Pre-Code Hollywood

File:Sinsoftfocus.jpg

Clara Bow on the cover of Sin in Soft Focus, a book by Mark A. Vieira about pre-Code Hollywood.

Pre-Code films were created 1930-1934, before the Motion Picture Production Code or Hays Code was put into effect. Although there was an existing code of conduct for the film industry, many ignored it. Films from this period are very risque for the 1930's and could include sexual innuendos, references to homosexuality and illegal drug use, as well as women in their undergarments — which all were quite taboo at the time. Popular character roles include tough-talking, assertive women, gangsters, and prostitutes.

Many fans of Classical Hollywood cinema today prefer these pre-Code films for their audacious attitude toward conventional morality.

Popular pre-Code stars

• Joan Blondell
• Ann Dvorak
• Joan Crawford
• Clara Bow
• Barbara Stanwyck
• Humphrey Bogart
• Jean Harlow
• Kay Francis
• Warren William
• Dorothy McKaill
• Alice White
• Miriam Hopkins
• Evelyn Brent
• Ruth Chatterton
• Bert Wheeler
• Una Merkel
• Lee Tracy
• Anita Page
• Helen Twelvetrees
• Nancy Carroll
• Bette Davis
• Clark Gable
• Greta Garbo
• Allen Jenkins
• Norma Shearer
• Mae West

Notable pre-Code films

• Anna Christie (1930)
• The Blue Angel (1930)
• The Divorcée (1930)
• Hell's Angels (1930)
• Morocco (1930)
• Blonde Crazy (1931)
• The Easiest Way (1931)
• Frankenstein (1931)
• A Free Soul (1931)
• Little Caesar (1931)
• Night Nurse (1931)
• The Public Enemy (1931)
• The Smiling Lieutenant (1931)
• Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise) (1931)
• Blonde Venus (1932)
• Call Her Savage (1932)
• Dracula (1932)
• Freaks (1932)
• I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
• Rain (1932)
• Red Dust (1932)
• Red-Headed Woman (1932)
• Scarface (1932)
• Shanghai Express (1932)

• The Sign of the Cross (1932)
• Tarzan, the Ape Man (1932)
• Three on a Match (1932)
• Trouble in Paradise (1932)
• The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
• 42nd Street (1933)
• Baby Face (1933)
• Bombshell (1933)
• Christopher Strong (1933)
• Design for Living (1933)
• Dinner at Eight (1933)
• Employee's Entrance (1933)
• Female (1933)
• Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
• I'm No Angel (1933)
• King Kong (1933)
• Ladies They Talk About (1933)
• The Mayor of Hell (1933)
• Queen Christina (1933)
• Torch Singer (1933)
• Wild Boys of the Road (1933)
• Riptide (1934)
• The Scarlet Empress (1934)
• Tarzan and His Mate (1934)

External links

• The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930
• Pre-Code Film from Bright Lights Film Journal
• Sexual Classic Films, from Filmsite.org

Further reading

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