Category Archives: Pre-Code Film

Screening Report: The 1933 Pre-Code Festival

Posted on May 1, 2013 by willmckinley

On a recent Friday night, I struggled to find an empty seat at Film Forum, the Downtown Manhattan movie mecca where I spend most of my free time and discretionary dollars. Sold out shows are not uncommon at the cinema, … Continue reading →

Screening Report: CARTOON CUT-UPS of 1933 at Film Forum

Posted on February 25, 2013 by willmckinley

The cinematic celebration of 1933 – “Hollywood’s naughtiest, bawdiest year!” – continues at New York City’s Film Forum on Monday, February 25 with Cartoon Cut-ups of 1933, a collection of rare animated shorts released by RKO, Columbia, MGM, Warner Bros., … Continue reading →

Posted in Animation, Film Forum, Pre-Code Film, Screening Report | Tagged 1933, Al Michaels, Betty Boop, Blackhawk Films, Bugs Bunny, CANDY TOWN, Casper the Friendly Ghost, CAVE MAN, Charles Mintz, CHRISTMAS NIGHT, Cubby Bear, CUBBY’S WORLD FLIGHT, Daffy Duck, Felix the Cat, Film Forum, FIVE AND DIME, Fleischer Studios, Flip the Frog, FOOTLIGHT PARADE, George Herriman, HAPPY HOBOES, Hugh Harman, Jimmy Durante, Krazy Kat, Leon Schlesinger, Marie Dressler, Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, Mighty Mouse, Motion Picture Production Code, Mr. Magoo, Official Films, OPENING NIGHT, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, PALS, Pat Powers, Popeye the Sailor, Pre-Code films, Rudolf Ising, Scrappy, SITTIN’ ON A BACKYARD FENCE, SODA SQUIRT, Superman, the Little King, THE WORD’S AFFAIR, Tom and Jerry, Ub Iwerks, Van Beuren, Walter Lantz, WEDDING BELLS, William Nolan, Willie Whopper, Woody Woodpecker | 5 Comments

Screening Report: Pre-Code Fun at Film Forum’s 1933 Festival

Posted on February 11, 2013 by willmckinley

This weekend, Film Forum kicked off 1933: Hollywood’s Naughtiest, Bawdiest Year – a monthlong, 66-film retrospective of my favorite year in movie history. I didn’t say it was the best year in movie history, of course. That honor, at least during … Continue reading →

Posted in Film Forum, Pre-Code Film, Screening Report | Tagged 1933, Busby Berkeley, Carlotta Vance, DINNER AT EIGHT, early Talkies, EMPLOYEES' ENTRANCE, Film Forum, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Cukor, Ginger Rogers, GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933, Great Depression, Jean Harlow, LITTLE CAESAR, Marie Dressler, Pre-Code Film, Roy Del Ruth, Scrappy's Party, SITTING PRETTY, THE LITTLE GIANT, Warren William | 11 Comments

GOD’S GIFT TO WOMEN (1931) from Warner Archive: One Kiss and You Die!

Posted on January 2, 2013 by willmckinley

The year is 1931. Three undressed women catfight over the lover they share – wrestling in his bed, tearing at each other’s skimpy negligees. One of them is Louise Brooks, pansexual star of some of the sultriest silent films ever … Continue reading →

Posted in Classic Film, Pre-Code Film, Warner Archive Collection | Tagged "Raymond Griffith", 1931, A STAR IS BORN, Arthur Edmund Carewe, Barbara Stanwyck, Billy House, Charles Winniger, DIARY OF A LOST GIRL, Eleanor Gutchrlein, Frank Fay, Frederick Hazlitt Brennan, G.W. Pabst, GOD'S GIFT TO WOMEN, Hays Code, Joan Blondell, Joseph Jackson, Karla Gutchrlein, Laura La Plante, Louise Brooks, Margaret Livingston, Michael Curtiz, Motion Picture Production Code, Norman Maine, PANDORA’S BOX, Pre-Code Film, Safe in Hell, Sisters G, The Code, The Devil Was Sick, Warner Archive Collection, Warner Bros, Yola d’Avril | 5 Comments

She Works Hard For the Money: The Columbia Pictures Pre-Code Collection on DVD from TCM

Posted on December 10, 2012 by willmckinley

Sex sells, the old saying goes. It also employs, or at least it did in movies made before enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code began in 1934. In the The Columbia Pictures Pre-Code Collection, a five-film DVD set from … Continue reading →

Posted in Classic Film, Pre-Code Film, TCM | Tagged ARIZONA, Barbara Stanwyck, Carole Lombard, Columbia Pictures, Columbia Pictures Pre-Code Collection, Forbidden Hollywood, Great Depresson, Hays Office, Jean Harlow, Jo Swerling, John Wayne, Joseph Breen, Laura La Plante, Lionel Barrymore, Mae Clarke, Marie Prevost, Mayo Methot, Motion Picture Production Code, Pat O’Brien, Pre-Code Film, Regis Toomey, Robert Riskin, SHOPWORN, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, TEN CENTS A DANCE, THREE WISE GIRLS, VIRTUE, Will Hays | 19 Comments

THE AGE OF CONSENT (1932) from Warner Archive: Pre-Code Passion At Its Most Lustful

Posted on November 4, 2012 by willmckinley

People in old movies don’t seem to know how to kiss. Without a doubt, there are plenty of iconic lip locks from the films of the 1930s and ‘40s, often accompanied by lush orchestrations that infer burning passion. But characters … Continue reading →

Posted in Classic Film, Pre-Code Film, Warner Archive Collection | Tagged 1932, Aileen Pringle, Arline Judge, David O. Selznick, Dorothy Wilson, Eric Linden, Franchot Tone, Gregory La Cava, John Halliday, Motion Picture Production Code, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, Reginald Barlow, Richard Cromwell, RKO, SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS, Sylvia Sidney, THE AGE OF CONSENT, Warner Archive Collection, Will Hays | 6 Comments

The Man Who Gave Betty Her Boop-oop-a-doop

Posted on October 21, 2012 by willmckinley

In the spring of 1992, the city of Scranton paid tribute to a kindly old musician who had relocated from Manhattan in the late 1950s. Sadly, it turned out to be a requiem. A few months later, Sammy Timberg was … Continue reading →

Posted in Classic Film, Pre-Code Film, TCM | Tagged Aaron Copland, Betty Boop, Boop-Oop-A-Doop, Boy, Dave Fleischer, Don Adams, Fleischer Studios, George Gerswhin, GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, Help Yourself to My Heart, HOPPITY GOES TO TOWN, Jackie Gleason, Little Lulu, Mae Questel, Marx Brothers, Max Fleischer, Mr. Bug Goes to Town, Oh Boy, Popeye, Popeye the Sailor, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Rubin Goldmark, Rudy Vallee, Sammy Timberg, Vince Giordano | 1 Comment

SAFE IN HELL (1931) from Warner Archive: When it Comes to Pre-Code, Seeing is Believing

Posted on October 13, 2012 by willmckinley

“Black & white movies are so boring and fake,” a co-worker once said to me, with an accompanying look of disgust usually afforded to those who belch audibly in public places. In my younger days, I might have taken the … Continue reading →

Posted in Classic Film, Pre-Code Film, Warner Archive Collection | Tagged Clarence Muse, Donald Cook, Dorothy Mackaill, Nina Mae McKinney, Safe in Hell, Warner Archive, William Wellman | 15 Comments

Pre-Code Classics Shine Again in “Forbidden Hollywood” Volumes 4 and 5 from Warner Archive

Posted on September 11, 2012 by willmckinley

“For me, the real ‘Classic Era’ in Hollywood was the mid-1930s until about 1959,” host Robert Osborne said at the third annual TCM Classic Film Festival in April. Coincidentally, those years also bookend the period during which the Motion Picture … Continue reading →

Posted in Classic Film, Pre-Code Film | Tagged Barbara Stanwyck, Classic film, First National PIctures, FOOTLIGHT PARADE, Forbidden Hollywood Volume 4, Forbidden Hollywood Volume 5, HARD TO HANDLE, James Cagney, JEWEL ROBBERY, Joan Blondell, Joseph Breen, Kay Francis, LADIES THEY TALK ABOUT, LAWYER MAN, Loretta Young, MAN WANTED, MISS PINKERTON, Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Pre-Code Film, Robert Osborne, TCM, The Breen Office, The Code, The Hays Office, THE MIND READER, The Motion Picture Production Code, THEY CALL IT SIN, Turner Classic Movies, Warner Archive Collection, Warner Bros, Warren William, Will H. Hays, Will Hays, William Powell | 8 Comments

Warren William Macking on Women

Posted on August 27, 2012 by willmckinley

No explanation offered, or required.

Posted in Classic Film, Pre-Code Film | 1 Comment

Category Archives: Pre-Code Film

Screening Report: The 1933 Pre-Code Festival

Screening Report: CARTOON CUT-UPS of 1933 at Film Forum

Screening Report: Pre-Code Fun at Film Forum’s 1933 Festival

GOD’S GIFT TO WOMEN (1931) from Warner Archive: One Kiss and You Die!

She Works Hard For the Money: The Columbia Pictures Pre-Code Collection on DVD from TCM

The Man Who Gave Betty Her Boop-oop-a-doop

SAFE IN HELL (1931) from Warner Archive: When it Comes to Pre-Code, Seeing is Believing

Pre-Code Classics Shine Again in “Forbidden Hollywood” Volumes 4 and 5 from Warner Archive

Warren William Macking on Women

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