Helen Helen Twelvetrees Goldie Gorio Ricardo Cortez Steve John Garrick Released by RKO Pathe | Directed by Tay Garnett Proof That It’s Pre-Code Plenty of drinking and gambling. To tell a person to get lost, they’re simply ordered to “Screw.” A butler has had multiple wives A nasty gangster lures Read more
Frankie Helen Twelvetrees Johnnie Ricardo Cortez Dan Phillips Holmes Annie Marjorie Rambeau Sport Frank Pangborn Nelly Thelma Todd Released by Pathe (RKO) | Directed by Tay Garnett Proof That It’s Pre-Code Look, you can’t say it, but this movie is filled to the brim with prostitutes. Oh, and murder. And Read more
Bud Eric Linden Vida Joan Blondell Cousin Gibby Walter Catlett Hummell Guy Kibbee The Station Agent Grant Mitchell Ms. Cartlich Jobyna Howland Released by Warner Brothers | Directed by Mervyn LeRoy Proof That It’s Pre-Code A bootlegger, before informing a client about yet another ‘change of address’, pleasantly tells his Read more
Flo Helen Twelvetrees Babe Robert Armstrong McTeague Charles Bickford Released by Fox Pathe | Directed by Ryan Murphy Proof That It’s Pre-Code Drinking and speakeasies. Everyone is after Flo’s virtue. Or if they haven’t got it, they don’t believe she still has it. Not the nicest portrayal of South American Read more
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
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
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
Dan Louis Wolheim Larry Robert Armstrong Mary Jean Arthur Released by RKO | Directed by George B. Seitz Danger Lights: Training Day “Look here. This means sidetracking everything along the way. The Olympian, the Pioneer… the whole timetable! Why, this will cost a fortune. And all for one man.” “For 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
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