Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood

"Wittily [written]. . . . The examination of women's roles in pre-Code and present-day films is sophisticated and provocative." —Entertainment Weekly

In the pre-code Hollywood era between 1929 and 1934, women in American cinema took lovers, had babies out of wedlock, got rid of cheating husbands, enjoyed their sexuality, led unapologetic careers and, in general, acted the way many think women only acted after 1968.

Before then, women on screen had come in two varieties—good or bad—sweet ingen...