! The prisoners spend most of their time in a common area when they aren’t smoking in the bathroom. Stanwyck’s cell looks exactly like a bedroom. Each prisoner has a distinctive uniform with lace etc. And they are all expert wisecrackers. My favorite scene from the film is when Lillian Roth sings “If I Could Be with You (One Hour Tonight)” to a pin-up of Joe E. Brown. IMO, one of the essential Stanwyck pre-code films.  Recommended.

Even though it’s a cockatoo and the scene isn’t politically correct, this really made me laugh.

The Purchase Price
Directed by William A. Wellman
Written by Robert Lord from a story by Arthur Stringer
1932/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Emily: Gee, with a hundred dollars, maybe I could get myself a husband right here in town.
Joan Gordon, aka Francine La Rue: Of course, you could!
Emily: And then I’d sort of, eh, have a chance to, try the goods before I bought it!
Joan Gordon, aka Francine La Rue: Emily…

Barbara Stanwyck displays great range in this collaboration with William Wellman, who got an excellent performance from the often one-note George Brent as well.

Joan Gordon (Stanwyck) is a torch singer at one of the swankiest clubs in New York.  She is sick of the fast life including her relationship with gangster boyfriend Eddie Fields (Lyle Talbot).  Eddie is determined to keep her.  So she runs away to Montreal and sings under the assumed name Francine La Rue.  It doesn’t take Eddie long to find her.

Joan is ready to move on immediately.  Her maid announces she is leaving to marry a wheat farmer she has met only through a marriage broker.  She sent Joan’s picture to the broker instead of her own.  So Joan, on a whim, offers the maid $100 to take her place.

She is greeted by soon-to-be husband Jim Gilson at the train station.  Jim is painfully shy and awkward and to top it off has a bad cold.  He takes Joan to the farm. When he suddenly grabs her and kisses her on what should be their wedding night, Joan instinctively pulls away and that will be the end of their intimacy for several months.  Can Joan win her man over?

It’s no surprise that Stanwyck was excellent in this film. George Brent kind of surprised me with his sensitive performance. Wellman captures many beautiful scenes on the farm. I like this kind of story where men and women have to learn to know each other and highly recommend this film.

Barbara Stanwyck sings

The Miracle Woman
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Jo Swerling based on a play by Robert Riskin and John Meehan
1931/US
Columbia Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/My collection

John Carson: Are you a teetotaler?
Florence: No, not annoyingly so.

This false prophet picture is another solid pairing of Frank Capra and Barbara Stanwyck.

Florence “Faith” Fallon (Stanwyck) is the daughter of a devout and holy preacher. His parish gave him the boot in favor of a younger man. He can’t even give his farewell sermon before dying of a broken heart. Florence loses her faith and thinks of believers as hypocrites.  She delivers a fierce farewell sermon.

Con man Bob Hornsby (Sam Hardy) approaches Barbara and tells her she can get back at the hypocrites by fleecing them and Barbara becomes a miracle worker and revivalist.  The entire operation is based on lies and playacting and is thoroughly corrupt.  Bob somehow figures he has an ownership interest in Florence and is very jealous.  She refuses to give him a tumble.

One night she chances to meet blind aviator John Carson (David Manners).  They begin seeing each other.  Can true love reform Florence?

This is an enjoyable movie and Mme. Stanwyck acts her heart out.  Not a must-see but one of the better pre-Code movies she made.

Clip – Stanwyck lets loose in the opening sequence.

Illicit
Directed by Archie Mayo
Written by Edith Fitzgerald, Robert Riskin, and Harvey F. Thew
1931/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
First viewing/My collection

Anne Vincent Ives: Nearly every girl I know, Mr. Ives, is either unhappily married or happily divorced, and I’ve simply come to the conclusion that marriage is disastrous to love. There’s so much about it that’s all wrong – the awful possession that people exert over each other, the intimacy, and the duties. I don’t know… but love can’t stand the strain, that’s all.

This movie can be criticized on several grounds, but Barbara Stanwyck’s performance isn’t one of them.

Dick Ives (James Rennie) and Ann Vincent (Stanwyck) are upper class New Yorkers who run with the fast crowd.  They are in madly in love with each other and, though they don’t live together, go away on lots of weekend get aways.  Ann thinks marriage would only kill the spontaneity and fun they currently enjoy.  She eventually talks Dick into going along with her, though he hates the hiding they must do.

Finally James’ father talks them in to marrying. All the things that Barbara feared happen and then they flirt with disaster and old flames played by Ricardo Cortez and Natalie Moorehead.  Can this marriage be saved?  With Joan Blondell as a friend.

Stanwyck is by far the best actor in this movie.  Though this is not a comedy, she exudes a charm and pep in the early love scenes that provide an early glimpse of her talents as a comedienne.  Other than that, the movie just seemed to plod along while not really being long enough to earn its rushed ending.

clip

Shopworn
Directed by Nick Grinde
Written by Jo Swerling and Robert Riskin; story by Sarah Y. Mason
1932/US
Columbia Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Crackle

Kitty Lane (after David’s minders offer her money to drop him): If that’s being rich, I’m glad I’m cheap, and I’m gonna stay cheap! Because no matter how cheap I am, I’m not for sale!

Barbara Stanwyck once again makes trite material quite watchable.

Kitty Lane (Stanwyck) works as a waitress in her small town.  All the boys are after her but she gives them the cold shoulder.  One day, medical student David Livingston (Regis Toomey) comes in for a bite to eat.  He is immediately smitten and they fall in love and become engaged. David’s mother is livid and plots with a local judgeto rid her son of this “common” match. Her first move is to take a bogus health trip to Europe with David by her side.  David agrees to this on the condition that Kitty will come along.  So the snobs conspire to break off the affair another way.

Poor Kitty ends up in a reformatory for wayward girls.  Then she becomes a big Broadway star.

This is a short movie and enjoyable for those moments when Stanwyck unleashes her fire.  She’s on screen most of the time and plays the part with a certain sweetness I had not seen until this point in my journey.  The story is predictable but the production and acting are pretty good.

Forbidden
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Jo Swerling from a story by Frank Capra
1932/US
Columbia Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Crackle streaming

Lulu: I know what I’m saying! You’re poison to me! Poison! I’m sorry I ever met you! But, I’m not old! You’re not the only man in the world! I don’t have to stop living! Not for you! Not for anybody!

Barbara Stanwyck plays a martyr to love.  Adolphe Menjou plays her long-time lover. Surprisingly, this melodrama works despite the bad casting and treacle.

Lula (Stanwyck) is a “plain” (!) small town spinster librarian.  Her heart is full of romance, though, and she takes her life savings to go on a vacation.  Havana seems a very romantic place and she books a cruise that will take her there.  She must have had a full savings account because when she gets on the boat she is dressed to the nines and looks gorgeous.

Things don’t go well for the first two days on board when Lula finds she must dine all alone.  After she flees the second dinner in shame, she returns to her room only to find a tuxedoed man passed out drunk on her bed.  This is Bob (Adolphe Menjou).  Despite this unfortunate introduction, Bob and Lula flirt and when he sobers up, he asks her to dine with him.  They fall madly in love.  Lula is giddy with it.  When they get home Lula takes a job with a city newspaper as a reference librarian.

Holland, a reporter at the newspaper, is sweet on Lula.  They frequently exchange flirty banter but she refuses to go out with him.  Instead, she is keeping an apartment and making dinners for Bob.  On one memorable night, the couple are about to share a meal when Holland calls with a proposal for Lula.  She asks Bob what she should do.  He reveals he has no right to advise her because he gave her a fake name and is married to an invalid he can never divorce.  Lula who expected the evening to be a celebration of the baby she is carrying, throws him out.

A couple of years go by.  Lula is a homebody raising Bob’s child alone.  Finally the lovers meet by chance and reconcile.  Bob is the District Attorney and has ambitions for the mayor’s job.  The two decide the best thing to do is for Bob and his wife to adopt the girl, without informing the wife in advance.  Lula will be her governess.  What could possibly go wrong?  Lula again chews Bob out but takes him back.  Holland, who is still after Lula, has become city editor.  He has a deep dislike for Bob, the politician, and tries to dig up some scandal that will derail his election campaign for Governor.  The melodrama builds until the unbelievable conclusion.

This tearjerker was pretty darned good once you suspend your disbelief that anyone would think of Stanwyck as plain.  The other problem, which I forgot once I got into the story, is the fact that Menjou was probably born looking sixty and seems an unlikely romantic lead.  It was particularly nice to see Bellamy in something other than a rebound financee role. This is definitely pre-Code, what with adultery, illegitimacy, etc.  I like the feisty, outspoken Stanwyck and thought she should have dumped Bob permanently after he revealed his marriage.  But then they would not have been able to milk the noble suffering of Lula.

Photo montage

Ten Cents a Dance
Directed by Lionel Barrymore
Written by Jo Swerling and Dorothy Howell; inspired by a song by Rogers and Hart
1931/US
Columbia Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/YouTube

Barbara O’Neill: She’s got to keep the place hot enough to avoid bankruptcy and cold enough to avoid raids.

Lionel  Barrymore’s directorial debut was this pretty good melodrama with Barbara Stanwyck in fine form.

Barbara Stanwyck is a taxi dancer that hates her job and most men. It does pay the bills, however.  She has a secret boyfriend named Eddie (Monroe Owsley) to whom she is devoted. She has also attracted the attention of millionaire Bradley Carlton (Ricardo Cortez). He obliges when she asks him if he has a job for Eddie, whom she refers to as a friend.

After they secretly marry, Barbara quits her job and attempts to make ends meet as a housewife.  However, Eddie reveals himself to be an irresponsible loser and Barbara is back on the dance floor.  Carlton does not stop pursuing Barbara.

I enjoyed this one. Stanwyck and Cortez have good chemistry and the story, if hackneyed, moves right along and sustains interest. This was the first movie Lionel Barrymore directed and I think he did a good job.

Doris Day sings “Ten Cents a Dance” in Love Me or Leave Me (1955), a biopic about Ruth Etting, who first made the song a hit