Dan Quigley James Cagney Myra Mae Clarke Lois Underwood Margaret Lindsay Released by Warner Brothers | Directed By Roy Del Ruth Proof That It’s Pre-Code “I’m not a madam!” “Well… I wouldn’t know about that.” The main character is a conman who goes from card swindling, running a casino, grand Read more
Judy Jones Claudette Colbert Stewart Corder William Gargan Arnold Ainger Herbert Marshall Mrs. Mardick Mary Boland Montague Leo Carillo The Chief Tetsu Komai Released by Paramount Pictures | Directed By Cecil B. DeMille Proof That It’s Pre-Code Since the film is about commonly accepted morality shrinking away in a survival Read more
Joe Miller Ben Lyon Julie Kirk Claudette Colbert Eli Kirk Ernest Torrence One Punch McCoy Hobart Cavanaugh Ortegus Maurice Black John Phelps Purnell Pratt Released by Reliance Pictures/Edward Small Productions | Directed By James Cruze Proof That It’s Pre-Code Seagulls keep ruining reporter Joe Miller’s Read more
Jojo Joe E. Brown Winnie Winnie Lightner Tom Paul Gregory Released by Warner Brothers | Directed By Lloyd Bacon Proof That It’s Pre-Code Everyone is drinkin’ at speakeasies. A lot of the characters have been through a divorce or two. Winnie euphemistically notes about her ex-husband, “As a wrestler he Read more
Cleopatra Claudette Colbert Julius Caesar Warren William Marc Antony Henry Wilcoxon Released by Paramount Pictures | Directed By Cecil B. DeMille Proof That It’s Pre-Code-ish The film’s title card is placed on a strategically lit nude woman. Much of Claudette Colbert’s wardrobe is focused on showing as much of her Read more
Robert Mitchell Ricardo Cortez Dorothea Barbara Robbins Jimmy John Beal Released by RKO | Directed By Worthington Miner Proof That It’s Pre-Code-ish A husband and wife have separated and she is clearly having an affair with a very young artist on the side. A young woman (who gads about in Read more
Sally/Mimi/Jenny Claudette Colbert Tony Ricardo Cortez Mike David Manners Released by Paramount Pictures | Directed By Alexander Hall and George Somnes Proof That It’s Pre-Code That infamous ‘h-e-double-hockey sticks’ word gets dropped. “I get a lot of proposals, too… marriage isn’t one of them.” Our main character has a child Read more
Mata Hari Greta Garbo Alexis Rosanoff Ramon Novarro General Shubin Lionel Barrymore Andriani Lewis Stone DuBois C. Henry Gordon Carlotta Karen Morley Released by MGM | Directed By George Fitzmaurice Proof That It’s Pre-Code The titular Mata Hari is an exotic dancer who doubles as a spy in Paris during Read more
Carol Morgan Tallulah Bankhead Bill Wade Robert Montgomery Peter Blainey Hugh Herbert Released by MGM | Directed By Harry Beaumont Proof That It’s Pre-Code The film opens with a montage of newspaper headlines over the years promising that the end of the Depression is at hand. The papers are greeted Read more
Andre Maurice Chevalier Colette Jeanette MacDonald Mitzi Genevieve Tobin Adolph Charlie Ruggles Prof. Oliver Roland Young Mlle. Martel Josephine Dunn Released by Paramount Pictures | Directed By Ernest Lubitsch, assisted by George Cukor Proof That It’s Pre-Code Petting in the park is a Parisian pastime. A husband and wife love Read more