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Well, my Nan fibbed! Until this reviewer was charged with the task of reviewing Warner’s second Pre-Code Boxset, I had assumed, compared to today’s standards, that the films of yesteryear were just a little tamer… Hell no: they were vice-ridden, violent, dirty buggers, just like us! And before a man named Joseph Breen decided in 1934 enough was enough, filmmakers of that era pushed it as far as they could. This era is known as the ‘Pre-Code Era’.
This series of films is notable for more than this, though – it has Oscar winning performances and even the film that turned Clarke Gable from a supporting player to the biggest star in the world.
Warner's deliver five very impressive, very untamed films to delight new generations. The following is a brief description of each:
The Divorcee (1930)
Rated: Not rated by the MPAA.
Runtime: 84 mins.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard
Writer: Nick Grinde
Cast: Norma Shearer; Chester Morris; Conrad Nagel; Robert Montgomery
DVD Release Date: March 4, 2008
Genre: Drama/Romance
Distributor: Warner Bros. Home Video
Official Site: www.whvdvd-collections.com
By Christopher Symonds
A film that won Norma Shearer an Academy Award, this is the story of a woman who decides to show her philandering husband the true consequence and pain of betrayal by ‘getting busy’ with his best friend. The film’s director, Robert Z. Leonard, was nominated for an Oscar as well
A Free Soul (1938)Rated: Not rated by the MPAA.
Runtime: 93 mins.
Director: Clarence Brown
Writer: Becky Gardiner
Cast: Norma Shearer; Leslie Howard; Lionel Barrymore
DVD Release Date: March 4, 2008
Genre: Drama/Romance
Distributor: Warner Bros. Home Video
Official Site: www.whvdvd-collections.com
By Christopher Symonds
The second Norma Shearer flick, which was adapted from a play that was adapted from a novel, tells the story of a defence attorney (Lionel Barrymore) that must defend his daughter’s ex-boyfriend after he is charged with murdering the gangster she has been seeing. Barrymore won an Oscar for this picture, but even more notable is that Clarke Gable – a solid supporting actor at the time – impressed so much with his domineering Gangster role that it catapulted him into stardom and leading roles straight after.
- No special features
THREE ON A MATCH (1932) **Author's Pick of the Box**
Rated: Not rated by the MPAA.
Runtime: 93 mins.
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Writer: John Bright; Kubec Glasmon
Cast: Bette Davis; Humphrey Bogart
DVD Release Date: March 4, 2008
Genre: Drama/Romance
Distributor: Warner Bros. Home Video
Official Site: www.whvdvd-collections.com
By Christopher Symonds
With stars like Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart filling out the cast, this is probably all one needs to take a gander, but it is in fact lesser known Ann Dvorak that steals the film, and takes you to a truly shocking and memorable ending. This story is based around three childhood friends who meet up after a long absence and light a cigarette off one match – supposed to be a bad luck kinda thing. The last to use the match, Vivian (Dvorak) will, according to the superstition, be the one to die soon after. What does happen to her is far more horrifying than death, and her journey is one of the darkest, most compelling seen in any film of any era. This film is notable for its copious references to drug use, and the debut of Humphrey Bogart’s infamous ‘tough guy’ persona he is so beloved for.
- Theatrical trailer
Female (1949)
Rated: Not rated by the MPAA.
Runtime: 60 mins.
Director: Michael Curtiz
Writer: Gene Markey
Cast: Ruth Chatterton; George Brent; Johnny Mack Brown
DVD Release Date: March 4, 2008
Genre: Drama/Romance
Distributor: Warner Bros. Home Video
Official Site: www.whvdvd-collections.com
By Christopher Symonds
This film, starring Ruth Chatterton, could be seen as a sort of rough template for films like Working Girl and Disclosure inasmuch that it depicts a powerful woman in a powerful position, who tends to approach sex more like a man with a complete lack of emotional connection to the act. Chatterton plays an almost predatory lady, taking men as she sees fit, and once succeeding in her conquest, moving on. But when an Engineer (Jim Thorne) comes to work for her, and rejects her advances, she becomes almost obsessed in maintaining her success rate by changing her tactics. It works, and after he proposes. She declines, assuming she can go back to her old ways. He quits, and her company – its success now tied to his efforts – is placed in jeopardy. It is left to her to save her company and in effect her soul, but rethinking the way she works and the way she thinks.
- Theatrical trailer
Night Nurse (1931)
Rated: Not rated by the MPAA.
Runtime: 72 mins.
Director: William A. Wellman
Writer: Oliver H.P. Garrett
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck; Clark Gable; Joan Blondell
DVD Release Date: March 4, 2008
Genre: Drama/Romance
Distributor: Warner Bros. Home Video
Official Site: www.whvdvd-collections.com
By Christopher Symonds
Barbara Stanwyck stars as Lora, a forthright young woman who wants nothing more than to be a nurse. After a difficult start, she finally qualifies and ends up working privately for a family with two, supposedly sick, children. Soon after, she realises that these children are being starved to death by their doctor in collusion with the chauffeur to get at their trust funds. Lora remains in a very dangerous situation to gather evidence to get the children out to safety, and bring the bad guys to justice. Clarke Gable played a memorable supporting role in this film as the nastier than nasty chauffeur, a role originally to be played by James Cagney.
- Night Nurse commentary by Jeffrey Vance and Tony Maietta
- Night Nurse theatrical trailer
About the Production Code
It was not the roaring ‘20s, as is generally believed, but the four years between 1929 and 1934 that was the real era of wide-open sexuality in films. Before Hollywood began enforcing a self-imposed Production Code, many films allowed for extraordinary frankness, including nudity, adultery, premarital sex and prostitution.
Film industry censorship began in 1922, following a trio of scandals that rocked Hollywood: the Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle rape/murder trial, the never-solved murder of director William Desmond Taylor and the drug-related death of matinee idol Wallace Reid. In 1930, a new version of the Production Code was drafted to standardize the censorship requirements of various states, since the inception of talking films made it difficult to arbitrarily cut offending scenes.
However, the studios merely paid lip-service to the Code since they were more interested in finding ways to lure dwindling Depression era audiences into theatres.
The Pre-Code era "officially" kicked off with the 1929 release of The Divorcee (included in this collection), starring Norma Shearer, with a startling story of a woman who discovers her husband has had an affair and sets out to “balance the account.” The phenomenal critical and financial success of this picture led other studios to attempt to top it and soon almost every actress in Hollywood was required to sin and repent. The sensational series of films that emerged helped Hollywood survive its economic crisis and moviegoers enjoy the vicarious thrills the films provided.
The era came to an abrupt close beginning July 1, 1934, when Catholic watchdog groups threatened boycotts of all films and the Church established the Legion of Decency to monitor movies. Studio heads bowed to the pressure and the era of censorship began, lasting until the establishment of the industry’s rating system in 1968.
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