My 10 Essential Pre-Code Hollywood Films

1. The Divorcee

One of the most thoughtful and passionate looks at marriage and infidelity in any era, The Divorcee is Norma Shearer’s time to shine. She plays Jerry, an idealistic young woman who marries her lover, Ted. A few years later, Ted grows bored and cheats on her: in retaliation, she sleeps with another man to ‘balance the books’. He’s outraged, and the movie takes aim of the view that women must be more chaste than men, with Shearer living it up and exploring her new found freedom. Brilliantly directed by Robert Z. Leonard, it’s touching and fascinating.

(My full review here)

2. King Kong

Pre-Code films don’t get much bigger than this. While both Kong and the similarly wonderful Frankenstein deal with monsters who may be more humane than their pursuers, Kong is a superlative spectacle. It’s also been completely unsurpassed in two other high budget remakes, and the dude even took on Godzilla at one point. He’s big, and if you watch this movie, you’ll understand why.

3. Safe in Hell

I wrote the longest review I’ve ever written for Safe in Hell, which definitely deserves it. William Wellman cloaks the nasty tale of a murderess hidden away in a Caribbean hellhole in a visual feast full of symbols and shadows. Feminist and bold, Dorothy MacKaill knocks it out of the park as she attempts to survive the sweltering heat with her virtue intact.

(My full review here)

4. Red Dust

A grand melodrama that puts two of the hottest stars of the era in one of the steamiest places on earth. Jean Harlow is a lady of ill repute who ends up at Clark Gable’s rubber plantation. She falls for him, but he has his eyes on a pretty city girl whose husband works for Gable. It’s sordid and nasty (with a heaping spoonful of racism for kicks) and very Pre-Code.

(My full review here)

5. Scarface: Shame of a Nation 

While the likes of Al Capone, John Dillinger, and Babyface Nelson have become modern myths of American enterprise and ingenuity, it’s easy to forget that the movies were around back then, too, and not everyone was keen on the gang wars that turned cities into bloodbaths. Howard Hawks’ Scarface is both a repudiation and glorification of the gangster, creating a man (played sublimely by Paul Muni) who comes across little better as a violent force of juvenile aggression. And his relationship with his sister is mighty interesting, too.

(My full review here)

6. Footlight Parade 

There are probably few movies made with quite so many innuendos and phallic imagery being thrown at the audience in the guise of a family friendly musical. Starring a rogue’s gallery of Warner’s stars, we’ve got Jimmy Cagney at his most exuberant, Joan Blondell at her sweetest, Ruby Keeler at her most athletic, Dick Powell being his playful boyish self, and a bevy of supporting actors around the edges. More importantly, there’s choreography guru Busby Berkeley who takes us through the film’s three musical numbers, each one a fun and stunning feat of dream logic and romance.

(My full review here)

7. Trouble in Paradise 

Ernst Lubitsch’s charming comedy masterpiece is all of the sophistication and wit you could ask for in a film from any time period. Starring two of the era’s best (and most unjustly forgotten) female actors with Kay Francis and Miriam Hopkins, it’s a cocktail of charm and fun, all the while flouting the Production Code with a wry grin.

(My full review here)

8. Wild Boys of the Road 

There’s some great ‘social awareness’ pictures in the early days of the Depression, and while a lot of people will favor the intensity of Heroes for Sale or I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, I think Wild Boys is probably the most wholly engaging. The story of two boys who are sick of being a burden on their unemployed parents, they become passengers on the railway, going from town to town in hope of finding work. They end up building a community, but that community terrifies the roughnecks of the railroad and the cities full of distrusting adults. It’s shocking and ballsy as all hell, as you get to see just how low America could get at its worst time.

(My full review here)

9. Diplomaniacs

It was a brief mental debate whether to pick perennial World War satire Duck Soup for the list, but, honestly, as funny as it is, it’s been relatively neutered by censorship boards over the decades that eliminated most of its risque footage and jokes. Diplomaniacs, however, suffers no such subtraction, and while both are funny, Diplomaniacs still feels startlingly relevant.

(My full review here)

10. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

One of my favorite movies, Rouben Mamoullian’s unbelievably stylish Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has it all: great acting, special effects that still stun, Freudian undertones out the ying yang, and a narrative that points its finger at the audience. It’s exciting and a visual feast, and mainlines the vitality of the era in one amazing package.