Molly Louvain Ann Dvorak Scotty Cornell Lee Tracy Nicky Grant Leslie Fenton Jimmy Hook Richard Cromwell Captain Slade Charles Middleton Pops Guy Kibbee Released by Warner Brothers/First National | Directed By Michael Curtiz Proof That It’s Pre-Code Molly Louvain gets pregnant out of wedlock and has a child. Molly Louvain Read more
Jamil El Shehab Ramon Novarro Diana ‘Di’ Standing Myrna Loy Gerald Hume Reginald Denny Cecil Harwood C. Aubrey Smith Achmed Pasha Edward Arnold Powers Louise Closser Hale Released by MGM | Directed By Sam Wood Proof That It’s Pre-Code Myrna Loy takes a dip in the film’s most infamous scene: Read more
Sylvia Bruce Marion Davies Bill Williams Bing Crosby Lili Yvonne Fifi D’Orsay Conroy Ned Sparks Jill Patsy Kelly Ernest Baker Stuart Erwin Released by MGM | Directed By Raoul Walsh Proof That It’s Pre-Code “What’s the ‘P’ for?” “Pratt.” “I knew it.” Bing makes a joke about having drank absinthe. Read more
Teresita Lupe Velez Bates Lee Tracy Achilles Eugene Pallette Released by RKO | Directed By Gregory La Cava Proof That It’s Pre-Code An enticement to see an exotic dancer that doesn’t work as well nowadays: “She makes the old grow young and the young grow gay.” “But he ain’t the Read more
Countess Helene Mara Jeanette MacDonald Count Rudolph Farriere Jack Buchanan Prince Otto Von Liebenheim Claude Allister Released by Paramount Pictures | Directed By Ernst Lubitsch Proof That It’s Pre-Code Jeanette MacDonald is probably wearing just a neglige for about 25% of the movie. The Prince Liebenheim’s introductory song assures us Read more
Rasputin Lionel Barrymore Prince Chegodieff John Barrymore The Czarina Ethel Barrymore The Czar Ralph Morgan Natasha Diana Wynyard The Czarevitch Tad Alexander Released by MGM | Directed By Charles Brabin and Richard Boleslawski Proof That It’s Pre-Code Rasputin, the charmer, is clearly blackmailing women into having sex with him. Rasputin Read more
Released by Warner Brothers | Directed By Hugh Harman Bosko’s Picture Show: A Day At the Movies “Bosko’s Picture Show” is one of the most dense cartoons I’ve seen, a whirlwind skewering of the 1930s theatrical experience. Anyone who wants to get a feel for what it was like to Read more
Released by Paramount | Directed By Dave Fleischer Old Man of the Mountain: On Top of Old Fogey “Whatcha gonna do now?” “I’m gonna do the best I can.” Cab Calloway’s third appearance in a Betty Boop cartoon sees him as a white haired, white skinned crazy magic mountain hermit Read more
Released by Paramount | Directed By Dave Fleischer Mother Goose Land: Hating Spiders and Snakes Kid’s stories are dark, man. You’ve noticed that, right? Hansel and Gretel ends with a witch being immolated, three blind mice lose their tails, the Pied Piper commits a widespread (and unpunished) kidnapping, the little Read more
Flint Walter Huston Kingsland Conrad Nagel Ann Whitehall Virginia Bruce Tula Lupe Velez Hogan Mitchell Lewis Gregg C. Henry Gordon Released by MGM | Directed By William J. Cowen Proof That It’s Pre-Code Lupe Velez enters the movie in thin strips of cloth. Flint likes calling the Read more