Category Archives: Pre-Code Reviews

State’s Attorney
Directed by George Archinbaud
Written by Gene Fowler and Rowland Brown; story by Louis Stevens
1932/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

“It was all Mrs. Bumble. She would do it,” urged Mr. Bumble; first looking round, to ascertain that his partner had left the room.

That is no excuse,” returned Mr. Brownlow. “You were present on the occasion of the destruction of these trinkets, and, indeed, are the more guilty of the two, in the eye of the law; for the law supposes that your wife acts under your direction.”

If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble, squeezing his hat emphatically in both hands, “the law is a ass — a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is, that his eye may be opened by experience — by experience.”― Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

John Barrymore is defense attorney/“mouthpiece” to the mob and a very clever one at that. His live-in mistress Helen Twelvetrees tries to redeem him but he is incorrigible and also a chronic drunk. The mob boss decides Barrymore may be even more useful to him as a prosecutor and gets him a job as Assistant District Attorney. From there he hopes to get elected as District Attorney and then campaign for the Governorship. His political ambitions wreck his relationship with Twelvetrees. Can it be saved?

Barrymore looks like he was on a really bad bender throughout. He’s one bundle of nerves and slurs his speech even when he’s not drinking on screen. On the other hand, I’m becoming a big fan of Helen Twelvetrees. She is so lovely and natural. But no actor could really have saved this ho-hum effort.

Little Women
Directed by George Cukor
Written by Sarah Y. Mason and Victor Heerman from the novel by Louisa May Alcott
1933/US
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Every version of this timeless story makes me weep. This is a particularly good one.

Four teenage girls in Massachusetts and their wise and kind mother “Marmee” hold down the fort at the March house while their preacher father is comforting troops during the American Civil War. The family has fallen on hard times, but somehow finds it possible to be charitable to  those still more unfortunatel. The girls are Meg (Frances Dee), the maternal one; Jo (Katharine Hepburn), the clever one; Beth (Jean Parker), the shy one: and Amy (Joan Bennett), the conceited one. During the course of the story, the girls will be given many opportunities to fight against their little vices and become virtuous young women (This is not near as pious as it sounds!).

The Marches live next door to wealth, stern Mr. Laurence (Henry Stephenson).  He shares his home with grandson “Laurie” (Douglass Montgomery) and Laurie’s tutor John Brooke.  Jo is a free thinker and a tom boy who is up for anything and becomes fast friends with Laurie.  She works for her even more cantankerous Aunt March (Edna May Oliver).  The aunt is impossible but has all but promised Jo she will take her along on her next visit to Europe.

I will stop here.

I don’t know what it is about this story that chokes me up so but I cry at every version. This time I was in tears almost all the way through. It’s kind of hard to rate a movie that hits you so deep. I probably read the novel 10 times as a child.

Any way, all the acting is superb with Katharine Hepburn having been born to play her character and Edna May Oliver so perfect as a crusty aunt with a heart of gold. Cukor did a fine job with this material.

The damn trailer makes me cry! (Several spoilers)

Montage of scenes from early in the movie featuring Hepburn.

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I also watched Blessed Event (1932), a very good “newspaper” movie starring Lee Tracy as an unscrupulous gossip columnist.  I saw it the last time I did a Pre-Code binge.  It is reviewed here.

Rain
Directed by Lewis Milestone
Written by Maxwell Anderson from a play by John Colton and Clemence Randolph and a story by W. Somerset Maugham
1932/US
Feature Productions
IMDb Link
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime Rental

Sadie Thompson: No hurry. Lots of time. There’s so much time lying loose around this island, somebody ought to bottle it up and send it back to were they need some.

Somerset Maugham story about redemption and temptation on a steamy South Sea island has its merit.

A varied group of passengers is stranded at Joe Horn’s (Guy Kibbee) South Sea island general store, inn and saloon when the ship has an outbreak of cholera. Prostitute Sadie Thompson (Joan Crawford) is quick with a wisecrack and very handy at breaking up the monotony produced by the incessant tropical rain. She is very popular with the sailors stationed on the island and one in particular (William Gargan) is sweet on her.

Davidson, a reformist preacher (Walter Huston), his straight-laced wife (Beulah Bondi), and an idealistic young couple complete the party.  Sadie refuses to tone down her behavior for anybody. Davidson takes it upon himself to save or cast Sadie out, possibly both.  He has found out that Sadie is a fugitive from justice having fled a three-year term at San Quintin.  She must be saved or be shipped off on the next boat to San Francisco.  In the end, Davidson is demanding both she must be saved and prove she is redeemed by doing penence in the pokey.  I won’t say more.

This is based on a stage play and it shows though the director does a heroic job in maintaining visual interest. The performances are also impressive. Huston in particular made me want to smack him hard. His character is such a hypocrite. This is also one of Crawford’s better performances in my book.

Flying Down to Rio
Directed by Thornton Freeland
Written by Written by Cyril Hume, H.W. Hanemann, and Erwin Gelsey from a play by Anne Caldwell
1933/US
RKO Radio Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Honey Hale: [watching a Carioca dance] What’s this business about the foreheads?
Fred Ayres: Mental telepathy.
Honey Hale: I can tell what they’re thinking about from here.

Fred and Ginger got their start here and bring the screen alive whenever they appear.

Bandleader Roger Bond (Gene Raymond) gets a yen for Delores del Rio when they meet in Miami. But it turns out she has been engaged since childhood to Raul Roulien, a friend of the family. This slows down Gene not at all.

Coincidentally, Raymond’s band gets a gig to open del Rio’s father’s hotel. Fred Ayres (Fred Astaire) and Honey Hale (Ginger Rogers) are members of the ensemble. Bad guys try to deny the hotel an entertainment license but the band gets the idea of having the entertainment in the air.

What makes this movie a must for me is that it is Fred and Gingers first movie together and they dance the Carioca divinely. The chorines on the wings of bi-planes are also an attraction. The actual plot is predictable and the principal actors are kind of dull.  It is certainly pre-Code by virture of the see-through costumes on many of the girls.

Producer Merion C. Cooper reportedly came up with the idea for the aerial title song number. He also did the world a gigantic favor when he married actress Dorothy Jordan who was slated to play Fred Astaire’s partner. He took her on a year long honeymoon and Ginger Rogers got the role.  The rest is history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYCu29Wu0SI

Hi, Nellie
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by Abem Finkel and Sidney Sutherland, story by Roy Chanslor
1934/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
First viewing/Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 8

Samuel N. Bradshaw aka Brad: Miss Krale, when you have less time and can’t stay so long, come in and see me. But, don’t make it too often! I’m a busy man.
Gerry Krale: Man?
Samuel N. Bradshaw aka Brad: You heard me.
Gerry Krale: Okay, Nellie.

One of many newspaper dramas of the early thirties and a pretty good one at that.

Samuel N. (‘Brad’) Bradshaw (Paul Muni) is the hard hitting managing editor of a big city paper. There is a scandal about the failure of a bank from which $500,000 had been stolen. This was blamed on embezzlement by Frank Canfield who has since disappeared. Not believing the embezzlement story, Muni plays this in his paper as a mystery. All the other papers come out with huge headlines blaming Canfield.

The newspaper’s owner is not pleased but Muni has a contract and cannot be fired. Instead he is demoted to write an advice to the lovelorn column under the name Nellie. Fellow reporter Gerry Krale (Glenda Farrell) who had been Nellie gets moved backed to the newsroom. In the end, the advice column leads Muni to the solution of his mystery.

This is a solid newspaper picture with such Warner Bros. character actors as Ned Sparrks, Douglass Dumbrille, and John Qualen adding to the fun. An entertaining film. Since this was included in the Forbidden Hollywood collection I’m going to consider it pre-Code though there is nothing naughty about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4Mb1LlDHAg

One Way Passage
Directed by Tay Garnett
Written by Wilson Mizner and Joseph Jackson based on a story by Robert Lord
1932/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
First viewing/My DVD collection

Joan: Remember our first?
Dan: We thought it was our last. You never can tell.

One of the great doomed romances of classic Hollywood.

Dan Hardesty (William Powell) is a fugitive from justice who has been fleeing a death sentence. He meets Joan Ames (Kay Francis) in a Hong Kong bar and instantly they only have eyes for each other. They part wishing that luck will bring them together again.

Soon after, Dan is apprehended by U.S. police officer Steve Burke (Warren Heimer). Dan is handcuffed to his captor until the ship is well out of port. Joan has one of those inevitably fatal movie illnesses where the sufferer looks gorgeous at all times and merely daintily faints at appropriate moments. She is sailing back to the U.S. to suffer her fate. Her doctor has ordered total lack of excitement, smoking. drinking etc. But when she spots Powell aboard she throws caution to the wind, determined to live fully until she dies. Thus begins the most romantic of love stories, with each half of the couple waiting until almost the end of the cruise to reveal his/her secret.  With Alene MacMahon as a fake countess/conwoman who owes Powell a favor, Frank McHugh as a comic drunk, and Warner Hymer as the cop who is bringing Powell back to justice.

The plot summary sound melodramatic and I guess it is. But the story is so romantic that one doesn’t mind. All the actors do themselves proud keeping the basic mood light throughout. I love Kay Francis and she is really lovely in this one. The romantic leads certainly had chemistry.  Recommended.

One Hour with You
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Written by Samson Raphaelson from a play by Lothar Schmidt
1932/US
Paramount Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/my DVD collection

Dr. Andre Bertier: [singing] I can squeeze you here, I can squeeze you there, And I’m never told to handle with care, I don’t have to stop when I kiss your hand.
Colette Bertier: It’s lawful!
Dr. Andre Bertier: Oh, it’s grand…

The last of Ernst Lubitsch’s pre-Code musicals maintains the high standard of all the others.

The setting is Paris, France.  The story begins with a policeman interrupting Colette (Janette MacDonald) and Andre Bertier (Maurice Chevalier) from their make-out session on a park bench.  They have no problem finding another place to make love.  They are married and simply head for home.  Their ardor seems to have withstood their three years of marital bliss.

Then Colette introduces Andre to her so-called best friend Mitzi Olivier (Genevieve Tobin). Mitzi begins a relentless pursuit of her friend’s husband.  This suits Mitzi’s husband (Roland Young) to a tee as he is seeking grounds for divorce.  With Charlie Ruggles as Andre’s friend who is sweet on Colette.

There is nothing wrong with this movie and it certainly has the Lubitsch touch in spades. The songs are also quite nice. I just personally had a hard time finding the homewrecker/infidelity premise all that funny.

One Hour with You was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar

Lady Killer
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Written by Ben Markson and Lillie Hayward from a story by Rosalind Keating Shaffer
1933/US
Warner Bros.
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Movie Patron: [Looking at a Movie Poster] Tommy, Edward G. Robinson in a Dark Ha-zard.
Slug – Movie Patron: Well, you gotta get a load of that guy!
Movie Patron: Yeah, he’s not bad.

Cagney gives his all to this entertaining movie.

Jimmy Cagney plays  tough guy Dan Quigley who gets involved with some con artists courtesy of tempting moll Myra Gale (Mae Clarke). Dan is so adept at criminal activities that eventually the gang owns a nightclub. Things get too hot to handle when the gang moves on to jewel heists that lead to murder.  Myra flees to Mexico with the gang rather than bailing Dan out.After some hard times, Dan makes a name for himself in movies.  He meets and falls in love with leading lady Lois Underwood (Margaret Lindsay).  But the gang returns like bad pennies and attempt to blackmail our hero.

A rare mustachioed role for James Cagne

Cagney displays his usual energy and charm and this is an entertaining picture. It is kind of puzzling in tone. The dialogue is light and snappy and yet there is some serious violence toward the end.

A r

Five Star Final
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Written by Byron Morgan and Robert Lord from a play by Louis Weitzenkorn
1931/US
First National Pictures (Warner Bros.)
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Miss Taylor: I think you can always get people interested in the crucifixion of a woman.

Mervyn LeRoy and company deliver a hard-hitting social consciousness film about the gutter press.

Joseph Randall (Edward G. Robinson) is managing editor of a tabloid rag.  The paper’s owners are concerned about declining circulation and come up with the loony and heartless idea of resurrecting a 20-year-old murder case.  A jury acquitted a young woman named Nancy Voorhees after she killed her employer who had impregnated her.  Randall is ordered to find out what happened to the woman and her baby.  He sends out unscrupulous reporter T. Vernon Isopod to dig up the dirt.

Voorhees married a man named Thompson (H.B. Warner) and the couple raised her daughter Jenny (Marian Marsh) as their own.  They have had a happy life and now Jenny is engaged to marry the son of a high society family.  Isopod poses as a preacher and the Townsends assume he has come to call about the wedding.  This gives the paper enough to print a story with lurid headlines.  Much tragedy ensues.  With Aline MacMahon in her film debut as Randall’s adoring but disgusted secretary.

This is heavy on the melodrama but is saved by the excellent performances of Robinson, MacMahon and Marsh.  Worth seeing.

Five Star Final was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0qL1fs1c6k

Spoilerish