Kenneth Thomson

Proof That It’s Pre-Code

• When you watch Pre-Code films, it’s sometimes hard to realize just how disenfranchised women were during this time period. That’s because movies in that era went out of their way to give us strong female roles who did things like run a car company, function as a doctor, or, in this film’s case, be the lead editor on a magazine. And, the best part is, in this one our heroine not punished for being devoted to her job, and she’s damned good at it.

• Of course, the heroine’s husband is a louse who engages in extramarital sex, but that’ll happen.

• Big old goof Andy Devine claims that there hasn’t been any marriage in his family for three generations. Wait, didn’t he claim that back in Doctor Bull too?

The Particulars of the Picture

Lois Ames… Kay Francis	Tommy Sherman… David Manners	Ruth Holman… Una Merkel
Andy Doyle… Andy Devine	Freddie Ames… Kenneth Thompson	Directed by William Dieterle

(more…)