Captain Ahab John Barrymore Faith Joan Bennett Queequeeg Noble Johnson Released by Warner Bros. Directed by Lloyd Bacon Run time: 77 minutes Proof That It’s a Pre-Code Film “I’ll be 18 next Tuesday!” “Then I’ll see you Wednesday!” [checking out Ahab’s tattoos] “Where’s my name, dearie?” “On the seat of Read more
The Raja George Arliss Dr. Traherne Ralph Forbes Lucilla Alice Joyce Released by Warner Bros. | Directed by Alfred E. Green Run time: 73 minutes Proof That It’s a Pre-Code Film Look, there’s an evil Indian king and he really wants to nail this (married) white lady. There are no Read more
Chandu Edmund Lowe Princess Nadji Irene Ware Roxor Bela Lugosi Released by Fox Film | Directed by William Cameron Menzies & Marcel Varnel Proof That It’s Pre-Code Death rays! … wait, that’s not exclusive to the early 1930s? Lots of mysticism and indulging in the mystics. One not particularly effective Read more
Marvin Blake Richard Barthelmess Betty Wright Dorothy Jordan Madge Bette Davis Released by Warner Brothers | Directed by Michael Curtiz Proof That It’s Pre-Code “That girl ain’t got a bit of a soul, she ain’t. But she sure got a body. Some body.” A fade out hints that Madge slipped Read more
Eddie / Oedipus Eddie Cantor Josephus David Manners Princess Sylvia Gloria Stewart Emperor Valerius Edward Arnold Olga Ruth Etting Empress Agrippa Verree Teasdale Released by United Artists | Directed By Frank Tuttle Proof That It’s Pre-Code “The empress Agrippa, the one I was sleeping with, was his wife.” The chief Read more
Jamil El Shehab Ramon Novarro Diana ‘Di’ Standing Myrna Loy Gerald Hume Reginald Denny Cecil Harwood C. Aubrey Smith Achmed Pasha Edward Arnold Powers Louise Closser Hale Released by MGM | Directed By Sam Wood Proof That It’s Pre-Code Myrna Loy takes a dip in the film’s most infamous scene: Read more
Tom Walter Woolf Dawn Vivienne Segal Shep Keyes Noah Beery Pigeon Lupino Lane Joanna Marion Byron Blink Lee Moran Released by Warner Brothers | Directed By Ray Enright Proof That It’s Pre-Code Blackface galore, and plenty of ugly racial politics to boot. “Silly arse.” A woman wants a man who Read more
Flint Walter Huston Kingsland Conrad Nagel Ann Whitehall Virginia Bruce Tula Lupe Velez Hogan Mitchell Lewis Gregg C. Henry Gordon Released by MGM | Directed By William J. Cowen Proof That It’s Pre-Code Lupe Velez enters the movie in thin strips of cloth. Flint likes calling the Read more
Elsa Carlyle Tallulah Bankhead Jeffrey Carlyle Harvey Stephens Hardy Livingstone Irving Pichel Released by Paramount Pictures | Directed By George Abbott Proof That It’s Pre-Code Once again, everyone is amazed by a marriage that involves love. Tallulah Bankhead tries to transform into Wonder Woman but forgot to put her outfit Read more
Duke of Charmerace John Barrymore Guarechard Lionel Barrymore Sonia Karen Morley Released by MGM | Directed By Jack Conway Proof That It’s Pre-Code This film has more euphemisms and double entendres than you could shake even possibly three or four sticks at. The Duke of Charmerace first makes the acquaintance Read more