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noelcowards-addressbook · 10 hours

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Waiters in a gay bar in Call Her Savage, 1932

#Call Her Savage #gay film #pre-code #gay hollywood #camp

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hellostarrynightblr · 1 year

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Marlene Dietrich in Shanghai Express (1932)

#marlene dietrich #1932 #shanghai express #1930s #joseph von sternberg #drama #pre-code hollywood #pre-code #oldhollywoodedit #classic hollywood

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voidblacktea · 3 months

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Merrily We Go To Hell (1932)

A complex look at open relationships, marriage, and alcoholism. Dorothy Arzner broke new ground as a woman behind the camera. I watched this film for the first time last year, but it was even better on a rewatch last night.

It starts with a lot of fun and it clearly wears its pre-Code sensibilities on its sleeve for an act or two, but then the film gets serious, sad and heavy, with the charming alcoholic lead (Fredric March) making a mess of himself before the woman who loves him (Sylvia Sidney) and our very eyes. Human and real, it pulls no punches.

There was a greater diversity of human experience and experimentation during the pre-code era, even when the films weren't objectively good or deep, that was stamped out under the code and it's a shame.

#fredric march #sylvia sidney #merrily we go to hell 1932 #pre-code #old hollywood #cinema #movies #dorothy arzner

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retropopcult · 3 months

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Groucho Marx and Thelma Todd in Monkey Business (1931)

#vintage #old Hollywood #pre-Code #the Marx Brothers #1930s #Lucille Briggs #the gangster's wife #30s fashion #comedy film #pre code

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allweknewisdead · 5 months

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Dishonored (1931) - Josef von Sternberg

- What makes you think of death? - Was I thinking of death?

#dishonored #dishonored 1931 #josef von sternberg #marlene dietrich #cats in film #film #film still #quote #watched in st louis #criterion channel #pre code #pre-code

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ilovedamsels1962 · 2 months

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1930's

#1930's #pinup #pre-code #legs

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chaptertwo-thepacnw · 1 year

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shanghai express |1932|

#gif #shanghai express #marlene dietrich #josef von sternberg #1932 #pre-code #film #classic hollywood #black and white

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inthedarktrees · 9 months

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Film poster art by Alberto Vargas for The Sin of Nora Moran, 1933

#alberto vargas #the sin of nora moran #1930s #vintage #film poster #illustration #zita johann #movie poster #vintage movie posters #pre-code #photo restoration

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20th-century-man · 26 days

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Joan Blondell / publicity photo for Mervyn LeRoy's Gold Diggers of 1933.

#Joan Blondell #Gold Diggers of 1933 #Mervyn LeRoy #1933 #film #pre-code #1930s

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nine-frames · 5 months

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"You give such charming parties, Mr. Charles."

The Thin Man, 1936.

Dir. W.S. Van Dyke | Writ. Albert Hackett & Frances Goodrich | DOP James Wong Howe

#the thin man #w.s. van dyke #myrna loy #william powell #us film #1930s #pre-code #murder mystery #comedy mystery #10 frames

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hellostarrynightblr · 11 months

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Clark Gable and Jean Harlow in Hold Your Man (1933) dir. Sam Wood

#clark gable #jean harlow #1933 #1930s #30s #drama #romance #melodrama #pre-code #pre-code hollywood #oldhollywoodedit #classic hollywood #sam wood

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cladriteradio · 3 months

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Here are 10 things you should know about Cary Grant, born 120 years ago today. For many, he’s the ultimate Hollywood leading man, and who are we to argue?

#Cary Grant #old movies #classic film #Oscar nominees #classic movies #classic Hollywood #vaudeville #classic Broadway #precode #precode movies #pre-code #pre-code movies #british actors

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oh-sewing-circle · 1 year

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“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."

-From Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall by Richard Barrios