Pre-Code

As part of my continuing obsession with all things pre-code Hollywood, I rented Universal's Pre-Code Hollywood Collection from Netflix. (Actually, these are all films from Paramount, which ended up under Universal's control through a series of corporate transactions in the 1950s and 1960s.) What a disappointment.

Even The Cheat — in which a compulsive gambler (Tallulah Bankhead) turns to a wealthy businessman to repay her debts, only to be branded (literally!) with the man's mark and declared his property — was never able to find a way to build on the outrageousness of that act. (That said, I recently saw the silent film version of the same story, from about twenty years earlier, and it wasn't all that much more successful.)

It shouldn't have come as a surprise, I suppose. I've rarely seen any other studio put such melodrama, blatant sexuality, and often shocking violence — for that era, anyway — to such thoroughly entertaining use. MGM's films are beautiful to look at, but with rare exception (I've just been watching one of them, The Big House) most seem tame by comparison. These films from Paramount are just dull.

A better bet is any of Turner Classic Movies Forbidden Hollywood Collections. Most are films from Warner Bros., with a few from MGM, with some terrific documentaries included. There are wonderful surprises there, just waiting to be discovered.