Released by Pinnacle | Directed by Marshall Neilan Chloe, Love is Calling You: Hang Up, Dear. “Give me two bits and I’ll tell your fortune. […] High water… sticks and stones… about a mad gal with a great big home. Find a room in the swamp… the roots of evil. Read more
Good Guy John Preston Bad Guy Eugene Sigaloff Woman Mae Stuart Released by Far Eastern Films | Directed by Harry Garson Proof That It’s Pre-Code Our villainous, nigh-incomprehensibly-accented villain plans to vivisect an orangutan! To show the world that all these things he thinks about evolution are true! And he’s Read more
Bill Wescott Wallace Reid Jr. King Kelly Paul Fix Marian Martin Phyllis Barington Released by Willis Kent Productions | Directed by Jerome Storm Proof That It’s Pre-Code “Bull.” Marian has a Japanese chauffeur who she constantly calls an idiot. Our hero jokes to him, “We ought to be good friends. 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
Marvin Blake Richard Barthelmess Betty Wright Dorothy Jordan Madge Bette Davis Released by Warner Brothers | Directed by Michael Curtiz Proof That It’s Pre-Code “That girl ain’t got a bit of a soul, she ain’t. But she sure got a body. Some body.” A fade out hints that Madge slipped Read more
Carol Genevieve Tobin John Adolphe Menjou Charlotte Mary Astor Eric Edward Everett Horton Janet Patricia Ellis McTavish Hugh Herbert Released by Warner Brothers | Directed by William Keighley Proof That It’s Pre-Code Married man John spends his afternoons “playing polo” over at friend Charlotte’s house. Realizing she has to win Read more
Cheri-Bibi John Gilbert Cecile Leila Hyams Costaud Lewis Stone Released by MGM | Directed by John S. Robertson The Phantom of Paris: Now You See Him… “I saw Bibi fall into the abyss with my own eyes. No one could survive that fall.” The Phantom of Paris is one of Read more
Mendel Marantz George Sidney Bernard Schnaps Charles Dale Sam Shtrudel Joe Smith Released by Warner Brothers | Directed by Mervyn LeRoy Proof That It’s Pre-Code The family’s daughter walks around in her scanties in front of the family’s store window. She threatens to bathe there, too. Off screen: “Well, Betsy, Read more
Bugs Alhern Edward G. Robinson Al Daniels Russell Hopton Polly Cass Helen Vinson Ruth Wayburn Mary Astor Donald Cass Berton Churchill Edith Merriam Shirley Grey Released by Warner Brothers | Directed by Roy Del Ruth Proof That It’s Pre-Code Robinson’s Bugs Ahern is known as a mad gangster who murders Read more
Lou Clara Bow Chris Miller Richard Cromwell Nifty Miller Preston Foster Released by Fox Film | Directed By Frank Lloyd Proof That It’s Pre-Code Set in a carnival with a wide variety of freaks, crooks, and dancers. “Well, I’ll be–“ Clara Bow plays a belly dancer, with the outfits and Read more