TCM Schedule for Friday, September 12, 2014 -- Friday Night Spotlight - Classic Pre-Code

[Staph]

It's another day of pre-code films. It's interesting to me how much more liberated the women seem to be in these days before the strict enforcement of the Hayes Code. The Code was truly a setback to the women's movement. Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- The Naughty Flirt (1931)
A flighty heiress goes to work as a secretary to win the straitlaced man she loves.
Dir: Edward Cline
Cast: Alice White, Paul Page, Myrna Loy
BW-56 mins,

Completed in mid-1930, reviewed in Photoplay Magazine October 1930 (on the newstands in September), and copyrighted in December 1930, release was delayed until January 1931.


7:00 AM -- Ten Cents A Dance (1931)
A taxi dancer with a jealous husband finds herself falling for a wealthy client.
Dir: Lionel Barrymore
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Ricardo Cortez, Monroe Owsley
BW-77 mins, CC,

Lionel Barrymore's last credited round as a film director.


8:18 AM -- Henry Santry And His Soldiers Of Fortune (1931)
In this musical short film, Henry Santry and his band perform such popular songs as "Soldiers of Fortune" and "If I Could Be with You." Vitaphone Release 1128.
Dir: Roy Mack
BW-10 mins,


8:30 AM -- When Ladies Meet (1933)
A female novelist doesn't realize her new friend is the wife whose husband she's trying to steal.
Dir: Harry Beaumont
Cast: Ann Harding, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy
BW-85 mins, CC,

Nominated
Oscar Best Art Direction
Cedric Gibbons

Remade in 1941 with Joan Crawford as Mary (played by Myrna Loy in this version), Greer Garson as Claire (Ann Harding), and Robert Taylor as Jimmy (Robert Montgomery).


10:00 AM -- Double Harness (1933)
After tricking a playboy into marriage, a woman sets out to win his love honestly.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: Ann Harding, William Powell, Lucile Browne
BW-69 mins, CC,

This film hadn't been shown for decades and was found in a Merian C. Cooper collection that had been used for television. A 2-1/2-minute sequence that had been cut from the print was located in a French negative discovered in the National Center for Cinematography in France and restored to the print. The brief segment had been cut for television because it indicated that the characters of "Joan Colby" and "John Fletcher" were having pre-marital sex.


11:15 AM -- For the Defense (1930)
An attorney, who specializes in springing criminals out of prison, is faced with a moral dilemma when his girlfriend drunkenly kills a pedestrian with her car and another man takes the blame.
Dir: John Cromwell
Cast: William Powell, Kay Francis, Scott Kolk
BW-63 mins, CC,

This was a surprise hit for Paramount. A quickie, it was shot in a mere 15 days and its success immeasurably helped director John Cromwell's career.


12:30 PM -- Union Depot (1932)
An out-of-luck con artist discovers a suitcase full of money at a train station.
Dir: Alfred E. Green
Cast: Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joan Blondell, Guy Kibbee
BW-67 mins,

Unlike the films of the period, "Union Depot" displays its credits at the end, not the beginning.


1:45 PM -- Mary Stevens, M.D. (1933)
A woman doctor decides to have a baby without benefit of marriage.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon
Cast: Kay Francis, Lyle Talbot, Glenda Farrell
BW-72 mins,

Based on a story by Virginia Kellogg. She was later nominated for writing Oscars for two gangster dramas, White Heat (1949) and Caged (1950).


3:00 PM -- The Age of Consent (1932)
College co-eds learns to handle the responsibilities of romance.
Dir: Gregory LaCava
Cast: Dorothy Wilson, Arline Judge, Richard Cromwell
BW-63 mins, CC,

The play Cross Roads, by Martin Flavin, opened in New York City, New York, USA, on 11 November 1929 and had 28 performances. In the cast were Sylvia Sidney, Franchot Tone and Dennie Moore.


4:07 PM -- Beau Hunks (1931)
After being dumped by his girlfriend, Oliver makes Laurel join the Foreign Legion with him in this comedic short.
BW-37 mins, CC,

In the slang of the time "Bohunk", a conflation of "Bohemian" and "Hungarian", was a very pejorative term for a person (almost always a male). The title is a play on this word as well as a reference to "Beau Geste." Also, sometimes "Bohunk" was reduced to "hunk"; so to call a man a hunk was not a compliment.


4:45 PM -- Bombshell (1933)
A glamorous film star rebels against the studio, her pushy press agent and a family of hangers-on.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Jean Harlow, Lee Tracy, Frank Morgan
BW-96 mins, CC,

Although based on the life of Clara Bow, many elements of the story also matched Jean Harlow's own life. Harlow grew up in a Georgian home with white interiors, had nine large dogs, and some members of her family exploited her celebrity.


6:30 PM -- Red-Headed Woman (1932)
An ambitious secretary tries to sleep her way into high society.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Jean Harlow, Chester Morris, Lewis Stone
BW-80 mins, CC,

Jean Harlow's first line is "So gentlemen prefer blondes, do they?" which was written by Anita Loos for the movie. Loos' most famous work was the 1925 novel "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes".



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: FRIDAY NIGHT SPOTLIGHT: CLASSIC PRE-CODE



8:00 PM -- Red Dust (1932)
A plantation overseer in Indochina is torn between a married woman and a lady of the evening.
Dir: Victor Fleming
Cast: Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Gene Raymond
BW-83 mins, CC,

During filming of the famous rainbarrel sequence, Jean Harlow reportedly stood up - topless - and called out something along the lines of "one for the boys in the lab!" Director Victor Fleming quickly removed the film from the camera to prevent any footage from reaching the black market.


9:30 PM -- Design For Living (1933)
An independent woman can't chose between the two men she loves.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Fredric March, Gary Cooper, Miriam Hopkins
BW-91 mins, CC,

Gary Cooper spoke fluent French and was able to use it for the first time in this film.


11:15 PM -- Trouble in Paradise (1932)
A love triangle ignites trouble between two jewel theives and their intended victim.
Dir: Ernst Lubitsch
Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Kay Francis, Herbert Marshall
BW-82 mins, CC,

This movie was popular both with critics and with audiences, but was made before the enforcement of the production code. After 1935, it was withdrawn from circulation and was not seen again until 1968. The film was never available on videocassette and only became available on DVD in 2003.


12:45 AM -- Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1932)
Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of a scientist who unleashes the beast within.
Dir: Rouben Mamoulian
Cast: Fredric March, Miriam Hopkins, Rose Hobart
BW-96 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Fredric March (Tied with Wallace Beery for The Champ (1931).)

Nominated for Oscars for Best Writing, Adaptation -- Percy Heath and Samuel Hoffenstein, and Best Cinematography -- Karl Struss

The remarkable Jekyll-to-Hyde transition scenes in this film were accomplished by manipulating a series of variously colored filters in front of the camera lens. Fredric March's Hyde makeup was in various colors, and the way his appearance registered on the film depended on which color filter was being shot through. During the first transformation scene, the accompanying noises on the soundtrack included portions of Bach, a gong being played backwards, and, reportedly, a recording of director Rouben Mamoulian's own heart. Only in the late 1960's did Mamoulian reveal how they were done.


2:30 AM -- The Story of Temple Drake (1933)
A society girl gets mixed up with blackmail and murder after a vicious sexual assault.
Dir: Stephen Roberts
Cast: Miriam Hopkins, William Gargan, Jack La Rue
BW-71 mins, CC,

Paramount originally assigned George Raft to play Trigger, but he refused the part. Raft said playing such a revolting character would ruin his reputation and finish his career. The very public dispute nearly did end his contract, but Paramount relented and gave the part to Jack La Rue.


3:45 AM -- Freaks (1932)
A lady trapeze artist violates the code of the side show when she plots to murder her midget husband.
Dir: Tod Browning
Cast: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova
BW-62 mins, CC,

F. Scott Fitzgerald was a member of the MGM writing department at the time the movie was in production. He never felt quite at home with all the movie stars and powerful moguls, and so he often dined in the commissary at the table of the sideshow attractions (freaks) during his lunch hour.


5:00 AM -- Jewel Robbery (1932)
A jewel thief falls for a tycoon's wife in Vienna.
Dir: William Dieterle
Cast: William Powell, Kay Francis, Helen Vinson
BW-68 mins, CC,

Based on the Hungarian play Ekszerrablás a Váci-uccában by Ladislas Fodor (copyrighted 26 Aug 1931) and on the following Broadway production: Jewel Robbery (1932); Comedy, adapted by Bertram Bloch; directed and produced by Paul Streger. Booth Theatre: 13 Jan 1932- Feb 1932 (closing date unknown/54 performances). Cast: Lionel Braham (as "Lenz&quot , Stuart Casey, Clarence Derwent (as "Franz&quot , Mary Ellis, Harold Johnsrud, Hazel Nagley, Eugene Powers, Frederick Roland, Louis M. Simon, Basil Sydney, Robert Vivian, Cora Witherspoon (as "Marianne&quot .