Category Archives: Pre-Code Reviews

Blondie Johnson
Directed by Ray Enright and Lucien Hubbard
Written by Earl Baldwin
1933/US
First National Pictures (Warner Bros.)
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Blondie Johnson: This city’s gonna pay me a livin’. A good livin’! And its gonna get back from me, just as little as I have to give.

This is a very fun movie with the ever fabulous Joan Blondell in the lead for a change.

Blondie Johnson (Blondell) begins as a downtrodden unemployed girl who is homeless along with her dying mother. She quit her last job when the boss couldn’t keep his hands off her.  She can get no assistance from the government. When mom dies, she bitterly decides that from now on she will be out for only one thing – money.

She gets a job in the chorus to afford some decent clothes and proceeds to prove herself a very competent con artist. Her first accomplice is taxi driver Sterling Holloway. Then she meets gangster Danny Jones (Chester Morris) and gets involved in progressively more elaborate and lucrative cons. Blondie is all business with Danny but he wants something more.

Joan Blondell lights up the screen in every movie she appears in and never more so than when she stars. She is pitiful, hard-bitten, and love-lorn as required by the plot. Very entertaining and recommended to Blondell fans.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO95iUPOpms

The Lady Refuses
Directed by George Archainbaud
Written by Wallace Smith, Robert Milton and Guy Bolton
1931/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)

June: There are two times when no one can advise a man. The first, is when he’s drinking too much. The other, is when he loves the wrong woman.
Sir Gerald Courtney: Does that bar… even a father?
June: *Especially* a father.

This obscure movie did not wow me.

The action takes place in London with a bunch of American actors trying to sound English. June (Betty Compson) has fallen on hard times and decides to take up prostitution. But on the very first night she hits the streets, the coppers spot her and chase her down. She seeks sanctuary In the posh townhouse of aristocrat Sir Gerald Courtney (Gilbert Emery).

Sir Gerald  immediately takes a liking to the obviously clever and pretty June and decides she is just the woman to distract his son Russell (John Darrow) from gold-digging hussy Berthine Waller (Margaret Livingston). June is highly successful at this, perhaps too successful, and succeeds in making two men fall in love with her.  With Ivan Lebedeff as Berthine’s boyfriend/pimp.

This is a so-so programmer though it did hold my interest.  Compson was ten years older than Darrow and looked it.

No trailer or clips so here’s a tribute to Compson.

Tabu: A story of the South Seas
Directed by F.W. Murnau
Written by F.W. Murnau and Robert J. Flaherty
1931/US
Murnau-Flaherty Productions
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube

The Girl: [writing a goodbye letter] I must go. Hitu is here and waits for me. You will die if I do not obey. I will go so that you may live. The tabu is upon us. I have been so happy with you far more than I deserved. The love you have given me, I will keep to the last beat of my heart. Across the great waters, I will come to you in your dreams when the moon spreads its path on the sea. Farewell.

In his last film, a late silent movie, F.W. Murnau gives us a simply beautiful Romeo and Juliet story set in the South Pacific.

Robert J. Flaherty was supposed to co-direct this film and it has a documentary feel to it with many rituals of Polynesian life captured. A strong handsome young man (Matahi) falls in love with a beautiful young Riri (Anne Chevalier). Matahi is an expert spear fisherman.  They live in Paradise and their love is idyllic.

Then aged warrior Hitu comes from the main island and announces the sacred virgin has died.  Riri is the chosen successor.  A man can be killed for even looking at her.  The lovers flee to Papeete which has been Westernized by colonizers to a certain extent.  Matahi also proves to be an expert at pearl diving.  He is tricked out of his prize pearl by white men.  Can the couple escape the long arm of Hitu?

This is beautiful to watch, the young actors are charming and natural, and the music is fun. It was Murnau’s final film. He died in an auto accident during post-production at only 42. Recommended.

Floyd Crosby won the Best Cinematography Oscar.

Millie
Directed by John Francis Dillon
Written by Charles Kenyon and Ralph Murphy from a novel by Donald Henderson Clarke
1931/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (free to Members)

Millie Blake: I can’t afford to go out nights.
Helen Riley: Well, you certainly can’t afford to stay home nights. Not at this stage in the game

In this movie, pre-Code shenanigans are mixed with melodrama and a strong cast.

Helen Twelvetrees plays the title character, a girl all the small town high school boys are crazy about. She protects her virtue fiercely. Then wealthy businessman Jack Maitland (James Hall) asks her to marry him and she accepts. They move to New York City. Three years later she has an adorable little girl and James is spending more and more time away from her on “business”.

Angie Wickerstaff (Joan Blondell), a friend from back home, calls Millie and wants to see her.  Blondell’s co-conspirator in gold-digging is Helen Riley (Lilyan Tashman).  The roommates are short on rent money, They take Millie out to a speakeasy where she sees Jack dancing and romancing another woman. She drops him like a hot potato, loses her daughter, refuses to take any of his money, and makes a success of herself through hard work.

Millie continues to attract the attention of many men but the only one that respects her is Tommy Rock (Robert Ames), a newspaper reporter. They date for years. When she discovers Tommy also has a girlfriend on the side, she dumps him and goes on a downhill slide into the hard-drinking partying of Angie and Helen. Finally, an incident causes Millie to snap and a courtroom drama ensues.  With John Halliday as a would-be sugar daddy.

This is a very ok movie and kept my attention for the entire 85 minutes of its run time. Blondell looks so young! I loved Twelvetrees and Tashman in other movies and they are both in top form here. If the plot appeals, I can recommend it.

American Madness
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Robert Riskin
1932/US
Columbia Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Upon receiving his AFI Lifetime Achievment Award] I’d be the first to admit I’m a damn good director. – Frank Capra

Thomas A. Dickson (Walter Huston) runs a successful bank. He believes that credit should be given based on character not on wealth. His board of directors believes this “faith-based lending” will wreck the bank and wants either to get Walter to change his ways or quit. Walter refuses to do either.

Then the bank is robbed of $100,000. It was evidently an inside job and blame is placed on cashier Pat O’Brien who is in charge of the vault. He has an alibi which he refuses to use because it might compromise Walter’s wife Phyllis (Kay Johnson) whom he found in the apartment of creepy bank executive Cyril Cluett (Gavin Gordon).

In an elaborate game of “telephone”, rumors that the bank has lost millions in the robbery and is on the verge of failure spread like wildfire through the city.  A run on the bank ensues. I will go no further except to say that many of the tropes in this movie would appear again in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). With Constance Cummings as O’Brien’s fiancee and Huston’s secretary.

This is an excellent movie. The acting is terrific and the skill that Capra was developing is evident in every scene, especially the spectacular crowd shots during the bank run. Recommended.

Murders in the Rue Morgue
Directed by Robert Florey
Tom Read and Dale Van Every from the immortal classic by Edgar Allan Poe
1932/US
Universal Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)

Dr. Mirakle: My life is consecrated to great experiment. I tell you I will prove your kinship with the ape. Eric’s blood will be mixed with the blood of man.

Overlooked Universal horror entry loosely based on the Poe story complete with “Swan Lake” opening music.

Bela Lugosi plays mad scientist Doctor Mirakle who displays his “man-ape” in a carnival sideshow by day and conducts evil experiments on young ladies in an attempt to combine ape and human blood by night. With Leon Ames (still billed as Leon Wycoff) as Pierre Dupin, here a medical student in love with the Sidney Fox, the ape’s choice for a bride.

This film is marred by some ham-handed comic relief and unconvincing ape effects. On the other hand, it does feature some pretty spiffy cinematography by DP Karl Freund.

The American Kingdom
Directed by Edward H. Griffith (with an uncredited George Cukor)
Written by Horace Johnson from a play by Philip Barry
1932/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Daisy Sage: For all our big talk, we both still belong to the animal kingdom.

I enjoyed this stagey but unique and adult sophisticated love triangle.

Tom Collier (Leslie Howard) is the free-thinking owner of a small publishing company. His father (Henry Stephenson) considers him a total flop. Dear old dad is very pleased to learn of Tom’s  engagement to Cecilia (AKA ‘Cee’) Myrna Loy. He did not approve of Tom’s three-year live-in love affair with Daisy Sage (Ann Harding). Daisy has been off in Paris studying art. Daisy, who had previously scorned marriage, has decided she wants children and more or less proposes to Leslie before he can announce his engagement to Cee.

Ann was also Leslie’s dear friend and had a major influence on his thinking. Leslie thinks he can remain friends with Ann after marrying Myrna. Myrna does her best to make this impossible. Actually, Myrna, a master manipulator, tries to change Leslie in every way and to isolate him from his former friends altogether.

This is an adaptation of a stage play and feels very stage bound. It’s a sophisticated adult story and the acting is good, if also stagey. This time around the Myrna Loy character made me so angry I was shouting at my TV. She really was convincingly despicable – the sign of a good actress. She has at least as much screen time as Harding but once again doesn’t get her name above the title.

Multiple complete versions of the film are currently on YouTube.

No trailer or clip so here’s a tribute

I Cover the Waterfront
Directed by James Cruze
Written by Wells Root and Jack Jevne from a book by Max Miller
1933/US
Edward Small Productions (Distributed by United Artists)
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)

Joe Miller: Come on, let’s play a love scene.
Julie Kirk: Let’s fall in love first.

Short, kinda sweet, and enjoyable.

Joe Miller (Ben Lyon) covers the waterfront in San Diego for the newspaper he works for. He mostly hates his job. There is one story he wants to write though. He is convinced that “fisherman” Eli Kirk (Ernest Torrance) is smuggling in Chinese illegal immigrants. His interest is intensified when he finds the body of an immigrant who was tossed in the harbor during a raid.

Then Joe meets Julie Kirk (Claudette Colbert), Eli’s daughter. His first idea is to use her to get next to Eli but he rapidly falls in love with her. This throws a monkey wrench into his journalistic plans, but he persists.

I enjoyed this hour-long movie. Amazing how many newspaper stories there were in the early 30’s! The stars are appealing, the romance is cute, and we get a little crime story to boot.

No clips so here’s a song inspired by the movie

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The next day I rewatched The Story of Temple Drake (1933) which I had already reviewed here.  I think I liked it even more on the second viewing.

Riders of Destiny
Directed by Robert N. Bradbury
Written by Robert N. Bradbury
1933/US
Paul Malvern Productions (Monarch Pictures)
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (Free to members)

James Kincaid: I’ve made Denton an offer he can’t refuse.

John Wayne brings star quality to even the most routine poverty-row oater.

This is a Western starring John Wayne as a singing cowboy (his singing voice is dubbed). As the story begins, Singin’ Sandy Saunders interrupts a stage coach robbery. He meets lovely Fay Denton (Cecilia Parker) and loans her his horse when hers is shot from under her. It turns out her father (Gabby Hayes) owns a gold mine and it seems that every time a shipment is sent to him the stage is robbed. So Fay intercepts the stage and takes the loot before bandits can get to it. Greedy city slicker James Kincaid (Forrest Taylor) is behind the robberies. He also has a lock on most of the water in the valley and is threatening to cut off the ranchers supply unless they sell out cheap. You have to know that Singin’ Sandy will save the day.

This movie is only 53 minutes long and is about what you would expect. I thought the antics of Kincaid’s none-too-bright thugs were fairly amusing. Wayne is young and very handsome. It’s also amusing watching him sing.

When Ladies Meet
Directed by Harry Beaumont and Robert Z. Leonard
Written by John Meehan and Leon Gordon from the play by Rachel Crothers
1933/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 9

Clare: Well, the hard thing for me to believe is that she’d believe this man.
Mary Howard: Good heavens, why? A woman knows when a man’s in love.
Clare: Perhaps, I suppose any married woman would think that this other woman ought to know enough not to believe a married man if he’s making love to her.

Here’s a sophisticated love triangle/quadrangle that works very well.  And possibly the last time Myrna Loy didn’t get top billing for a film.

Mary Howard (Loy) is a free-thinking young novelist.  She is currently writing a book about a woman who is having an affair with a married man.  Close friend Jimmie Lee (Robert Montgomery) has proposed countless times.  He hates Mary’s book.  As the story begins, he is being rejected once again.  Mary’s publisher Rogers Woodruf (Frank Morgan) is helping her with the final chapter.  It soon becomes evident that Mary is also having an affair with Rogers, a married man.  She gets her friend Bridget (Alice Brady) to host her and Rogers in the country for some alone time r.  None of this is lost on Jimmie.

Mary’s final chapter has the heroine determined to meet the wife before she decides whether to break up the marriage.  Jimmie plots to meet and get close to Rogers’s wife Clare (Ann Harding).  He tells her he wants to make Mary jealous and would like her to pose as the other woman and join him for a country weekend at Bridget’s house.  It will be an awkward weekend not least because it turns out Mary likes Clare very much.

I liked this one a lot.  The writing is sharp and the cast is great.  It’s hard to believe anybody would reject Robert Montgomery in favor of Frank Morgan but the latter is far more appealing than the befuddled character he would specialize in later in his career.  Loy appears in almost every scene while we don’t meet Harding until 30 minutes into the picture.  The vamp is gone and she adopts the common-sense fun-loving persona that would be hers for the rest of her long career.

The movie would be remade in 1941 with Joan Crawford, Greer Garson, Robert Taylor and  Herbert Marshall

Cedric Gibbon was nominated for the Best Art Direction Oscar.