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Pre-Code Essentials: Must-See Cinema from Hollywood's Untamed Era, 1930-1934
From Turner Classic Movies and the creators of @precodedotcom, this is the essential film-by-film guide to must-see cinema from the pre-Code era-a wild and wonderful time in Hollywood history before strict enforcement of a censorship code that ruled moviemaking for decades.
With unparalleled freedom in the Golden Age of Hollywood, movies produced during the “pre-Code” era between 1930 and 1934 boldly confronted a wide range of provocative subjects, including sexual freedom, the glorification of outlaws, racial taboos, and class consciousness. Films of the period include beloved classics like Grand Hotel(1932) and King Kong(1933) but also lesser-known gems like I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang(1932) and Ann Vickers (1933). These films, produced at the height of the Great Depression, pushed the limits of contemporary social norms at a time when Hollywood studios were desperate to attract audiences-by any means necessary. Pre-Code Essentials invites modern readers to engage with that history while diving deep into movies that remain, as they were then, adventurous and uncompromising.
In their incisive text, film historians Kim Luperi and Danny Reid cover fifty films that take readers through the pre-Code era's evolution. Perfect for both pre-Code novices and film aficionados alike, the book is packed with detailed production and censorship histories, recommendations, and trivia. Famous names like Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, and Ernst Lubitsch get their due, while sidebars spotlight treasures of the period like Ann Dvorak, Joan Blondell, Paul Robeson, Nina Mae McKinney, Dorothy Arzner, Warren William, and Dolores De Rio. Post-Epilogue features discuss availability of the listed films and include the text of the 1930 Production Code. Production Code Administration records detailing correspondence between studios and censors, and more, Pre-Code Essentials is both a gorgeous guide and an indispensable resource of Hollywood history.
Among the films profiled: The Divorcee, All Quiet on the Western Front, Safe in Hell, Frankenstein, Shanghai Express, Freaks, Merrily We Go to Hell, Downstairs, Love Me Tonight, Trouble in Paradise, Three on a Match, The Sign of the Cross, Gabriel Over the White House, The Story of Temple Drake, The Emperor Jones, The Sin of Nora Moran, I Am Suzanne!, The Black Cat, Smarty, Murder at the Vanities, and many more
1146925076
Pre-Code Essentials: Must-See Cinema from Hollywood's Untamed Era, 1930-1934
From Turner Classic Movies and the creators of @precodedotcom, this is the essential film-by-film guide to must-see cinema from the pre-Code era-a wild and wonderful time in Hollywood history before strict enforcement of a censorship code that ruled moviemaking for decades.
With unparalleled freedom in the Golden Age of Hollywood, movies produced during the “pre-Code” era between 1930 and 1934 boldly confronted a wide range of provocative subjects, including sexual freedom, the glorification of outlaws, racial taboos, and class consciousness. Films of the period include beloved classics like Grand Hotel(1932) and King Kong(1933) but also lesser-known gems like I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang(1932) and Ann Vickers (1933). These films, produced at the height of the Great Depression, pushed the limits of contemporary social norms at a time when Hollywood studios were desperate to attract audiences-by any means necessary. Pre-Code Essentials invites modern readers to engage with that history while diving deep into movies that remain, as they were then, adventurous and uncompromising.
In their incisive text, film historians Kim Luperi and Danny Reid cover fifty films that take readers through the pre-Code era's evolution. Perfect for both pre-Code novices and film aficionados alike, the book is packed with detailed production and censorship histories, recommendations, and trivia. Famous names like Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, and Ernst Lubitsch get their due, while sidebars spotlight treasures of the period like Ann Dvorak, Joan Blondell, Paul Robeson, Nina Mae McKinney, Dorothy Arzner, Warren William, and Dolores De Rio. Post-Epilogue features discuss availability of the listed films and include the text of the 1930 Production Code. Production Code Administration records detailing correspondence between studios and censors, and more, Pre-Code Essentials is both a gorgeous guide and an indispensable resource of Hollywood history.
Among the films profiled: The Divorcee, All Quiet on the Western Front, Safe in Hell, Frankenstein, Shanghai Express, Freaks, Merrily We Go to Hell, Downstairs, Love Me Tonight, Trouble in Paradise, Three on a Match, The Sign of the Cross, Gabriel Over the White House, The Story of Temple Drake, The Emperor Jones, The Sin of Nora Moran, I Am Suzanne!, The Black Cat, Smarty, Murder at the Vanities, and many more
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Pre-Code Essentials: Must-See Cinema from Hollywood's Untamed Era, 1930-1934
From Turner Classic Movies and the creators of @precodedotcom, this is the essential film-by-film guide to must-see cinema from the pre-Code era-a wild and wonderful time in Hollywood history before strict enforcement of a censorship code that ruled moviemaking for decades.
With unparalleled freedom in the Golden Age of Hollywood, movies produced during the “pre-Code” era between 1930 and 1934 boldly confronted a wide range of provocative subjects, including sexual freedom, the glorification of outlaws, racial taboos, and class consciousness. Films of the period include beloved classics like Grand Hotel(1932) and King Kong(1933) but also lesser-known gems like I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang(1932) and Ann Vickers (1933). These films, produced at the height of the Great Depression, pushed the limits of contemporary social norms at a time when Hollywood studios were desperate to attract audiences-by any means necessary. Pre-Code Essentials invites modern readers to engage with that history while diving deep into movies that remain, as they were then, adventurous and uncompromising.
In their incisive text, film historians Kim Luperi and Danny Reid cover fifty films that take readers through the pre-Code era's evolution. Perfect for both pre-Code novices and film aficionados alike, the book is packed with detailed production and censorship histories, recommendations, and trivia. Famous names like Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, and Ernst Lubitsch get their due, while sidebars spotlight treasures of the period like Ann Dvorak, Joan Blondell, Paul Robeson, Nina Mae McKinney, Dorothy Arzner, Warren William, and Dolores De Rio. Post-Epilogue features discuss availability of the listed films and include the text of the 1930 Production Code. Production Code Administration records detailing correspondence between studios and censors, and more, Pre-Code Essentials is both a gorgeous guide and an indispensable resource of Hollywood history.
Among the films profiled: The Divorcee, All Quiet on the Western Front, Safe in Hell, Frankenstein, Shanghai Express, Freaks, Merrily We Go to Hell, Downstairs, Love Me Tonight, Trouble in Paradise, Three on a Match, The Sign of the Cross, Gabriel Over the White House, The Story of Temple Drake, The Emperor Jones, The Sin of Nora Moran, I Am Suzanne!, The Black Cat, Smarty, Murder at the Vanities, and many more
"With black-and white film stills and full-color posters, this addictively readable compendium will appeal to film aficionados and novices alike."—Susan Maguire, Booklist
"Lavishly illustrated and featuring laugh-out-loud commentary from Luperi and Reid, this is a must-read for classic film fans."—Sara Shreve, Library Journal
Kirkus Reviews
2025-08-02 The story of Hollywood cinema before censors cleaned up its act.
Even before 1934, when Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan ripped the gown off Maureen O’Sullivan’s Jane and tossed her, fully naked, into the lagoon inTarzan and His Mate, many observers were saying that “Hollywood has gone off the rails.” This was the pre-Code era, when nudity, Greta Garbo kissing a woman on the mouth inQueen Christina (1933), and other supposed affronts to decency led to demands for censorship from the federal government. In response, Hollywood adopted the Motion Picture Production Code in 1930 but didn’t enforce it until 1934, when it hired Joseph Breen to head the Production Code Administration. For this immensely entertaining book, Luperi and Reid have gathered 50 films from 1930 to 1934, “strikingly brazen, authentic stories of sexuality, female agency, class, politics, and beyond”—all elements that censors wanted to suppress. Many of the films are famous, among them the originalFrankenstein (1931), which censors cited for its “implicit discussion of God and violating the sanctities of life,” andRed Dust (1932), featuring “a love triangle between a married woman, a prostitute, and a conniving, sweaty plantation owner in 1930s French Indochina.” Others are more obscure, such asI Am Suzanne! (1933), “an oddball musical/body horror film,” andMurder at the Vanities (1934), featuring a song called “Sweet Marijuana.” As the authors write, “Really, you can’t get much more pre-Code than an entire song devoted to drugs.” One great entry after another are examples of unchanging mores. In a classic example of ’twas-ever-thus, censors had less of a problem with the violence inAll Quiet on the Western Front (1930) than with the nonsexual nudity, with boards condemning not the carnage but soldiers “swimming in the raw for ‘unduly exposing themselves.’”
An excellent cinema book on the permissive early days of sound.
