And I’m back! It’s the most wonderful time of the year in Hollywood, any time the smell of urine is even mildly diluted. And with the crazy-ass winds whipping through town this week, you’re in luck! Hollywood has never smelled better.* Yes, it’s time for the 2019 Turner Classic Movies Read more
April is shaping up to be a bang-up month for pre-Code fanatics– finally. Sometimes we get our moments. A new book on pre-Code, Forbidden Hollywood: When Sin Ruled the Movies is now on sale. Mark Vieira’s update to his seminal Sin in Soft Focus is a gorgeous tome, filled with Read more
‘Hap’ Harrington Ben Lyon Juliette Ona Munson Clay Walter Pidgeon Released by Warner Bros./First National Directed by Clarence G. Badger Run time: 79 minutes Proof That It’s a Pre-Code Film Our heroine chats casually from her bathtub. One gentleman performs a very aggressive sunscreen application. Hot Heiress: Cold Turkey “Nobody loves Read more
It’s here. I breath a sigh of relief. The arrival of the full TCMFF Schedule means that the countdown is real– tangible, even. I spent the last week at my job covering double shifts no one else could, building an escape room, running two story times, and desperately trying to Read more
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
Lee Peggy Shannon Tom Charles “Buddy” Rogers Jackie Lilyan Tashman Released by Paramount Directed by Richard Wallace Run time: 73 minutes Proof That It’s a Pre-Code Film It’s set in Reno, the 1930s libidinal capital of the United States! There are divorces, marriages, remarriages, and not-so-discreet affairs. We even have Read more
The 31 Days of Oscar is over, so let the good times roll! There’s a ton of great pre-Codes showing in February of all shapes in sizes. Feeling like a ton of Fredric March dramas? Got ’em– he’s star of the month! Constance Bennett weepies? Oh yeah. Weird-ass musical fever Read more
Carol Owen Dorothy Mackaill Jim Leonard Humphrey Bogart Bruce Hardy Hale Hamilton Released by Columbia Directed by Thornton Freeland Run time: 67 minutes Proof That It’s a Pre-Code Film The film opens with Mackaill in a negligee. Late in the film, Bogart and Mackaill clearly spend the night together, with Read more
Uncle Dudley Jack Holt Bob Dudley Richard Cromwell Dorothy Joan Marsh Released by Columbia Directed by Edward Sedgwick Run time: 68 minutes Maker of Men: Fumbles “When you’re talking against football, you’re talking against me!” “Wow,” I muttered about 20 minutes into Maker of Men. “My desk is filthy!” Fifty Read more
Laura Diana Wynyard Edward Seward Lewis Stone Bob Seward Phillips Holmes Released by MGM Directed by Edgar Selwyn Run time: 61 minutes Proof That It’s a Pre-Code Film The film opens with a nurse and flyer getting dressed in a secluded room. As a result, an unmarried woman gets pregnant. Read more