List of pre-Code films

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pre-Code Hollywood is the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound (talkies) in the late 1920s[1] and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code) censorship guidelines. Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor and it did not become effectively enforced until July 1, 1934. Before that date, movie content was restricted more by local laws, negotiations between the Studio Relations Committee (SRC) and the major studios, and popular opinion than strict adherence to the Hays Code, which was often ignored by Hollywood filmmakers.

The criterion for inclusion on this list is the direct mention or discussion of the film as pre-Code in a mainstream source.

Movies[]

1928[]

1929[]

1930[]

1931[]

1932[]

A screen shot from the trailer for 1932's Murders in the Rue Morgue. The ape Erik enters Camille's room, with the shadow of his hand appearing over her head. What follows has been dubbed "interspecies miscegenation" by film historian Thomas Doherty.[6]
  • 20,000 Years in Sing Sing
  • Afraid to Talk
  • After Tomorrow
  • The Age of Consent
  • Air Mail
  • Alias the Doctor
  • American Madness
  • Attorney for the Defense
  • The Animal Kingdom
  • Are You Listening?
  • Arsène Lupin
  • As You Desire Me
  • Bachelor's Affairs
  • Back Street
  • The Beast of the City
  • The Big Broadcast
  • Big City Blues
  • The Big Timer
  • A Bill of Divorcement
  • Bird of Paradise
  • Blessed Event
  • Blonde Venus
  • Blondie of the Follies
  • Broken Lullaby
  • The Cabin in the Cotton
  • Call Her Savage
  • Central Park
  • The Crash
  • The Crowd Roars
  • Cynara
  • The Dark Horse
  • The Devil is Driving
  • Devil and the Deep
  • Disorderly Conduct
  • Divorce in the Family
  • Doctor X[5]
  • Downstairs
  • Emma
  • Faithless
  • The Famous Ferguson Case
  • A Farewell to Arms
  • Fast Life
  • The First Year
  • Flesh
  • Forbidden
  • Freaks
  • Frisco Jenny
  • Girl Crazy
  • The Girl from Chicago
  • Grand Hotel
  • The Greeks Had a Word for Them
  • The Half-Naked Truth
  • The Hatchet Man[7]
  • The Heart of New York
  • Hell's Highway
  • Hell's House
  • High Pressure
  • Hold 'Em Jail
  • Horse Feathers
  • Hot Saturday
  • I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang
  • If I Had a Million
  • Impatient Maiden
  • Island of Lost Souls[8]
  • It's Tough to Be Famous
  • Jewel Robbery
  • The Kid from Spain
  • Klondike
  • Kongo
  • Lady and Gent
  • Lady with a Past
  • The Last Mile (1932 film)
  • Lawyer Man
  • Letty Lynton
  • Life Begins
  • The Lost Squadron
  • Love Affair
  • Love Is a Racket
  • Love Me Tonight
  • Madame Butterfly
  • Madame Racketeer
  • Man Wanted
  • The Man Who Played God
  • The Mask of Fu Manchu[8]
  • The Match King
  • Me and My Gal
  • Men of Chance
  • Merrily We Go to Hell
  • Million Dollar Legs
  • The Miracle Man
  • Mr. Robinson Crusoe
  • The Most Dangerous Game
  • The Mouthpiece
  • The Mummy
  • Murders in the Rue Morgue
  • New Morals for Old
  • Night After Night
  • Night World
  • No Man of Her Own
  • No More Orchids
  • No One Man
  • The Old Dark House
  • Old Morals for New[9]
  • One Hour with You
  • One Way Passage
  • Panama Flo
  • Payment Deferred
  • The Penguin Pool Murder
  • The Phantom President
  • Polly of the Circus
  • Prestige
  • Probation
  • The Purchase Price
  • Rain
  • Rasputin and the Empress
  • Red Dust
  • Red-Headed Woman[9]
  • The Rich Are Always with Us
  • Roar of the Dragon
  • Rockabye
  • Scarface
  • Scarlet Dawn
  • Shanghai Express
  • Shopworn[9]
  • The Sign of the Cross
  • The Silent Witness
  • Silver Dollar
  • Sinners in the Sun
  • Sky Devils
  • Skyscraper Souls
  • Smilin' Through
  • So Big!
  • Speak Easily
  • The Sport Parade
  • State's Attorney
  • Strange Interlude
  • Strange Justice[10]
  • The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
  • A Successful Calamity
  • Symphony of Six Million
  • Tarzan the Ape Man[11]
  • Taxi!
  • Ten Minutes to Live
  • Tess of the Storm Country
  • That's My Boy
  • Thirteen Women
  • The Thirteenth Guest
  • This Is the Night
  • This Reckless Age
  • Three on a Match
  • Three Wise Girls
  • Trouble in Paradise
  • Two Against the World
  • Two Kinds of Women
  • Vanity Fair
  • Virtue
  • The Washington Masquerade
  • Week-End Marriage
  • Week Ends Only
  • Westward Passage
  • The Wet Parade
  • What Price Hollywood
  • White Zombie
  • Wild Girl
  • The Wiser Sex
  • Winner Take All
  • You Said a Mouthful
  • Young America

1933[]

Barbara Stanwyck in the trailer for the 1933 film Baby Face. Movies in the Pre-Code era were frequently marketed with suggestive tag lines like this one for a picture in which Stanwyck sleeps her way up the corporate ladder of a New York bank.

1934[]

  • A Very Honorable Guy
  • The Affairs of Cellini
  • All of Me
  • Bachelor Bait
  • The Barretts of Wimpole Street
  • Bedside
  • Belle of the Nineties
  • The Big Shakedown
  • The Black Cat
  • Black Moon[8]
  • Bolero
  • Born to Be Bad
  • Bottoms Up
  • The Captain Hates the Sea
  • Carolina
  • The Cat and the Fiddle
  • Chained
  • Change of Heart
  • Chloe, Love Is Calling You
  • The Circus Clown
  • Cleopatra
  • The Crime Doctor
  • Dames
  • Dark Hazard
  • Death Takes a Holiday
  • Dr. Monica
  • Evelyn Prentice
  • Fashions of 1934
  • Finishing School
  • Fog Over Frisco
  • Forsaking All Others
  • Four Frightened People
  • Fugitive Lovers
  • Gambling Lady
  • The Gay Bride
  • The Gay Divorcee
  • George White's Scandals
  • The Girl from Missouri
  • Hat, Coat, and Glove
  • Heat Lightning
  • He Was Her Man
  • Here Comes the Navy
  • Hide-Out
  • Hi Nellie!
  • Hips, Hips, Hooray!
  • Hollywood Party
  • The House of Rothschild
  • I Sell Anything
  • Imitation of Life
  • It Happened One Night
  • I've Got Your Number
  • Jimmy the Gent
  • Journal of a Crime
  • Keep 'Em Rolling
  • Lady by Choice
  • Laughing Boy
  • Lazy River
  • The Life of Vergie Winters
  • Liliom
  • Little Man, What Now?
  • Little Miss Marker
  • Long Lost Father
  • The Lost Patrol
  • The Man with Two Faces
  • Mandalay
  • Madame Du Barry
  • Maniac
  • Manhattan Love Song
  • Manhattan Melodrama
  • Massacre
  • Men in White
  • The Merry Widow
  • Midnight
  • Midnight Alibi
  • A Modern Hero
  • Moulin Rouge
  • Murder at the Vanities
  • Murder on the Blackboard
  • The Mystery of Mr. X
  • Nana
  • No Greater Glory
  • Now I'll Tell
  • Of Human Bondage
  • Once to Every Woman
  • One More River
  • Operator 13
  • The Painted Veil
  • Palooka
  • The Personality Kid
  • The Richest Girl in the World
  • Riptide
  • The Road to Ruin
  • Sadie McKee
  • The Scarlet Empress
  • Search for Beauty
  • She Loves Me Not
  • She Made Her Bed
  • The Show-Off
  • Side Streets
  • Sing and Like It
  • Six of a Kind
  • Smarty
  • Social Register
  • Spitfire
  • Stamboul Quest
  • Stand Up and Cheer!
  • Stingaree
  • Strictly Dynamite
  • Success at Any Price
  • Tarzan and His Mate[11]
  • The Thin Man
  • Thirty Day Princess
  • This Man Is Mine
  • Tomorrow's Children
  • The Trumpet Blows
  • Twentieth Century
  • Twenty Million Sweethearts
  • Two Alone
  • Upper World
  • A Very Honorable Guy
  • Viva Villa!
  • We're Not Dressing
  • We're Rich Again
  • West of the Divide
  • Wharf Angel
  • Where Sinners Meet
  • The Woman Condemned
  • Wonder Bar

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ LaSalle (2002). pg.1
  2. ^ a b Doherty. pg. 255
  3. ^ Doherty. pg. 193
  4. ^ Doherty. pg. 254
  5. ^ a b c Doherty. pg. 297
  6. ^ Doherty. pg. 305
  7. ^ Doherty. pg. 269
  8. ^ a b c Doherty. pg. 298
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Doherty. pg. 132
  10. ^ a b Doherty. pg. 253
  11. ^ a b Doherty. pg. 257
  12. ^ a b c d Vieira. pg. 130
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Vieira. pg. 133
  14. ^ a b Vieira. pg. 131
  15. ^ Doherty. pg. 27

Sources[]

  • Doherty, Thomas Patrick. Pre-Code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930-1934. New York: Columbia University Press 1999. ISBN 0-231-11094-4
  • Jacobs, Lea. The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman Film, 1928-1942. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press 1997 ISBN 0-520-20790-4
  • Jeff, Leonard L, & Simmons, Jerold L. The Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and the Production Code. The University Press of Kentucky 2001 ISBN 0-8131-9011-8
  • LaSalle, Mick. Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood. New York: St. Martin's Press 2000 ISBN 0-312-25207-2
  • LaSalle, Mick. Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man. New York: Thomas Dunne Books 2002 ISBN 0-312-28311-3
  • Leitch, Thomas. Crime Films. Cambridge University Press 2004 ISBN 0-511-04028-8
  • Lewis, Jen. Hollywood V. Hard Core: How the Struggle Over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry. NYU Press 2002 ISBN 0-8147-5142-3
  • Prince, Stephen. Classical Film Violence: Designing and Regulating Brutality in Hollywood Cinema, 1930-1968. Rutgers University Press 2003 ISBN 0-8135-3281-7
  • Smith, Sarah. Children, Cinema and Censorship: From Dracula to the Dead End Kids. Wiley-Blackwell 2005 ISBN 1-4051-2027-4
  • Vieira, Mark A. Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1999. ISBN 0-8109-8228-5

External links[]

Retrieved from ""