Rating  - Love and sex, pre-Code style
There were a few years in movie making when sound was first introduced but the Production Codes had not yet been in force. These codes would severely limit the ability of movies to depict the real world: sex, violence and corruption were toned down - often to the point of sheer blandness. Crime could never pay, authority figures were always forces of good and even married couples were confined to twin beds. There were those few years, however, from the late-1920s to 1934 which was known as the pre-Code era, a period that offered films that would be much more daring than the movies of just a few years later.
TCM's set, Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Volume Two, showcases five such pre-Code movies. On the first of three discs are a pair of Norma Shearer films. In The Divorcee, she won an Oscar as a wife who discovers that her husband had an affair. Although he assures her it means nothing, it is an obvious hypocrisy that's exposed when she balances the books with an affair of her own. In A Free Soul, she defiantly has a fling with gangster Clark Gable, only to discover that the relationship will have unintended complications. Lionel Barrymore, playing her alcoholic father, won an Oscar for his role and Gable's performance would help transform him from a supporting player into a star.
On Disc Two, there is Three on a Match and Female. The former is a story of three schoolmates who meet in adulthood. Joan Blondell is the bad girl turned good, Ann Dvorak is the good girl turned bad, and Bette Davis is somewhere in the middle. This movie features an early gangster role by Humphrey Bogart. Female has Ruth Chatterton as the driven owner of an auto company. She works hard by day and chooses various male employees to be her playthings at night. It's a fine arrangement until she meets George Brent as the one man who resists her charms.
Finally, on Disc Three, Barbara Stanwyck is the Night Nurse, a woman from the wrong side of the tracks who betters herself by becoming a nurse. Unfortunately, the ethics of the profession compel her to look the other way when she sees malpractice, but she'll put what's right above what's required. Clark Gable is in one of his most villainous roles as a thuggish chauffeur out to kill a couple children. The resolution of this one would involve an act that would never be allowed under the Code.
Also on the third disc is a nice documentary called Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood. This feature describes more fully what this era meant to film, and what it meant when it ended. One thing that stands out is that this was a time where actresses could have juicy roles, a heyday for Blondell, Davis, Stanwyck and Shearer as well as folks like Crawford, Hepburn and Loy. The Code with its "family values" agenda would pigeonhole the women into much more limited roles.
All these movies are well-made and relatively short: the longest (A Free Soul) runs 93 minutes and Female is just an hour. With the documentary and a couple commentaries (on The Divorcee and Night Nurse), this is a wonderful set that will not only entertain, but serve as a reminder as to what the Production Code took away from movie making.
Rating  - forbidden hollywood collection vol 2
a great collection of old movies,never released on dvd before.
a must for a movie collector.
Rating - Classically Excellent
This collection of movies is great especially if you are looking to see what the 30's considered as risque.
Even though I had already seen Night Nurse and Three on a Match, I still bought this boxed set to add to my collection. Just to watch Norma Shearer, Bette Davis, Joan Blondell, and Barbara Stanwyck, not to mention Clark Gable in their early days was a treat.
I had previously purchased volume 1 of this collection and I'm glad I added volume 2. It's a great way to realize what Hollywood was like during the Depression but also to get a picture of what the US was like as well.
I heartily recommend this for the true movie buff.
Rating - Fantastic collection + suggestions for Volume 3
This is a perfect choice of films, continuing where Volume 1 left off by including only the pre-code films that exemplify what is fascinating and envelope-pushing about the era. The purpose of this review is to make some suggestions for Volume 3 (and beyond). So here goes with my top 10 pre-codes I'd like to see come next in the series:
1) Red Dust
2) Safe in Hell
3) Rain
4) The Story of Temple Drake
5) Ladies They Talk About
6) Heroes for Sale
7) Wild Boys of the Road
8) The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
9) Employee's Entrance
10) Gabriel over the White House
Go to the Product Information page
Customer Reviews for WARNER HOME VIDEO,012569795761,0012569795761,B000YRY7VC, |
