Pre-Code Hollywood

(1946) The Blue Dhalia Johnny comes home from the navy and ends up suspected of murdering his unfaithful wife. - Alan Ladd - Veronica Lake

(1944) Murder, My Sweet After being hired to find an ex-con's former girlfriend, Philip Marlowe is drawn into a deeply complex web of mystery and deceit. - Dick Powell - Claire Trevor - Anne Shirley This movie pushed the censor right to the edge. Humphrey Bogart wasn't the only actor to play Philip Marlowe - indeed, he wasn't even the best at portraying the private eye, but Lauren Bacall had the Hollywood connections, so it's the Bogart movies we all know... ...but Dick Powell's Marlowe is arguably more authentic to how he was originally written, which could be in no small way thanks to Raymond Chandler helping with the screenplay of this movie.

(1944) Double Indemnity An insurance salesman falls for a seductive housewife and agrees a murder/insurance fraud scheme that arouses the suspicion of an insurance investigator. - Barbara Stanwyck - Fred MacMurray A masterful piece of work, demonstrating that Film Noir was more than just another B-movie.

(1942) This Gun For Hire When assassin Philip Raven shoots a blackmailer and his beautiful female companion dead, he is paid off in marked bills by his treasonous employer who is working with foreign spies. - Veronica Lake - Alan Ladd This is one of THE defining Noir movies - many Noir movies after this copied a lot of the filming techniques, not to mention setting the bar with the doomed nature of the predicament.

(1953) The Big Heat Dave Bannion is an upright cop on the trail of a vicious gang he suspects holds power over the police force. One of my favourite Film Noir movies - great cast, good story, great performances... the bad guys are suitably nasty, something that is not always conveyed in earlier Noir movies. Directed by Fritz Lang (yes, the same guy that did Metropolis in 1927!)

I'm thinking of adding more film noir stuff from the 40's and 50's... ...I do still have pre-code stuff I haven't shared yet, but the picture quality is pretty terrible on some of it and others are simply crappy movies.

(1947) Framed Mike Lambert, seeking a mining job, instead becomes the patsy for a femme-fatale's schemes. OK, so it's not pre-code, but I find it hard to imagine you'd like pre-code and not like noir, so here we go. - Glenn Ford... Mike Lambert - Janis Carter... Paula Craig

CHANNEL UPDATE - With 'Cult Classics' closed down and many of you unable to access 'Guilty Pleasures', my main channels will now be Cryptex and CrypteXXX as described below (I will be migrating movies previously uploaded to 'Guilty Pleasures' in due course). When browsing and you see something you don't want to watch, please simply scroll past it until you find something you do want to watch i.e. please don't be a dumbass and report something just because you don't like it - I will not be creating any new channels if anything happens to these ones. CrypteX - Cult Classics and mainstream Hollywood https://t.me/joinchat/omcr5H3lJQtiOGQ0 CrypteXXX - WARNING:18+ Content - soft and hard erotica https://t.me/joinchat/j1-tVfcdtSE5MDY0 Hard Men - Action Movies https://t.me/joinchat/SB4YFPgUF7coApS9 Pre-Code Hollywood https://t.me/joinchat/U-iZCnjiyU2VC_N- Civilisation, History & Politics (where I occasionally make my own videos YouTube style as well as share documentaries etc) https://t.me/jabbasoapbox

(1933) The Little Giant Comedy - When Prohibition ends, a beer baron sees the writing on the wall, quits the rackets, and tries to break into California society.

(1933) Ecstasy Eva has just gotten married to an older gentleman. She leaves him and one day, she meets a young man and they fall in love. Fate brings the husband together with the young lover that has taken Eva from him. This film was pretty much forbidden due to the skinny-dipping scene and Hedy Lamarr's naked dash across a field - the legend goes that a clip is still missing, but what was true was that this movie was played at private parties, especially after Hedy Lamarr became a huge star.

I'm going to take a short break for a couple of days before uploading anything else... ...at this point i'm thinking I'll still post to my other remaining channels but will also upload a backup hto CrypteX. I might actually back up everything from other channels to Cryptex at some point, but I need a quick breather first 😉 CrypteX Channel - https://t.me/joinchat/omcr5H3lJQtiOGQ0

As a general tip for people not used to this sort of thing... If you don't know the movie name for a file posted in the CrypteX channel, then try this - - right-click the movie thumbnail and select 'save as'. This will bring up the save option and you will see the filename, which I have already made the movie name. - copy/paste the movie name into Google to see if it's a movie you might be interested in. .

Just a wee update... around half way there at the moment - that's a lot of stuff that was in that channel 😉 You can take a peek now if you want, or wait until it's done... when I'm up to date, I might simply use it for all new uploads too. https://t.me/joinchat/omcr5H3lJQtiOGQ0

I've just made this channel private. As far as I'm aware, this should not affect existing members.

Telegram have informed me that they have received a complaint about my Cult Movies channel for breaching copyright... ...this is from the Motion Picture Association, who represent all the big studios and streaming companies in USA. So effective immediately, Cult Classics channel is dead. Nothing has been said about any other channels, but obviously it might be advisable to review the collection here and take a note of any you may want for you own collections.

(1929) The Manxman Hitchock's silent classic - A fisherman and a rising young lawyer, who grew up as brothers, fall in love with the same girl. Silent movies are not usually considered as pre-code movies, they usually just mean talkies before late 1934... but here we have a love triangle, a baby, and an ending the censors would have demanded be changed had this been made after 1934. - Anny Ondra... Kate Cregeen - Carl Brisson... Pete Quilliam - Malcolm Keen... Philip Christian - Randle Ayrton... Caesar Cregeen https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020142/

(1933) The Story of Temple Drake Temple Drake is a Southern belle who leads men on with her sexuality but usually leaves them wanting. One night she finds herself trapped in the hideout of a gang of vicious bootleggers. The gang leader lusts after her, and is determined not to let anything stand in the way of his having her. Here it is - the movie that made the censors panic. - Miriam Hopkins... Temple Drake - William Gargan... Stephen Benbow - Jack La Rue... Trigger - Florence Eldridge... Ruby - Irving Pichel... Lee https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024617/

The Story of Temple Drake (1933) Back with a bang - I finally have Temple Drake in HD - probably the most controversial movie of the pre-code era, albeit the fully uncensored version has been lost. The huge controversy was a rape that takes place - even although it happens off-camera, it was still very harrowing for audiences. The censors insisted certain scenes be re-shot entirely, along with removal of references to brothels (Temple Drake was made to stay in a brothel by her rapist) and the main character being called "a little chippy" (a slut). While the actual rape happened off-camera, the original showed the rapist reaching for a corn cob before fading out and he was seen closely examining it in the next scene... ...in the book that the movie was based upon, he raped her then abused her orifices with a corn cob. These demands were made by the censors in 1933 i.e. this was too much even for the pre-code days. When pre-code ended in late 1934, the censor decided the movie was simply too much for public morals and banned it completely... ...only being available again as recently as 2011. The dubious moral outrage aside, Miriam Hopkins delivers a sensational performance, and the final scene might just bring a tear to the eye because it holds up as a great drama.

Just got back from hospital... after a series of tests, I got discharged with a box of antibiotics. Funny thing is that it feels like an anti-climax, and yet logically I should be glad it's not as serious as it might have been. I will be continuing with uploads as and when I can - but my scheduling might remain out of whack for a little while still.

(1937) Topper A fun-loving couple, finding that they died and are now ghosts, decide to shake up the stuffy lifestyle of a colleague. Rather well done comedy drama. While not pre-code, they did a fine job of injecting a "scandalous" flirtation with a ghost rather than normal infidelity. - Cary Grant... George Kerby - Constance Bennett... Marion Kerby - Roland Young... Cosmo Topper - Billie Burke... Clara Topper https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029682/