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Top 10 Pre-Code Films

Top 10 Pre-Code Films

4/17/2017

1 Comment

 
The period between 1930-1934 when the Production Code existed, but was not enforced, created a free for all of sin, crime & non-conformity.
The Top 10
Reviews
  1. Story of Temple Drake (1933)
  2. The Divorcee (1930)
  3. Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde (1931)
  4. It Happened One Night (1934)
  5. Design For Living (1933)
  6. Night Nurse (1931)
  7. Red Dust (1932)
  8. Blonde Crazy (1931)
  9. Baby Face (1933)
  10. Call Her Savage (1932)
The Divorcee
Blonde Crazy
Design For Living
Resources
Production Code History
Pre-Code Books
The Rationalization
​No period in Hollywood movie history is more interesting than the pre-code era (1930-1934). No other era lays bare the basest of human desires, lust, greed, sex & murder & puts all of of it right on the screen!  More importantly, no other era casts women in so strong a position, both in front of and behind the camera.  Not only were Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Miriam Hopkins, Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Harlow, Greta Garbo & Mae West at their most dynamic, but female screenwriters like Anita Loos & Francis Marion were crafting stories that centered on women.  
​The Story of Temple Drake
 is my favorite because the sense of dread & menace that encompasses Trigger's rural hideout is as great as any suspense film.  Hopkins performance is complete, at once opening herself up for the tragedy that befalls her, then closing off after Trigger attacks her.  Her collapse on the witness stand caps the mental exhaustion her character has been put through.  I also stumbled across Temple Drake not knowing what I was in for and that feeling of surprise has never left me.  Norma Shearer is a favorite of mine and if there were an 11th title it would probably be A Free Soul.  Both it & The Divorcee revealed a new Norma, after my only initial experience with her was The Women.  Both characters capture a willingness to step out, from the norms of society as strong women.  Sure, the ending of The Divorcee falls into convention, but everything (and i mean EVERYTHING) before it proves that even convention will be on her terms.  Hopkins naked sexuality, even in a small role, in Dr. Jekyl & Mr. Hyde is amazing, but this picture is definitely Fredic March's tour de force.  The physical transformation of Jekyl is second only to the psychological and March is amazing!  Can you tell i like Hopkins?  Design for Living would have been a shocking movie in the 60's, let alone the '30's.  (Bob, Ted, Carol & Alice has nothing on Design)  Classic Lubitsch in every way but the slamming doors!  Barbera Stanwyck, another favorite, makes the list twice with Night Nurse & Baby Face, Night Nurse flips all social norms on it's head as only a great pre-code movie could!  The murdering bootlegger is the hero; Clark Gable is a baddie & if Stanwyck & Joan Blondell undressed one more time, they could have done away with the entire plot!  All that can said for Baby Face is summed up in the pan up the side of the building as Lily sleeps her way up the corporate ladder.  Red Dust is Gable & Harlow at their animal best, all sexuality and inuendo.  A tour de force love triangle. It Happened One Night is just a perfect movie.  Gable is the perfect scamp; a little bit bad and a whole lot of charisma.  For my money Blondell & Cagney are one of the best teams of the 1930's and Blonde Crazy is my favorite.  Her wit & his charm mix perfectly her & the other 7 films they appeared in together.  Finally, I had to add a Clara Bow picture.  While more often identified with the late silent era, Bow allows her magnetism to spill all over the screen in Call Her Savage. ​

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1 Comment
jim patterson
1/14/2021 09:14:19 am

nice list though i would make some changes --
I would put
Design For Living on Top and
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde second
if it were a larger list, like 25, "The Story of Temple Drake" would get on there somewhere but below things like "Heroes for Sale" and "Wild Boys of the Road".
"A Free Soul" would take the place of "The Divorcee".
"Red Dust" would be number three.

But then, everyone has different likes......

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  • Home
  • Top 10 Lists
    • My Top 10 Favorite Movies
    • Top 10 Heist Movies
    • Top 10 Neo-Noir Films
    • The Top 10 Films of the Troubles (1969-1998) >
      • The Troubles Selected Timeline
    • Top 10 Films from 2001
    • Director Top 10's >
      • Top 10 Film Noir Directors
      • Top 10 Coen Brothers Films
      • Top 10 John Ford Films
      • Top 10 Samuel Fuller Films
      • Top 10 Alfred Hitchcock Films
      • Top 10 John Huston Films
      • Top 10 Fritz Lang Films (American)
      • Val Lewton Top 10
      • Top 10 Ernst Lubitsch Films
      • Top 10 Jean-Pierre Melville Films
      • Top 10 Nicholas Ray Films
      • Top 10 Preston Sturges Films
      • Top 10 Robert Siodmak Films
      • Top 10 William Wellman Films
      • Top 10 Billy Wilder Films
    • Actor/Actress Top 10's >
      • Top 10 Joan Blondell Movies
      • Top 10 Clark Gable Movies
      • Top 10 Ava Gardner Films
      • Top 10 Gloria Grahame Films
      • Top 10 Jean Harlow Movies
      • Top 10 Miriam Hopkins Films
      • Top 10 Grace Kelly Films
      • Top 10 Burt Lancaster Films
      • Top 10 Carole Lombard Movies
      • Top 10 Myrna Loy Films
      • Top 10 Marilyn Monroe Films
      • Top 10 Robert Mitchum Noir Movies
      • Top 10 Paul Newman Films
      • Top 10 Robert Ryan Movies
      • Top 10 Norma Shearer Movies
      • Top 10 Barbara Stanwyck Films
    • Top 10 Noir Films (Classic Era)
    • Top 10 Pre-Code Films
    • Top 10 Actresses of the 1930's
  • Reviews
    • Quick Hits: Short Takes on Recent Viewing >
      • Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache
      • Elevator to the Gallows ('58)
      • Days of Heaven
      • Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
      • Incindies (2010)
      • In the Mood For Love (2000)
      • Last Picture Show Teaser Intro
      • Le Silence De La Mer ('49)
      • The Princess Bride ('87) Intro
      • Pulp Fiction ('94) Intro
    • The 1910's >
      • The Lubitsch German Silents
    • The 1920's >
      • The Odessa Steps Sequence as Continuing Film History
      • Sunrise (1927)
      • Wild Orchids ('29)
    • The 1930's >
      • Becky Sharp (1935)
      • Blonde Crazy
      • Bombshell ('33)
      • The Cheat
      • The Conquerors
      • The Crowd Roars
      • The Divorcee
      • Frank Capra & Barbara Stanwyck: The Evolution of a Romance
      • Heroes for Sale
      • The Invisible Man (1933)
      • L'Atalante (1934)
      • Let Us Be Gay
      • My Man Godfrey
      • No Man of Her Own (1932)
      • Platinum Blonde ('31)
      • Reckless ('35)
      • The Sign of the Cross (1932)
      • The Sin of Nora Moran (1932)
      • True Confession ('37)
      • Virtue ('32)
      • The Women
    • The 1940's >
      • Casablanca (1942)
      • The Story of Citizen Kane
      • Criss Cross (1949)
      • Double indemnity
      • Jean Arthur in A Foreign Affair
      • The Killers 1946 & 1964 Comparison
      • The Maltese Falcon Intro
      • Moonrise (1948)
      • My Gal Sal (1942)
      • Nightmare Alley
      • Notorious Intro ('46)
      • Overlooked Christmas Movies of the 1940's
      • Pursued (1947)
      • Remember the Night ('40)
      • The Red Shoes (1948)
      • The Set-Up ('49)
      • They Won't Believe Me (1947)
      • The Third Man
    • The 1950's >
      • The Asphalt Jungle Secret Cinema Intro
      • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ('58) Intro
      • The Crimson Kimono (1959)
      • A Face in the Crowd (1957)
      • In a Lonely Place
      • A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
      • Mogambo ('53)
      • Niagara (1953)
      • The Night of The Hunter ('55)
      • Pushover Noir City
      • Rear Window (1954)
      • Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
      • Red Dust ('32 vs Mogambo ('53)
      • The Searchers ('56)
      • Singin' in the Rain Introduction
      • Some Like It Hot ('59) >
        • Some Like it Hot Intro (Beyond the Bay)
    • The 1960's >
      • The April Fools (1969)
      • Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
      • Cape Fear ('62)
      • Cool Hand Luke (1967) Intro
      • Dr Strangelove Intro
      • For a Few Dollars More (1965)
      • Fistful of Dollars (1964)
      • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1968)
      • The Hustler ('61) Intro
      • The Man With No Name Trilogy
      • The Misfits ('61)
      • The Umbrellas of Cherbourg/La La Land
    • The 1970's >
      • Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
      • American Graffiti Introduction
      • Chinatown Introduction
      • The Friends of Eddie Coyle ('73)
      • Jaws Intro
    • The 1980's >
      • Blood Simple ('84)
      • A Christmas Story Intro
      • Scarface (1983)
    • The 1990's >
      • The General (1998)
    • 2000's >
      • Belfast (2021)
      • Blonde (2022)
      • Hunger (2008)
      • In Bruges (2008)
      • Joy Division
      • Mank (2020)
      • No Man's Land (2001)
      • Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
      • Wall-E
      • Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)
      • The Top 10 Films I watched in 2020
  • Artists
    • Actors/Actresses >
      • Joan Blondell
      • Faye Dunaway: 1967-1976
      • The Noir Villainy of Dan Duryea
      • Clark Gable Bio
      • Jean Harlow Bio
      • Veronica Lake
      • Norma Shearer
    • Directors/Producers/Cinematographers >
      • Founders Series: Alice Guy-Blache
      • John Alton
      • Joan Harrison-Producer/Writer
      • Hitchcock & Cary Grant
      • William Wellman
    • Books >
      • Book Reviews >
        • Book Review: Clark Gable by D. Bret
      • Pre-Code
      • Actor Bios
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      • Hollywood History
    • Studio
  • Resources
    • Sight & Sound Top 100 2022
    • NOTES >
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      • The Asphalt Jungle Outline
      • Breakfast Club Notes
      • Citizen Kane Notes
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      • Rebel Without a Cause Notes
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