Pre-code: Female(1933)

Female(1933). A pre-code film directed by Michael Curtiz. Cast: Ruth Chatterton and George Brent. It is based on the novel of the same name by Donald Henderson Clarke. The pool is the same one that can be seen in the musical number "By a Waterfall" from the Warner Bros. production "Footlight Parade", also released 1933.

The story begins with hard working Alison Drake, the president of a large automobile company, who sits in front of a large map of the world. She has many meaningless affairs with men... who are only looking for money and power. Everything, in her life is "big"... her house and even her great Danes.



One night, Alison goes to a shooting gallery where she has a "shoot out" with Jim Thorne, who declines her sexual advances after spending the evening together..

The next day, when Jim shows up at her office, Alison learns that he is the engineer she has been expecting. Unfazed, she discusses business with him and then invites him to her home, but is surprised when Jim declines her offer once again.

Not giving up... Alison successfully gets Jim alone on a picnic, where he falls for her charms. When he proposes, she turns him down. Heartbroken, he quits his job and leaves town. Alison, follows hot on his heels missing a very important business meeting. When she catches up with Jim, she tearfully admits that she was willing to risk bankruptcy to be with him. Will he forgive her?

Chatterton gives a great performance as a "Working Woman Who Surrenders In The End" is very much worth watching. Brent (her off-screen husband, at the time) is at his very best, too. I also loved the the art deco sets and the beautiful costumes. Not to mention the intelligent story line.

Lois Wilson (June 28, 1894 - March 3, 1988), best known for her work during the silent film era. She also directed two short films and was a scenario writer.

Wilson moved to California when she won a beauty contest put on by Universal Studios and the Birmingham News in 1915. This pageant was the predecessor to the Miss Alabama/Miss America pageant system and Wilson is considered the first Miss Alabama.

Upon arriving in Hollywood, she landed a small part in, The Dumb Girl of Portici, which starred the ballerina Anna Pavlova.

After performing in several films, Wilson settled in at Paramount Pictures in 1919, where she remained until 1927.

Her best known performances: The Covered Wagon (1923) and the silent film version of, The Great Gatsby (1926).

Despite making a successful transition to sound, Wilson was dissatisfied with the roles she received in the 1930's and she soon retired in 1941, making only three films after 1939.

Lois ventured to Broadway and television following her final role in, The Girl From Jones Beach (1949).

Wilson played in the network soap operas: The Guiding Light in (1952) and The Edge of Night.

She was described as "a typical example of the American girl in character, culture and beauty".

Lois Wilson died of pneumonia at the age of 93.

The Ennis House is located in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, south of Griffith Park. The home was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis in 1923 and built in 1924.



Video: The Ennis House.

The building's ancient Mayan temple design made it a fabulous location for Hollywood filmmakers. The first filmed there was the Pre-code Female(1933), for the exterior for Alison Drake's house.

Film makers used the exterior for the classic 'B" movie, House on Haunted Hill(1959).

In 1975 The film Day of the Locust, used the house as a private residence, but it was in 1982's Blade Runner that the house gained a popularity when the main character arrived at the front of the Ennis House.

Its exterior also appears as "The Mansion" in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Sections of the cathedral reminiscent interior, especially the elevated dining room and fireplace, have appeared in films: The Karate Kid, Part III, Black Rain, The Glimmer Man, The Replacement Killers, Rush Hour and The Thirteenth Floor.

The house has also been used as a location for commercials, fashion magazine shoots and music videos, including 3T's "Why" with Michael Jackson. S Club 7's video for the song "Have You Ever" shows the band members living an everyday life in the house and Ricky Martin music video song "Vuelve".

Filmmakers either recreated original elements of the Ennis House on sound stage sets as they did for the film Predator 2.

Film makers used the exterior for a Blade Runner scene.

In the case of The Rocketeer, sections of the Ennis House were recreated in detail, including the patterned art glass, on a studio set.

On a smaller scale, tile casts of the block relief ornamentation were used for the Club Silencio doorframe in Mulholland Drive.

David Lynch, used Ennis House for a segment of the show Twin Peaks.

There was a show-within-a-show called Invitation to Love and all of those scenes were shot in Ennis House.

Female(1933), is part of the Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume Two. The other films included in the box set:
The Divorcee
A Free Soul
Night Nurse

42nd Street (1933).

42nd Street(1933). A Warner Bros. musical film directed by Lloyd Bacon with choreography by Busby Berkeley. The songs were written by Harry Warren (music) and Al Dubin (lyrics). 42nd Street was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1934.

Broadway director Julian Marsh, ignores his weak heart, because he really wants to direct the new musical, "Pretty Lady" with producers Jones and Barry.

The leading lady, Dorothy Brock, has been already cast by her "sugar daddy" Abner Dillon. In a casting call, Marsh and his stage manager, Andy Lee, audition the dancers, choosing: Lee's girlfriend Loraine Fleming, a gold digger nick-named "Anytime Annie" and Peggy Sawyer.

Billy Lawler, falls in love with Peggy, but she has eyes for Pat Denning, Dorothy's lover and ex-partner.

Pat is getting tired of Dorothy's acting career and leaves for Philadelphia to live his own life. During the cast party.. Dorothy gets drunk, fights with Pat and sprains her ankle.

The next evening, Peggy goes in her place and becomes a overnight star.

Now.. she realizes that she really does love Billy, just as Dorothy admits that what she really wants is to retire and marry Pat.

This is a really charming musical with a top notch cast. One of my favorite scenes is during a drunken cast party the night before the musical opens. I also love the musical number..."Young and Healthy" with Powell running around in his underwear.

 

Bebe Daniels (January 14, 1901 - March 16, 1971) made over 230 films. Daniels father was a theater manager and her mother a stage actress.

The family moved to Los Angeles, California and she began her acting career at the age of four in, The Squaw Man. That same year she also went on tour in a stage production of, Shakespeare's Richard III.

The following year she participated in productions by Morosooa and David Belasco. By the age of seven Daniels had her first starring role in, A Common Enemy.

At the age of nine she starred as Dorothy Gale in the 1910 short film, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

At the age of fourteen she starred opposite film comedian Harold Lloyd in a series of Lonesome Luke two-reel comedies starting with the 1915 film, Giving Them Fits. The two began a romantic relationship and were known in Hollywood as... "The Boy" and "The Girl."

In 1919, she accepted a contract offering from Cecil B. DeMille, who gave her secondary roles in such films as: Male and Female (1919), Why Change Your Wife? (1920), and The Affairs of Anatol (1921).

In the 1920's, Daniels was under contract with Paramount Pictures. She became an adult star by 1922 and by 1924 was playing opposite Rudolph Valentino in, Monsieur Beaucaire.

Following this she was cast in: Miss Bluebeard, The Manicure Girl, and Wild Wild Susan. Paramount dropped her contract with the advent of talking pictures.

Daniels was hired by Radio Pictures (later known as RKO) to star in one of their biggest productions of the year. She also starred in the 1929 talkie Rio Rita. It was one of the most successful films of that year and Bebe Daniels found herself a star and RCA Victor hired her to record several records for their catalog.

As did many stars of her day, she used the therapeutic services of Sylvia of Hollywood to stay in shape.

Radio Pictures starred her in a number of musicals including: Dixiana (1930) and Love Comes Along (1930).

Towards the end of 1930's, Bebe Daniels appeared in the musical comedy, Reaching for the Moon. However, by this time musicals had gone out of fashion so that most of the musical numbers from the film had to be removed before it could be released. Daniels had become associated with musicals and so Radio Pictures did not renew her contract.

Warner Brothers realized what a box office draw she was and offered her a contract which she accepted. During her years at Warner Brothers she starred in: My Past (1931), Honor of the Family (1931) and the 1931 pre-code version of The Maltese Falcon.

In 1932, she appeared in, Silver Dollar (1932) and Busby Berkeley's choreographed musical comedy 42nd Street (1933) in which she sang. That same year she played opposite John Barrymore in, Counsellor at Law.

Her last film for the Warner Brothers was Registered Nurse (1934).

She retired from Hollywood in 1935. With her husband, film actor Ben Lyon, whom she married in 1930 and moved to London.

A few years later, Daniels starred in the London production of, Panama Hattie in the title role originated by Ethel Merman.

The Lyons then did radio shows for the BBC. Most notably, the series Hi Gang!, continuing for decades and enjoying considerable popularity during World War II. Daniels wrote most of the dialogue for the Hi Gang radio show. The couple remained through the days of the The Blitz. Following the war, Daniels was awarded the Medal of Freedom by Harry S. Truman for war service.

In 1945 she returned to Hollywood for a short time to work as a film producer for Hal Roach and Eagle-Lion Films.

She returned to the UK in 1948 and lived there for the remainder of her life.

Daniels, her husband, her son Richard and her daughter Barbara all starred in the radio sitcom Life With The Lyons (1951 to 1961), which later made the transition to television.

Housewife (1934).

Housewife (1934). Drama. Directed by Alfred E. Green. Ann Dvorak, George Brent and Bette Davis.

Nan Reynolds, tries to run a household on her lazy, self centered husband Bill's small salary as an office manager. She wants him to find a better paying job, but he does not seem to want to better himself.

Pat Berkeley, who attended high school with Nan and used to be in love with Bill, is now working in advertising, has lunch with Nan and begins talking about her career:

Pat Berkeley says: Well, I've done alright. I suddenly found out I had some brains and decided to use them.

She now works for Bill's firm as an advertising copywriter and her success makes want Nan to talk her husband into asserting himself.

When he is turned away with his ideas, Bill is angry enough to start his own agency using the money Nan has managed to save over the years.

He begins to do well, not only from hard work, but with the help of Nan, he steals a major client from his former firm and hires Pat to come work for him.

Things take a turn for the worse when the feelings the two had for each other years before in high school are reignited and they begin an affair.

After landing the important account Duprey Cosmetics, they decide to advertise it on the radio show "The Duprey Hour", put together by Bill's office manager. Bill has been too busy with Pat that he has no idea that the campaign is in bad taste and topped off with a song "...if the circles under your eyes look like apple pies...".

Nan becomes aware of their relationship, but.. does not want to break up her family. Bill announces he wants a divorce, Nan refuses to grant him one, he angrily leaves the house and accidentally hits their son Buddy with the car, seriously injuring him. Will the family ever recover?

This is a good example of an early Bette Davis film.

Ann Dvorak (August 2, 1911 – December 10, 1979), her name is pronounced vor'shack. The D remains silent.

The only child of two vaudevillians, she was raised in the business that would later make her a star. Her father, Samuel Edwin McKim worked as a director at Lubin Studios, and her mother, actress Anna Lehr, found success as the star of many silent features.

The couple split when their daughter was four years old, and she moved with her mother to Hollywood. Ann would not see her father again until a national appeal to the press reunited the two in 1934.

As a child, she appeared in several films. She began working for MGM in the late 1920s as a dance instructor and gradually began to appear on film as a chorus girl.

Her friend Joan Crawford introduced her to Howard Hughes, who groomed her as a dramatic actress. She was a success in such pre-Code films as Scarface (1932), as Paul Muni's character's sister; as the doomed unstable Vivian in Three on a Match (1932), with Joan Blondell and Bette Davis; in Love Is a Racket (1932); and opposite Spencer Tracy in Sky Devils (1932).

Known for her style and elegance, she was a popular leading lady for Warner Brothers during the 1930's, and performed in romances and melodramas.

A dispute over her pay (she discovered she was making the same amount of money as the little boy who played her son in Three on a Match) led to her finishing out her contract on permanent suspension, and then working as a freelancer, but although she worked regularly, the quality of her scripts declined sharply.

She performed as secretary Della Street to Donald Woods' Perry Mason in The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1937).

She also acted on Broadway. With her then-husband, British actor Leslie Fenton, Dvorak travelled to England where she supported the war effort by working as an ambulance driver, and appeared in several British films.

She gives a unforgettable performance as a saloon singer in, Abilene Town(1946).

She retired from the screen in 1951, when she married her third and last husband, Nicholas Wade, to whom she remained married until his death in 1975. It was her longest and most successful marriage. She had no children.

The Corpse Came C.O.D.(1947).

The Corpse Came C.O.D.(1947). Directed by Henry Levin. Cast: George Brent, Joan Blondell, Adele Jergens.

Movie star Mona Harrison, receives a package from Palisades Pictures Studio. Expecting to find a dress in the large box, Mona is shocked to discover the murdered body of costume designer, Hector Rose.

Instead of calling the police, Mona calls her friend Joe Medford, a reporter. Joe arrives in time to watch Mona getting rid of the bolts of cloth in which Hector was wrapped and calls the police.

Police Lieutenant, Mark Wilson begins an investigation into the murder by calling the coroner, taking fingerprint samples and looking for the delivery man.

When Rosemary Durant, a columnist for the Daily Register, asks to team up with Joe on the murder story, Joe tells her that he does not need her help. Rosemary, who believes that Joe is really in love with her, follows him around town hoping to learn more about the murder case.

Later, Joe learns that before Hector was murdered and that he fell into a pile of cloth when Mona hit him during a fight. While looking for clues at Hector's house, Joe is assaulted by Maxwell Kenyon, Hector's business manager and a another fight breaks out. After knocking Kenyon unconscious, Joe searches through his pockets and finds a check from Mona.

Later, at the studio, Joe sees a man fleeing and after locking Rosemary in a closet, chases after him. Rosemary manages to free herself from the closet and when Joe looses the man, he catches up with Rosemary. Joe proposes marriage to Rosemary, but still insist that she not work on the story.

Joe suspects the shady Rudy Frasso, who he believes is Mona's ex-husband, to be mixed up in a jewelry scheme and the at murders at the studio.

At Mona's home, while Rosemary questions Mona about her love life, Joe finds some jewels in a bolt of cloth and hides them. When Joe later finds Frasso waiting for him in his apartment, they get into a fight and Frasso escapes.

Rosemary, angry that Joe has kept her from working on the story, tells Wilson about the jewels. When Joe and Rosemary arrive at Mona's, they learn who is behind the jewel smuggling operation and who killed Hector.

I really enjoyed watching this "B" film with an above average cast: George Brent, Joan Blondell, and Adele Jergens. We learn about the twist of the story toward the end of the film.  A must see for Blondell's fans.

Adele Jergens (November 26, 1917 - November 22, 2002), was named "Miss World's Fairest" at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

In the early 1940's, she worked as a Rockette, and was named the Number One Showgirl in New York City.

After a few years of working as a model and chorus girl, including being an understudy to Gypsy Rose Lee, Jergens landed a movie contract with Columbia Pictures in 1944.

At the beginning of her career she was cast as blonde floozies and burlesque dancers in the films:  Down to Earth starring Rita Hayworth (1947) and The Dark Past starring William Holden (1948).

She once played Marilyn Monroe's mother in, Ladies of the Chorus (1948), even though Jergens was only 9 years older than Monroe.

In 1949, while filming Treasure of Monte Cristo, a film noir set in San Francisco, she met and married co-star Glenn Langan.

Her chorus girl past came in handy when she played an exotic dancer in, Armored Car Robbery (1950), in which she shared the leading role with Charles McGraw.

She also performed in Abbott and Costello, Meet the Invisible Man (1951).

Jergens and Glenn Langan remained married until his death in 1991. Their only child, actor Tracy Langan, predeceased his mother.

Pre - Code: Baby Face(1933).

Baby Face (1933). A dramatic film directed by Alfred E. Green. Cast:  Barbara Stanwyck and George Brent. Based on a story by Darryl F. Zanuck. This Pre-Code Hollywood film is about an young woman who uses sex to advance herself socially and her career. The film's open discussion of sex made it one of the most notorious films of the Pre-Code Hollywood era.

The story begins when Lily Powers, the daughter of Nick Powers, a speakeasy owner, tries to keep her distance from men, who her father forces on her. It does not take long before Lily, decides to give in and use men to get what she wants.

She leaves town with her maid Chico and takes a job in a bank, where she seduces: Jimmy McCoy, his boss Brody and Ned Stevens, Brody's supervisor. Stevens, who has fallen under Lily spell sets her up in an elegant apartment, even though he is engaged to Ann Carter, the daughter of one of the bank's high power executives.

Out of jealousy, Stevens kills Carter, then himself, creating a scandal at the bank. The bank decides to send Lily Paris to stop the scandle.

When Courtland Trenholm, is transferred to Paris, he too falls in love with Lily and marries her. Trenholm signs over all his money to Lily and when the bank falls into bankruptcy, Lily refuses to help him. Feeling helpless Trenholm decides to shoot himself, will Lily arrive in time to save his life?

Barbara Stanwyck, is wonderful as the bad girl, who knows how to work all the men in her life.

John Wayne, is a unsuccessful suitor for Stanwyck. This would be the only time these two performers appeared together on screen.

Margaret Lindsay (September 19, 1910 - May 9, 1981). After some minor roles in Pre-Code films such as Christopher Strong and Baby Face, Lindsay was cast in the film, Cavalcade. Her performance in, Cavalcade earned her a contract at Warner Bros.

Lindsay played Edith Harris, a doomed English bride whose honeymoon voyage takes place on the Titanic. 

Lindsay was cast four times as the love interest of James Cagney, from 1933-1935 in the classic films: Frisco Kid, Devil Dogs of the Air, G-Men and Lady Killer.

Lindsay co-starred with Bette Davis in four films: 1934's Fog Over Frisco, 1935's Dangerous, Bordertown, Jezebel(1938), The Law in Her Hands (1936). Author Roger Dooley identified the film as "being the only film of the 1930's to have a pair of female legal partners".

Made after the Motion Picture Production Code came into effect. Lindsay's favorite film role may have been, The House of the Seven Gables(1940).

Her 1940's film series included the Crime Doctor series, as well as her continuing role as Nikki Porter in, Columbia's Ellery Queen series from 1940-1942.

Lindsay performed in a supporting role in the 1942 film, The Spoilers, starring John Wayne and in Fritz Lang's, Scarlet Street(1945).

After performing in Cass Timberlane with Spencer Tracy, her film career began to fade.

Her last film was, Tammy and the Doctor (1963).

Early in her career, Lindsay lived with her sister Helen in Hollywood.

Later in life, she lived with her youngest sister Mickie. Margaret Lindsay's sister, Jane Kies (1909–1985), was also an actress named, Jane Gilbert.

In 1940, Jane married the son of Hedda Hopper, actor William Hopper, best known for his role as Paul Drake in the Perry Mason television series.

Lindsay's niece Peggy Kenline and great-nephew Brad Yates were also actors.

They Call It A Sin(1932).

They Call It A Sin(1932). Cast: Loretta Young, George Brent and Una Merkel.

Traveling salesman Jimmy Decker falls in love with Marion Cullen, even though he is engaged to Enid Hollister, his boss's daughter. Marion is a talented composer, after a confrontation with her foster mother, who tells her that she is really the illegitimate daughter of a showgirl, she leaves for New York.

After, she soon realizes that he is not going to break off his engagement with Enid, she and dancer Dixie Dare interview with talent agent, Ford Humphries, who offers Marion a job as a rehearsal pianist. When Marion plays one of her own songs for Humphries, he suggests that she write a song for his show.

One evening at the club, Marion meets, Dr. Tony and they begin to see each other and when Jimmy finds out, he becomes upset. He goes looking for her at one of Humphries' parties and tell Marion, that he still loves her. Humphries, sees them kissing uses her songs without credit to get even with her and Jimmy goes to see Humphries, in her defence. Drunk, Humphries falls off his balcony and later dies. To save Jimmy, Marion takes the blame. Will she ever reveal the truth?

This a wonderful fluffy romance movie, that becomes a little racy at the end.

Helen Vinson (September 17, 1907 – October 7, 1999). Performed in 40 films between 1932 and 1945.

Vinson's screen career often featured her in roles in which she played the other woman or (pre-Code) women with active romantic lives.

Her first film role was, Jewel Robbery (1932).

She performed in the film, The Kennel Murder Case, The Wedding Night (1935).

She played the wife of Gary Cooper, in a story about the tobacco fields.


Another performance was in the film, In Name Only (1939), in which she was cast as the treacherous friend of Carole Lombard, Kay Francis and Cary Grant.

Another stand-out role for Vinson was as an undercover federal agent posing as a femme fatale opposite Richard Cromwell in the film, Enemy Agent(1940) and The Thin Man Goes Home.