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Red Headed Woman (1932)
Red Headed Woman (1932)
1932 | Comedy, Drama, Romance
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"A pre-code Jean Harlow unabashedly plowing through men, in dresses cut to kill by Adrian."

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Wild Boys of the Road (Dangerous Days) (1933)
Wild Boys of the Road (Dangerous Days) (1933)
1933 | Action, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Three Pre-Code masterpieces by three great directors: William Wellman, Mervyn LeRoy and Clarence Brown. It took 30 years for movies to get this wild again."

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I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932)
I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932)
1932 | Classics, Drama, Mystery
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, 1932. This is excellent. It was pre-Code. Ferocious movie. Paul Muni, incredibly intense. It was really the best picture I think Mervyn LeRoy ever did, by far. Maybe the production code got in the way after that. He made another movie called They Won’t Forget, which is supposed to be great, but I don’t love it. I think it’s probably because the production code got in the way and it sort of neutered him a little bit. No spoilers, but the ending of Chain Gang, I couldn’t forget about it for days."

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Bill Condon recommended The Love Parade (1929) in Movies (curated)

 
The Love Parade (1929)
The Love Parade (1929)
1929 | Classics, Comedy, Musical
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Pop in 1929’s The Love Parade and watch the movie musical being invented. These pre-Code movies are sophisticated in a way that musicals weren’t again until Cabaret in the 1970s. (Although none of them holds up quite as well as Rouben Mamoulian’s Love Me Tonight, which is screaming out for a Criterion reissue.)"

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Bill Condon recommended Monte Carlo (1930) in Movies (curated)

 
Monte Carlo (1930)
Monte Carlo (1930)
1930 | Comedy, Musical, Romance
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Pop in 1929’s The Love Parade and watch the movie musical being invented. These pre-Code movies are sophisticated in a way that musicals weren’t again until Cabaret in the 1970s. (Although none of them holds up quite as well as Rouben Mamoulian’s Love Me Tonight, which is screaming out for a Criterion reissue.)"

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The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)
The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)
1931 | Classics, Comedy, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Pop in 1929’s The Love Parade and watch the movie musical being invented. These pre-Code movies are sophisticated in a way that musicals weren’t again until Cabaret in the 1970s. (Although none of them holds up quite as well as Rouben Mamoulian’s Love Me Tonight, which is screaming out for a Criterion reissue.)"

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One Hour with You (1932)
One Hour with You (1932)
1932 | Comedy, Musical, Romance
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Pop in 1929’s The Love Parade and watch the movie musical being invented. These pre-Code movies are sophisticated in a way that musicals weren’t again until Cabaret in the 1970s. (Although none of them holds up quite as well as Rouben Mamoulian’s Love Me Tonight, which is screaming out for a Criterion reissue.)"

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The Scarlet Empress (1934)
The Scarlet Empress (1934)
1934 | Classics, Drama
(0 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"Scarlet Empress, with Marlene Dietrich, directed by Josef von Sternberg. That’s also pre-Code, just barely, I think, and it’s the greatest of their collaborations. Morocco is amazing, too, and I love Blue Angel. Morocco has that incredible ending where she can’t resist but follows him off, and you hear the wind sound and all that. Anyway, Scarlet Empress is so singular; there’s nothing like it. It’s almost like a new cinema is being created; he’s creating a new language for cinema. Not just the way that it looks, but the light, the use of light, and the use of production design becomes, almost, a sensory part of the experience and informs her character. It’s all about her character’s sensuality, and he uses all these other elements beyond just herself to sell that. The way the film looks, the way the film feels, and it’s where the style completely informs her identity, which is an amazing idea."

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Siren Queen
Nghi Vo | 2022
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Title: Siren Queen
Author: Nghi Vo
288 pages
Published: May 10th of 2022

Let's start off by I love the name of the book and the blue color palette on the cover. Blue makes it very pretty and anything that says "Siren" catches my intrest. Even though it's not about that I'm glad I read it. This book is about Luli Wei a beautiful talented wanting to be a star in pre-code Hollywood. In it she knows how the movie business can be very dangerous but she doesn't seem to be bothered by this. She also prefers to play a monster rather than a maid. She learns the worst monsters of all are not on screen but rather in reality around her in Hollywood. She also learns success always comes with a very steep price to pay and it's never lovely. This book caught my attention from the beginning and is well written. It has an interesting story plot and is one book I'd definitely reccomend. Also, reality is just sad.
  
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Dianne Robbins (1738 KP) rated Merrily We Go to Hell (1932) in Movies

Sep 3, 2020 (Updated Sep 3, 2020)  
Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)
Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)
1932 | Classics, Comedy, Drama
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Pre-code (4 more)
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Skeet Gallagher as Buck, the sidekick
Florence Britton as Charlcie, the female sidekick
Directed by female director Dorothy Arzner
No relationship development between the male and female protagonists. (0 more)
Contains spoilers, click to show
It was an important movie of its time. It is a pre-code movie so it was able to get away with sins such as alcoholism and infidelity of husbands AND wives without making them pay in the end.

Sylvia Sidney plays Joan Prentice, the daughter of the president of Prentice coffee and Fredric March plays Jerry Corbett, a newspaperman who wishes to be a playwright. They meet at a society party where she is trying to ignore the advances of a very handsy older man and he is on the terrace drunk and drinking even more. She somehow finds him charming and he finds her "swell." They make a date to meet up again and romance follows. I mean, allegedly follows though it seems like a huge plot point to me what they see in each other and what kind of substance their relationship has. I've never been a very romantic person but even this seems terribly lacking to me.

Skeets Gallagher plays the sidekick Buck and he's worth his weight in gold. He a drinking buddy and scenes with him often start with the camera panning him tap dancing from behind. He's sweet, sympathetic, charming, and adorable and brings so much life to the role and film. Florence Britton plays the female sidekick to Fredric March's Jerry Corbett and is a bold lady, and kind. She and Buck are so much fun and not sloppy drunk like Corbett. I would much rather watch a movie with the two of them.

Sylvia Sidney, the female protagonist was bold and determined. After her husband cheats on her with his former wife, she goes out to have a little fun, too. She gets tired of her husband's constant drunkenness and leaves him. He seems to come to his senses at the end of the movie and goes to her. Spoiler alert: she is in the hospital having delivered their baby. He didn't know she was pregnant and only learned about the baby after reading the birth announcement in the newspaper. This is a premonition of things to come once the code comes into play as any sin must be paid for with a person's ruin or death. However, it ends on a happy note that their marriage will be better and that they are hopeful for the future.

* Watch for Cary Grant in one of his earliest roles as the male lead in the period drama play towards the end of the film.