Matt Nolan James Cagney Sue Riley Nolan Loretta Young Skeets George E. Stone Pop Riley Guy Kibbee Ruby Leila Bennett Buck Gerard David Landau Released by Warner Brothers | Directed By Roy Del Ruth Proof That It’s Pre-Code If you’ve ever wanted to see a woman get slapped around, well, Read more
Chick Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Ruth Joan Blondell Scrap Iron Guy Kibbee Bushy Sloan Alan Hale The Drunk Frank McHugh Kendall David Landau Released by Warner Brothers | Directed By Alfred E. Green Proof That It’s Pre-Code The film’s opening minutes read like a checklist of Code no-nos. There are prostitutes, Read more
Harold Hall Harold Lloyd Mary Sears Constance Cummings Vance Kenneth Thompson Released by Paramount Pictures | Directed By Clyde Bruckman Proof That It’s Pre-Code When Harold dons a magician’s coat and accidentally lets loose a flood of mice at a ritzy party, the person who flips out the most is Read more
Annie Holt Carole Lombard Tony Gage Lyle Talbot Bill Walter Connolly Grandma Holt Louise Closser Hale Jerome Cedric C. Aubrey Smith Prince Carlos Jameson Thomas Released by Columbia | Directed By Walter Lang Proof That It’s Pre-Code Annie has to get carried to her state room aboard the cruise ship 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