Pre-Code.Com Site News for March 2014

Welcome again to the show that never ends! I hope everyone enjoyed my mostly-William Powell February, since he truly is the best expression of love in such a romantic month.

We’re three months into 2014 now and I’m not sure if anyone picked up on this, but I’ve been hitting 1934 releases pretty hard this year. I figured hitting the 80th anniversary of most of the movies are fun, and considering all of the lists I have on this site, it’d be nice to try and finish a chunk of one off.

For those of you keeping up with my personal life, we’ve finally been assigned a house and moved in this last weekend. That means that our dogs, Harpo and Chico, are finally out of the kennel and can resume their hobbies of sitting and staring at me for hours on end.

As for Japan in the greater sense, my wife and I went up into Tokyo over President’s Day. There’s a massive shopping complex there called Roppongi Hills where they have a very nice movie theater that was showing Gone With the Wind. For those of you curious, most English language movies shown in Japan are subtitled (thank goodness) unless they’re animated. Anyway, my wife had never seen it, and I told her that Gone With the Wind is a movie I will only watch in the theater.

She had somehow doubted that the most popular movie in the history of the world would ever show up in Japan, but I proved her wrong with that one. For a 10 AM showing, the theater was surprisingly full, and the presentation was absolutely lovely. So, if you’re ever in Tokyo and they’re showing it, check it out. 🙂

As for the TCM schedule below, it looks like Mary Astor is star of the month, so there’s a bunch of rare goodies from the early 30s with her popping up. There’s also a morning dedicated to Betty Compson (who I’ve never even heard of) and a morning of William Powell rarities that are worth catching.

Upcoming Reviews in March

A bundle of Barrymores!
A John Ford movie!
A Jimmy Durante movie! …. wait, what
Two blogathons and a new feature that I hope you will all enjoy.

Pre-Code Hollywood Movies on TCM in March

Please note: All times are Eastern. This schedule is subject to change. See the full listings here. To watch TCM online, check out their TCM Watch site.

Date	Time	Film	Link
1st	7:30 AM	Grand Hotel (1932) Guests at a posh Berlin hotel struggle through scandal and heartache.	My Review
5th	7:00 AM	*Strictly Dynamite* (1934) A radio comic runs out of jokes, triggering a desperate search.	My Review
5th	8:30 AM	*Are You Listening?* (1932) A radio announcer accidentally kills his wife, then leads an on-air hunt for her killer.	n/a
5th	6:30 PM	*Professional Sweetheart* (1933) A radio star’s pure image leads to a fake engagement to a hayseed.	My Review
6th	3:00 AM	The World Changes (1933) When a farmer strikes it rich in business, success goes to his head.	n/a
6th	4:45 AM	*Other Men’s Women* (1931) A railroad engineer falls for a co-worker’s wife.	My Review
8th	5:00 AM	*Dinner At Eight* (1933) A high-society dinner party masks a hotbed of scandal and intrigue.	My Review
9th	10:30 AM	*Red Dust* (1932) A plantation overseer in Indochina is torn between a married woman and a lady of the evening.	My Review
12th	6:15 AM	*One Way Passage* (1932) An ocean voyage leads to romance for a dying heiress and a condemned criminal.	n/a
12th	7:30 AM	*High Pressure* (1932) A scheming promoter tries to get rich selling artificial rubber.	My Review
12th	8:45 AM	*Private Detective 62* (1933) A private eye in Paris falls for the beautiful gambling lady he’s investigating.	My Review
13th	8:00 AM	The Lash (1931) A Spanish nobleman in Southern California turns to robbery to help the peasants.	n/a
13th	9:30 AM	*Behind Office Doors* (1931) An under-appreciated secretary finds a new job and takes her former boss’s success with her.	n/a
15th	4:00 AM	*The Public Enemy* (1931) An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime.	n/a
17th	6:00 AM	*The Key* (1934) A British officer stationed in Ireland falls for the wife of an intelligence man.	n/a
19th	6:45 AM	*Make Me A Star* (1932) A grocery clerk goes to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune.	n/a
19th	1:15 PM	*Inside the Lines* (1930) Betty Compson afternoon! During World War I, German spies stop at nothing to spy on the allied war plans stored at Gibraltar.	n/a
19th	2:45 PM	*The Gay Diplomat* (1931) A Russian diplomat takes on a notorious female spy in Bucharest.	n/a
19th	4:00 PM	*The Lady Refuses* (1931)A millionaire hires an out-of-work girl to lure his son from a gold digger.	n/a
19th	5:15 PM	*Three Who Loved* (1931) A bank teller’s love life falls apart when he’s accused of embezzling.	n/a
19th	9:45 PM	*The Lost Squadron* (1932) Veteran flyers from World War I find work as movie stuntmen.	n/a
19th	11:15 PM	*Kennel Murder Case* (1933) Society sleuth Philo Vance investigates a murder tied to a Long Island dog show.	n/a
20th	6:15 AM	*A Successful Calamity* (1932) A family pulls together to help a member in financial trouble.	n/a
20th	7:45 AM	*The Little Giant* (1933) When Prohibition ends, a bootlegger tries to break into high society.	n/a
20th	9:15 AM	*Easy to Love* (1934) When she thinks her husband has been unfaithful, a woman claims to be having an affair of her own.	n/a
20th	10:15 PM	*Dirigible* (1931) Romantic rivals vie to be the first to fly to the South Pole.	n/a
21st	2:00 AM	Hell’s Angels (1930) Two buddies take on World War I flying aces and a seductive blonde.	n/a
21st	6:00 AM	*Female* (1933) A female CEO who’s used to buying love meets her match in an independent young executive.	My Review
21st	7:15 AM	*Goodbye Again* (1933) An author’s reunion with an old flame angers the secretary who loves him.	My Review
26th	8:15 AM	*Tarzan the Ape Man* (1932) A British lord raised by apes kidnaps a beautiful noblewoman exploring Africa with her father.	n/a
26th	10:00 AM	*Trader Horn* (1931) An African trader and a white jungle goddess join forces against a hostile tribe.	n/a
27th	12:30 AM	*Red Dust* (1932) A plantation overseer in Indochina is torn between a married woman and a lady of the evening.	My Review
27th	2:00 AM	*Men of Chance* (1932) Gamblers go after a man with a knack for picking winning horses.	n/a
27th	3:15 AM	*The Royal Bed* (1931) A European king tries to settle his family’s problems while fighting off a peasant revolt.	n/a
27th	4:45 AM	*The Runaway Bride* (1930) A criminal gang goes after the jewels their dying leader stashed in a woman’s handbag.	n/a
27th	6:00 AM	*Smart Woman* (1931) A woman plots to make her cheating husband jealous.	n/a
27th	7:30 AM	*The Sin Ship* (1931) A ship’s captain fights to protect a female passenger from his crew.	n/a
27th	9:00 AM	*Upper World* (1934) A wealthy man escapes his wife’s social pretensions in the arms of a burlesque queen.	My Review
28th	3:00 PM	*The Silver Horde* (1930) An Alaskan fisherman is dogged by a ruthless competitor and an ambitious dance hall girl.	n/a
28th	4:30 PM	*Danger Lights* (1931) A family railroad is threatened when the owner’s girl falls for a conductor.	n/a
28th	5:45 PM	*Gentleman’s Fate* (1931) A bootlegger falls apart when his wife leaves him.	n/a
31st	12:00 PM	*Billy the Kid* (1930) A town marshal struggles to capture a rebellious kid turned outlaw.	n/a

Questions? Comments? Or do you just want to bug me? Leave a comment below!

8 Comments

kellywittmann · February 28, 2014 at 1:12 am

Excellent, really looking forward to the Barrymore review.

Danny · February 28, 2014 at 9:13 am

Multiple Barrymore reviews, luckily. I almost did an all-Barrymore month until, you know, I couldn’t get a hold of any more of them. 😉

Rick · February 28, 2014 at 12:01 pm

A bundle of Barrymores? I wasn’t sure what one called a lot of them (certainly not a litter nor a pride). That sounds like a fun post, but then I always enjoy Pre-Code.com. Plus, I’ll be watching RED DUST again next month. I like that blonde actress in it….