Simon Edward Everett Horton Doris / Julia Patsy Ruth Miller Easter Louise Beavers Released by Warner Bros. | Directed by Archie Mayo Run time: 69 minutes Proof That It’s a Pre-Code Film “I never spoiled a reputation in my life– male or female!” Simon’s maid, a black woman named Easter, Read more
Madeline / Shanghai Lily Marlene Dietrich Doctor Harvey Clive Brook Hui Fei Anna May Wong Henry Chang Warner Oland Sam Salt Eugene Pallatte Mr. Carmichael Lawrence Grant Released by Paramount Pictures | Directed by Josef Von Sternberg Run time: 83 minutes Proof That It’s a Pre-Code Film This film’s most Read more
Captain Carson Richard Dix Natascha Gwili Andre Busby Edward Everett Horton Arline Judge Hortense O’Dare Gabby Zasu Pitts Voronsky C. Henry Gordon Released by RKO | Directed by Wesley Ruggles Run time: 70 minutes Proof That It’s a Pre-Code Film We’re introduced to the film’s villain as he seers closed Read more
Chandu Edmund Lowe Princess Nadji Irene Ware Roxor Bela Lugosi Released by Fox Film | Directed by William Cameron Menzies & Marcel Varnel Proof That It’s Pre-Code Death rays! … wait, that’s not exclusive to the early 1930s? Lots of mysticism and indulging in the mystics. One not particularly effective Read more
Duke Ellis Richard Dix Johnny Ellis Tom Brown C. Henry Gordon Skinner Released by RKO | Directed by Rowland Brown Proof That It’s Pre-Code One convict had been married– to three wives at the same time. The cook is a homosexual. One guard’s wife is having an affair– and pays Read more
Flo Helen Twelvetrees Babe Robert Armstrong McTeague Charles Bickford Released by Fox Pathe | Directed by Ryan Murphy Proof That It’s Pre-Code Drinking and speakeasies. Everyone is after Flo’s virtue. Or if they haven’t got it, they don’t believe she still has it. Not the nicest portrayal of South American Read more
Released by Pinnacle | Directed by Marshall Neilan Chloe, Love is Calling You: Hang Up, Dear. “Give me two bits and I’ll tell your fortune. […] High water… sticks and stones… about a mad gal with a great big home. Find a room in the swamp… the roots of evil. Read more
Good Guy John Preston Bad Guy Eugene Sigaloff Woman Mae Stuart Released by Far Eastern Films | Directed by Harry Garson Proof That It’s Pre-Code Our villainous, nigh-incomprehensibly-accented villain plans to vivisect an orangutan! To show the world that all these things he thinks about evolution are true! And he’s Read more
Bill Wescott Wallace Reid Jr. King Kelly Paul Fix Marian Martin Phyllis Barington Released by Willis Kent Productions | Directed by Jerome Storm Proof That It’s Pre-Code “Bull.” Marian has a Japanese chauffeur who she constantly calls an idiot. Our hero jokes to him, “We ought to be good friends. Read more
Marvin Blake Richard Barthelmess Betty Wright Dorothy Jordan Madge Bette Davis Released by Warner Brothers | Directed by Michael Curtiz Proof That It’s Pre-Code “That girl ain’t got a bit of a soul, she ain’t. But she sure got a body. Some body.” A fade out hints that Madge slipped Read more