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
Grace Sutton Loretta Young Jed Sutton Eric Linden Miss Bowers Aline MacMahon Floret Glenda Farrell A Patient Dorothy Peterson Ringer Frank McHugh Released by First National/Warner Bros. | Directed by James Flood Proof That It’s Pre-Code Let’s just say that medicine has changed in 80-some years. One nervous father is Read more
Joe Anton George Raft Jerry Healy Constance Cummings Iris Wynne Gibson Leo Roscoe Karns Mabel Alison Skipworth Maude Mae West Released by Paramount | Directed by Archie Mayo Proof That It’s Pre-Code “Why that dumb cluck!” George Raft awakens and undresses to bathe. We see a lot of him. Llllladies. Read more
Duke Ellis Richard Dix Johnny Ellis Tom Brown C. Henry Gordon Skinner Released by RKO | Directed by Rowland Brown Proof That It’s Pre-Code One convict had been married– to three wives at the same time. The cook is a homosexual. One guard’s wife is having an affair– and pays Read more
Helen Helen Twelvetrees Goldie Gorio Ricardo Cortez Steve John Garrick Released by RKO Pathe | Directed by Tay Garnett Proof That It’s Pre-Code Plenty of drinking and gambling. To tell a person to get lost, they’re simply ordered to “Screw.” A butler has had multiple wives A nasty gangster lures Read more
Frankie Helen Twelvetrees Johnnie Ricardo Cortez Dan Phillips Holmes Annie Marjorie Rambeau Sport Frank Pangborn Nelly Thelma Todd Released by Pathe (RKO) | Directed by Tay Garnett Proof That It’s Pre-Code Look, you can’t say it, but this movie is filled to the brim with prostitutes. Oh, and murder. And Read more
Flo Helen Twelvetrees Babe Robert Armstrong McTeague Charles Bickford Released by Fox Pathe | Directed by Ryan Murphy Proof That It’s Pre-Code Drinking and speakeasies. Everyone is after Flo’s virtue. Or if they haven’t got it, they don’t believe she still has it. Not the nicest portrayal of South American Read more
Joan AKA Mary Smith Blanche Mehaffey Buddy John Darrow Scoop Raymond Hatton Released by Mayfair Pictures Corporation | Directed by E. Mason Hopper Proof That It’s Pre-Code The A.D.A. is visited by a woman named Mary Smith. His butler was absent because he was, “playing ping pong with the maid next Read more
Paul Frank Morgan Maria Nancy Carroll Walter Paul Lukas Hilda Jean Dixon Schultz Charlie Grapewin Lucy Gloria Stuart Released by Paramount | Directed By James Whale Proof That It’s Pre-Code A premeditated murder is committed, and surely it’s okay to do that sometimes, right? One of the reporters seems a 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