#pre-code film

“The Barbara Stanwyck vehicle Ladies They Talk About (1933) seemed, on the surface, to be in the vein of tough Warner exposés and crime dramas, with Stanwyck as a bank robber doing time at the women’s wing of San Quentin. However, after an opening sequence so realistically recreating a robbery that censors feared it could be a how-to-primer, the movie lapsed into Midnight Romance fantasy. Instead of grim prison conditions, Stanwyck’s jail time resembled a stay at a health spa, with glamorous inmates, beauty treatments on demand, and a laid-back air. The only grittier touches (besides Stanwyck’s ingrained Brooklyn moxie) were incidental, such as the inmates yelling ‘New fish!’ when Stanwyck first arrives, and a black inmate talking back ferociously to an imperious white prisoner. Another jailbird in this glossy clink is a muscular woman with close-cropped hair and a cigar clamped in her mouth. ’She likes to wrestle!’ Like the other inmates, this one is spared the dreariness of prison grooming, being permitted instead to wear the standard Hollywood Dyke getup of a tailored outfit and little bowtie. ‘Mmmmm . . . . hmmmm!’ air. Later, less expectedly, we see this butch prisoner’s femme other half. The camera pans across the cells to take in after-hours vignettes that never occurred in any real-life jail, including a slumber party in lingerie, an inmate cuddling a Pekingese, and the butch woman doing an exhibition round of calisthenics. Wearing a pair of man’s pajamas and with the cigar still in her mouth, she goes through her paces to the delight of a frilly girlfriend sitting in the bed next to her. ‘You’re just always exercising!’ the femme marvels. Ladies They Talk About received numerous complaints through the Studio Relations Committee about the robbery scene, about the violence and discussion of prostitution. Only in strict Ohio, however, did the lesbianism cause any problem; Roth’s ‘wrestle’ line was cut. So it remained over the succeeding decades, when women’s prison movies were one of the few places onscreen where lesbians were allowed to exist openly. This one is one of the first."

Taken from Cecil B. DeMille’s ‘Madam Satan’ 1930.

Ex-Lady, 1933 or Bette Davis Does Bias-Cut

The story here involves a young couple who can’t decide if they believe in free love, in marriage, or in dating while married. They try all three and end up thoroughly confused. The story is co-written by Robert Riskin who did lots of work with Frank Capra, but this one is super flirty and full of knowing asides. Definitely a pre-code film where young women got to have sex outside of marriage without being condemned to death or misery. Once you see the young woman’s parents and her cowed mother, you see why marriage would look hellish to her. Davis plays a young illustrator who somehow manages to wear the most expensive looking bias-cut gowns for both evenings out and for at home wear while being confused about her love for Gene Raymond. While Vionnet is known for her bias-cut gowns, many designers used these slinky cuts too. They seem made for daring movies. Orry-Kelly designed these gowns and the few day dresses Davis wears too. Those are amazing too, see the striped trim in the one photo--a great inspiration for using up a little stripe remnant of fabric.

Your deadicated hosts tackle DOCTOR X (1932) by Michael Curtiz, starring Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, and Lee Tracy! We discuss sssynthetic flesshhhh, two-tone technicolor, and how we feel about horror and comedy... again!