Posted on 12/20/2023 2:39:26 PM PST by Twotone
There's a cherished myth that the films made before the enforcement of Will Hays' Motion Picture Production Code in 1934 are a lost paradise of moviemaking: a frank, honest, adult cinematic universe that we were only able to return to with the abandonment of the Code in the '60s and the emergence of a school of movie radicals – the "raging bulls" of Peter Biskind's famous book – who blew away the fusty moral cobwebs from Hollywood.
Part of this is a reaction to Joseph Breen, the man who Hays put in charge, and who ruled over the production offices and editing rooms of Hollywood until his retirement in 1954. Breen was, to be sure, an unpleasant character – a textbook establishment antisemite and proudly ignorant scold. Knowing that he had final say over your work must have been galling.
But it has to be remembered that Joseph Breen didn't make the movies: Howard Hawks and Ernst Lubitsch and George Cukor and James Whale and Frank Capra and Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder and Dorothy Arzner and Mitchell Leisen and Fritz Lang and Elia Kazan and many others did. And that by the time Breen retired, the code was being undermined by both the studios and independent producers. It would limp on for another decade but its end in 1968 was little more than burying the corpse that had been mouldering in plain sight.
But let's examine this myth of the pre-Code picture by looking at one that's considered a classic – Mervyn LeRoy's Three on a Match (1932), made by First National Pictures and distributed by its parent company, Warner Bros. The film begins with a news and headline montage that tells us it's 1919 by summing up three key events...
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
An early Better Davis,also starring Joan Blondel, the beautiful Ann Dvorak, and the always suave, wonderful Warren William.
Not a "Christmas movie", by any means, but a must see film!
If I read through this correct, abandoning the code is considered to be a good thing by the author.
I strongly disagree. But I do have my own code. If there is a raw sex scene, any form of homosexuality or any political jabs then we move to a different channel. Minor nudity and a little cussing is OK.
Our favorite movies are actually pre 1968 because they actually have plots, are cleaner and it’s refreshing to see the good guys win all the time. Now there are a few modern day movies and TV shows that fit to our liking, but they are few and far between.
Regarding pre-code days and the original Tarzan movies, there’s one where Jane (Maureen O’Sullivan) is moving so fast that her loin cloth flips up and exposes her private part. You have to be fast to see it, but it’s there.
Your code is similar to mine. These days I record movies that sound good, & immediately stop watching & delete if I find leftist nonsense. I fast forward thru sex scenes, as they’re usually irrelevant to the plot.
“Three on a Match” is one of the few films that cast Humphrey Bogart as a bad guy.
I agree that it’s a must see for precode fans.
There are actually some post 1968 movies that are REALLY good ( no sex scenes, no homo stuff, etc. ); if you want a list, just drop me a FRmail.
There were some very good pre-code movies made!
Marking.
Before Hays there was George Creel, Wilson’s propaganda minister who made sure Hollywood stayed politically correct and on message during WWI. He was more scary than Hays, for behind him stood the federal government at war.
Josef Goebbels studied his techniques and incorporate them into Nazi Propaganda.
Goebbels and Creel could put people in jail. Hays could only put them out of business.
It’s all but forgotten, there was a lot going on politically in that era. The IWW, socialists, labor unrest. Wilson stomped out many a brush fire.
The Petrified Forest and A Lonely Place are two more where he played less than honorable roles.
I have a copy of Three on a Match. Ann Dvorak gave an amazing performance.
Baby Face, 1933, with Barbara Stanwyck as a girl who knows how to move up. John Wayne in a minor role.
Here is a scene from In A Lonely Place.
I knew the woman singing and playing the piano.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTcOompA6jQ&t=6s
It was one of his darker movies. No happy ending.
The woman did great singing and playing. These movies make me sad when I think most of the actors and actresses are dead. Time humbles us all.
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