The one man most responsible for popularizing “Pre-code” movies — those racy early talkies turned out by Hollywood before the Production Code Authority cracked down, largely at the behest of the Catholic Church, in mid-1934 — is probably Bruce Goldstein, who has showcased them in series since taking over as director of repertory programming at Film Forum in 1987. Starting today, he’s offering “Essential Pre-Code” — what he terms the “creme de la creme” of the era — 50 films, all in 35mm prints, and all filled with the sort of sex, drugs and political incorrectness that would soon be banned until the PCA was replaced with the current ratings system in the 1960s.
The series opens with the “uncensored” version (discovered a few years ago) of Alfred E. Green’s remarkably frank “Baby Face” (1933) with Barbara Stanwyck literally sleeping up the way up the corporate ladder, from a young John Wayne to George Brent. It’s showing today and tomorrrow on a double feature with Mervyn LeRoy’s very tough “Two Seconds” (1932) starring Edward G. Robinson as a man whose life passes before his eyes as he’s being electrocuted for murder.
Most of the films are being offered in double bills, except on Tuesdays, when these movies (most of which run under 75 minutes) will be shown on triple bills, beginning next week with Barbara Stanwyck in William Wellman’s crime drama “Night Nurse” (1931) with a young Clark Gable as a chauffeur involved in a kidnapping plot. Stanwyck also stars in Howard Bretherton’s “Ladies They Talk About” (1933), a prison drama that depicts lesbian inmates. William Dieterle’s not-on-DVD “Lawyer Man” (1932) with William Powell and Joan Blondell rounds out the triple bill.
Thursdays are devoted to double features starring pre-Code king Warren William, who in his first outing next week practices lechery and chicanery in a spicy pair directed by Roy Del Ruth for 1933 release — “Employees Entrance” and “The Mind Reader,” neither of them available on DVD.
Other titles not on DVD include Stephen Roberts’ “The Story of Temple Drake” (1933), a still-shocking adaptation of William Faulkner’s “Sanctuary” starring Miriam Hopkins on July 24; a triple bill of Raoul Walsh’s “Me and My Gal” (1932) with Spencer Tracy, Walsh’s “Sailor’s Luck” (1933) and Rowland Brown’s “Blood Money” (1933) on July 24; James Flood and Elliot Nugent’s “The Mouthpiece” (1932) with William on July 38; John Francis Dillon’s “Call Her Savage” (1932) starring Clara Bow on July 31; Michael Curtiz’ “Cabin in the Cotton” (1932) with Bette Davis on Aug. 2; Del Ruth’s “Blessed Event” (1932) with fast-talking Lee Tracy on Aug. 3.
Also: Bretherton and William Keighley’s “The Match King” (1932) with William causing an international monetary crisis on Aug. 4; Wellman’s truly depraved “Safe in Hell” (1931) on Aug. 5; Dieterle’s Lubitsch-esque “Jewel Robbery” (1932) with Powell and Kay Francis; George Cukor’s very frank “Girls About Town” (1931) with Francis on Aug. 9; Walsh’s politically incorrect “The Bowery” (1933) with Wallace Beery and George Raft; and William performing a final round of dirty deeds in Edgar Selwyn’s “Skyscraper Souls” (1932), a sort-of “Grand Hotel” knockoff, on the series’ last day, Aug. 11.
More from Leonard Maltin and The Wall Street Journal.
