Category Archives: Pre-Code Reviews

The Invisible Man

Farmer: Excuse me, sir. There’s breathing in my barn.

James Whale again shows his deft hand at mixing wit with violence and doing justice to both.

Jack Griffin (Claude Rains) works for Dr. Cranley (Henry Travers) in a research lab.  He works in secret on something to do with food preservation advances.  Actually, he is playing with fire by developing an invisibility drug.  Unfortunately, he tests the drug out on himself without having discovered an antidote.

The invisible Griffin makes a run for a country pub where he hopes he can continue his work in private.  But the landlady (Una O’Connor) walks in on him partically clad.  Her screams continue for the remainder of the film.  Something in his drug is making him both invisible and insane.  He leaves the pub and has fun using his new found powers for evil.

Eventually, he decides he needs a visible assistant for his research and coerces his colleague and rival in love Dr. Arthur Kemp to fill that role.  Griffin hates Kemp for his interest in Flora Cranley (Gloria Stuart).  I’ll end here.

Claude Rains makes an unforgettable US film debut as the title character with his resonant voice.  I could live without Una O’Connors hysterics but what would these movies be without them? Recommended.

Tugboat Annie

Alexander ‘Alec’ Brennan: Mother! Are you all right? Did he strike you?
Annie Brennan: No! Your father has never struck me. Except in self-defense.

Marie Dressler shines as the titular tugboat captain and Wallace Beery adds to the fun as her ne’erd-do-well husband.

Annie Brennan (Dressler) struggles mightily to keep her tugboat business afloat.  Her drunken husband Terry (Beery)  keeps making mistakes that turn business away.  They have a son Alec (Frankie Darro) who says he wants to drop out of school and work on the tug.  Annie won’t have that.  She has big plans for the boy.

Alec grows up to be Robert Young.  He makes his mother proud when he becomes the youngest person to captain a luxury liner.  Alec is engaged to Pat (Maureen O’Sullivan).  He keeps urging his mother to dump his father but she refuses and the two become estranged.  It will take a disaster to reunite them.

I like the stars and enjoyed the movie.  Dressler has so much heart it’s hard not to fall in love with her.

Lola Burns: “Stone-Age Stuff!” “Mad with Desire!” “Lovers’ Brawl!” Is that the way you prove you just more than care for me? Treating me like a strip act in a burlesque show! A glamorous Bombshell, eh? A glorified chump, that’s what I’ve been! Well, I’m through do you understand? With the business, with everybody! You can get another “It Girl,” a “But Girl” or a “How, When and Where Girl.” I’m clearing out – and you can all stay here in this half-paid-for car barn and get somebody else to pull the apple cart! I’m going where ladies and gentlemen hang their hats and get some peace and quiet… and if any of you try to interfere with me – I’ll complain to the authorities!

I don’t associate Victor Fleming with screwball comedies but he did very well with this one. Jean Harlow had developed into quite a comedienne by this point.

Lola Burns (Harlow)  is a movie star and a sex symbol despite herself.  ‘Space’ Hanlon (Lee Tracy) is her fast-talking wisecracking publicity man. Poor Lola is supporting her family and a raft of hangers on and is being driven crazy in the process. Lee is always on hand to defeat her wishes and keep her on the job and her name in the headlines.

Among the projects Space defeats is Lola’s plan to adopt a baby and a couple of different romances.  With Frank Morgan as her drunken father, Ted Healy as her loser brother, Una Merkel as her assistant, Louise Beavers as her maid, and Franchot Tone as one of her suitors.

I found this frenetic but very entertaining.  The script is quite funny with the dialogue running at a mile a minute.  Harlow and Tracy make good antagonists.  The story was based on the life of Clara Bow but it bears some resemblance to Harlow’s own life. Recommended.

Strangers May Kiss

Steve: There will always be a bottle of champagne, burning in the window.

This is one of several very similar and better films in which Norma Shearer defies convention in the name of love or revenge.

The setting is New York City among the upper classes.  Lizbeth Corbin (Shearer) is madly in love with adventurer journalist Alan (Neil Hamilton). They aren’t in a hurry to get married.  Her family wants her to marry Steve (Robert Mongomery), a debonaire friend of the family and long time buddy to Lizbeth.  He proposes every time he sees her but is always rebuffed.

Then work takes Neil to Mexico, Norma accompanies him, and her love deepens. It is only then that Neil reveals the existence of a wife in Paris. Furthermore, he will be going to South America for a few years and is not taking Norma.  She is devastated as he was her first love.

Lizbeth, goes to Europe and becomes a “loose woman”. Steve searches for her all over the continent and finally meets up with her in Spain.  He is still willing to marry her despite her debauchery.  Finally Neil writes telling her he has got divorced and she should come to Paris and marry him. Will she let him break her heart again? Will she come to her senses and realize what a catch Robert is? I will not spoil it for you.

In my opinion this is the worst of the Norma Shearer “free spirit” movies I have seen.  The plot really doesn’t ring true and Shearer employs her girlish flirtatious giggle too frequently for my taste. She does handle the tragic parts well.  On the other hand, Montgomery is devastatingly suave and handsome at this age.  How could she resist him?

Dinner at Eight

Dan Packard: Remember what I told you last week?
Kitty Packard: I don’t remember what you told me a minute ago.

George Cukor and a team of talented screenwriters made this tragi-comedy with an all-star MGM cast a total delight.

Mrs. Jordan (Billie Burke), wife of ailing shipping magnate Oliver Jordan (Lionel Barrymore.) plans a formal dinner in honor of English aristocrats but nothing works out as planned. It’s the Depression and everybody has a secret, usually financial.

The guest list includes: Larry Renault (John Barrymore), a washed-up alcoholic movie star who is carrying on an affair with the Jordans’ young daughter Paula (Madge Evans); Kitty (Jean Harlow) and Dan Packard (Wallace Beery) a married couple that can’t stand each other; Carlotta Vance, a broke aging Broadway star; Dr. Wayne Talbot, who has been carrying on with Kitty Packard, and his long-suffering wife Lucy (Karen Morley); and, at the last minute, Mrs. Jordan’s cousin and her husband.  Plenty happens before the dinner, which we never see.  With Lee Tracy as Larry’s agent and Jean Hersholt as a Broadway producer.

I just love this one! All the actors, including both the Barrymores, do themselves proud but my very favorite part is the battles between Jean Harlow and husband Wallace Beery. Harlow had really developed her comedy chops by this time.  And of course Marie Dressler, my namesake, is a delight.  The screenplay is endlessly quotable.  Highly Recommended.

The Most Dangerous Game

Bob: This world’s divided into two kinds of people: the hunter and the hunted. Luckily, I’m the hunter. Nothing can change that.

I’ve seen this film several times through the years and, if anything, my affection for it has grown.  The filmmakers make every minute count in this 63 minute thriller/horror film.

Bob (Joel McCrea is a big game hunter.  As the movie opens he tells the rest of his party that hunting is sport for both the hunter and the hunted.  He soon will find out how wrong he is when their fancy yacht is shipwrecked on a small island.

The island is ruled by psycho-sadist hunter Zaroff.  Bob is introduced to the Tartars who work for him and shown his ravenous savage dogs.  Zaroff has arranged that his island benefit from numerous shipwrecks it seems.  Currently Eve (Fay Wray) and her recklessly alcoholic brother (Walter) are in residence.  Eve takes Bob aside and says that something is wrong.  The shipwrecked sailors that were there when the two arrived have disappeared.

Zaroff is excited to meet Bob, having read his books. Zaroff says that his trophy room is open to visitors only right before they go on a hunt.  Martin asks to see it and is never seen again.  Eve and Bob break into it and gasp at the gruesome mounting of disappeared humans therein.

Now it is Bob’s turn to become prey.  The deal is that the hunt will begin at midnight.  If Bob can survive until dawn, he will win and he and Eve can depart on the launch.  If Zaroff kills Bob he will take Fay Wray and make her his own.  This would be a fate worse than death and she decides to accompany Bob.  Bob is armed only with a large knife.  Zaroff has access to an arsenal of unique weapons. The remainder of the film is non-stop action as the pair surmount one scary obstacle after another.  Noble Johnson plays the Count’s main lackey.

I’ve always liked this one because Joel McCrae runs around in rags displaying his very attractive chest.  But it’s a cracking action movie as well and moves at an admirable pace.

There is nothing “early talkie” about this.  McCrea and Wray are fine.  Leslie Banks goes way over the top in a manner that suits the material  perfectly.    Max Steiner composed one of the very first movie score to  fully integrate the musical score with the images on-screen and to score individual scenes for their content and create leitmotifs for individual characters, as opposed to simply providing vaguely appropriate mood music.  Nothing high brow but awfully entertaining.  Recommended.

The movie was filmed concurrently with King Kong (1933) during the breaks for special effects work.  The same sets were used for the swampy forest setting in which the hunt takes place.

Conroy, The Editor: Anne Schuyler’s in the blue book; you’re not even in the phone book. Think that one over… sucker!

Capra delivers a solid newspaper/romcom picture with plenty of snappy dialogue.

Stew Smith (Robert Williams) is the wise-cracking star reporter on a big city newspaper. Michael Schuyler is trying to avoid a scandal about his chorus girl girlfriend who has settled a breach of promise lawsuit but has refused to return his love letters.  Rumors of this are floating around and Stew’s editor sends him to the swanky Schuyler family manse to verify the story.  The Schuyler’s lawyer tries to bribe him to not print the story.  Stew now has his confirmation.  At the same time, he is introduced to Michael’s sister Anne (Jean Harlow).  It is lust at first sight.

Lust turns to love and Stew and Anne marry.  Anne’s family is dismayed but Anne reassures them.  It is then he finds that Anne expects him to give up his old life and friends, live in the mansion, and accompany Anne to her many social engagements.

Now Robert has a long-time colleague at the paper who is called Gallagher (Loretta Young).  They are confidants and trade snappy banter.  What Robert doesn’t know is that she is in love with him.  He hasn’t really seen her as a woman.  With Claud Allister as a valet.

I liked this one a lot due to the snappy dialogue, expertly delivered by the very appealing Williams and company. IMO one of the best newspaper pictures and contains my favorite performance ever by Loretta Young.  Harlow was still developing her acting chops so she is somewhat stiff and at any rate feels miscast as a socialite.

I found myself wondering what happened to Williams. Turns out this was his first major role and he died of peritonitis 4 days after the picture’s release.

Blonde Crazy

Peggy: And let me tell you something about this place. I’ve been here six months and I know! For the love of Mike, stay away from those bellhops. They can’t do a girlie any good. And the worst monkey of them all is that guy, Bert Harris. He’s dynamite. Everybody in this joint owes him money from those crooked dice of his.
Ann Roberts: He can’t do me any harm. I haven’t any money and I don’t shoot craps.
Peggy: Oh, yeah? Well, maybe you have something else he can use.

Joan Blondell and Jimmy Cagney make a perfect couple of grifters.

Cocky bellhop Bert Harris (Cagney) is famous for dirty tricks at the hotel he works for in a small midwest town.  When Anne Roberts (Joan Blondell) comes looking for a job he lands her one even though the position had already been filler.  He keeps being fresh and she keeps slapping him.  But he talks her into working a swindle on one of the guests and they become partners in crime, she more reluctantly than he.

They use their ill-gotten gains to move on to bigger fish in Chicago.  But Bert is not quite so smart as he thinks. With Louis Calhern as another con artist and Ray Milland as Anne’s suitor.

This is a very pre-Code and extremely fun movie.  Cagney and Blondell have enough energy to light up a big city.  Everything is kept moving along well.  Despite the crime theme the tone is nice and light.