Pre-Code Paramount at Film Forum
by Andre Soares
From June 24 to July 21, New York City’s Film Forum will present the film series "Paramount Before the Code," consisting of more than 40 classics, semi-classics, and forgotten gems from Hollywood’s little-remembered Naughty Age — the years between the full-fledged coming of sound in 1928 and the institutionalization of the Production Code, a sort of morality covenant between the studios and the censors, in mid-1934.
The scheduled films range from well-known and widely available fare — including Lowell Sherman’s She Done Him Wrong (1933), starring Mae West and Cary Grant; Josef von Sternberg’s decadent Der Blaue Engel / The Blue Angel (1930), with leggy Marlene Dietrich seducing poor, little professor Emil Jannings; and Ernst Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise (1932), with jewel thief Herbert Marshall trying to 
seduce rich lady Kay Francis — to the rarely seen two-strip Technicolor musical Follow Thru (1930), with Nancy Carroll and Charles "Buddy" Rogers; the creepy mad doctor tale Island of Lost Souls (1933), with Charles Laughton; and the early George Cukor dramatic comedy Girls About Town (1932), with Lilyan Tashman and Kay Francis.
Mae West, Paramount’s box-office savior during the years of the Depression, could also be called the one-woman catalyst for the implementation of the Production Code. Religious and right-wing groups of the early 1930s were 
shocked, outraged, and so turned on by the myriad naughty double entendres found in her two 1933 releases, She Done Him Wrong and I’m No Angel, that they had to find a way to stop that swishing locomotive of immorality.
Though mild by today’s gutter standards, West’s tirades and sexual innuendoes still entertain because they are intelligent and perfectly timed. She Done Him Wrong and I’m No Angel are part of the series, and in both films West lures and lusts after a very young — and surprisingly ineffectual — Cary Grant. (West can also be seen in This Is the Night, her first screen appearance.)
Besides the aforementioned Kay Francis, Nancy Carroll, and Marlene Dietrich, other performers in evidence at the festival are Jeanette MacDonald, Maurice Chevalier, Carole Lombard, George Raft, the Marx Brothers, Sylvia Sidney (excellent opposite and equally good Gary Cooper in Rouben Mamoulian’s 1931 crime drama City Streets), the underrated Miriam Hopkins (outstanding in both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and 
Trouble in Paradise), and Claudette Colbert (before she became the perfect example of American womanhood, she was both tempted and tempting in The Sign of the Cross and Cleopatra). And don’t miss Gertrude Michael’s erotic fascination with hunky Buster Crabbe (of the Flash Gordon serials) in the bizarre 1934 comedy Search for Beauty.
Admittedly, there are a few duds in the program — White Woman (1933), a tale of jealousy and lust in the jungle, comes to mind — though even that, as laughably bad as it is, must be seen to be believed.
Admittedly, there are a few duds in the program — White Woman (1933), a tale of jealousy and lust in the jungle, comes to mind — though even that, as laughably bad as it is, must be seen to be believed.
Film Forum’s "Paramount Before the Code" schedule
B Musicals at New York City’s Film Forum
Film Forum’s "Fox Before the Code" in Dec. 2006
SORRELL AND SON (1927) Screening in Los Angeles
PEINDRE OU FAIRE L’AMOUR at Cannes
Ingmar Bergman Documentary Trilogy at Cannes
MERRY CHRISTMAS to Open in Europe
Guy Hamilton and THE THIRD MAN
Comments
Leave a Reply
Note: All comments are moderated. Different views and opinions are welcome, but abusive/bigoted/flaming comments will NOT be approved. Also, please be aware that the Alternative Film Guide has NO contact information for the talent mentioned in this blog or any information pertaining to or access to distributors'/producers' film prints.
