Sam Spade Ricardo Cortez Ruth Wonderly Bebe Daniels Casper Gutman Dudley Digges Effie Perine Una Merkel Iva Archer Thelma Todd Dr. Joel Cairo Otto Matieson Released by Warner Brothers | Directed By Roy Del Ruth Proof That It’s Pre-Code Sam Spade likes the ladies. More on that below. Homosexual subtext Read more
Eadie Jean Harlow Tom Paige Jr. Franchot Tone Tom Paige Sr. Lionel Barrymore Released by MGM | Directed By Jack Conway Proof That It’s Pre-Code-ish Eadie on her home life: “Since you came here, there’s only one way for a girl to end up in this place and you know Read more
Mary Clay Joan Crawford Dillon Todd Robert Montgomery Jeff Williams Clark Gable Paula Billie Burke Shemp Charles Butterworth Connie Frances Drake Released by MGM | Directed By W.S. Van Dyke Proof That It’s Pre-Code-ish Marriage is one big joke. Several scenes of Gable and Montgomery just exiting the shower (different Read more
George Dwight Roger Pryor Sally Upton Mary Brian Nick Pappacropolis Leo Carrillo Released by Universal | Directed By Karl Freund Proof That It’s Pre-Code Nude silhouettes for those of you who love those. The gangsters aren’t such bad guys, even if they gamble often or make wager with women regarding Read more
Louanne Dorothy Mackaill Wally Dean Frank Fay Miguel Parada Noah Beery Released by Warner Brothers | Directed by Michael Curtiz Proof That It’s Pre-Code “Why don’t you marry that guy and forget him?” We meet Dorothy Mackaill in the movie lounging in a negligee cooing a parrot on her outstretched Read more
Bob Brown Warren William Caroline Jean Muir John Smith David Landau Released by Warner Brothers | Directed By Robert Florey Proof That It’s Pre-Code The film’s opening shot, before it’s revealed to be an innocent examination (but still with plenty of pointed jokes about it): “You said you were bringing Read more
Knobby Walsh Jimmy Durante Nina Madero Lupe Velez Joe Palooka Stuart Erwin Mayme Palooka Marjorie Rambeau Pete Palooka Robert Armstrong Trixie Thelma Todd Released by United Artists | Directed By Benjamin Stoloff Proof That It’s Pre-Code The rather disgusting “National Geographic”/”it’s okay to show black women’s breasts if they’re uncivilized Read more
Andy Robert Wheeler Dr. Dudley Bob Woolsey Daisy Dorothy Lee Released by RKO | Directed By Mark Sandrich Proof That It’s Pre-Code The opening features a number of fetching young women wearing as little as a few strips of cloth and as much as some strategically placed strips. Our heroes Read more
Margie Nichols Dorothy Mackaill Myrtle Nichols Joan Blondell Allen Crane Walter Byron Eddie Adams Conrad Nagel Harry Gleason Joe Donahue Walter Nichols H.B. Warner Released by Warner Brothers | Directed By John Francis Dillon Proof That It’s Pre-Code “They padlock a speakeasy one day and the next day the same Read more
Tira Mae West Jack Clayton Cary Grant Slick Wiley Ralf Harolde Benny Pinkowitz Gregory Ratoff Big Bill Barton Edward Arnold Kirk Lawrence Kent Taylor Released by Paramount Pictures | Directed By Wesley Ruggles Proof That It’s Pre-Code It’s a film about Tira, “The woman who discovered you didn’t need to Read more