Pre-Code Hollywood

(1934) The Black Cat American honeymooners in Hungary become trapped in the home of a Satan-worshiping priest when the bride is taken there for medical help following a road accident. - Boris Karloff... Hjalmar Poelzig - Bela Lugosi... Dr Vitus Werdegast - Jacqueline Wells/Julie Bishop... Joan Alison - Egon Brecher... The Majordomo - Harry Cording... Thamal - Lucille Lund... Karen https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024894/

(1933) The Invisible Man A scientist finds a way of becoming invisible, but in doing so, he becomes murderously insane. This movie set new standards in special effects, or as they called it in those days, trick photography. - Claude Rains... Dr Jack Griffin (the invisible man) - Gloria Stuart... Flora Cranley - Henry Travers... Dr Cranley https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024184/

(1933) Vampire Bat When corpses drained of blood begin to show up in a European village, vampirism is suspected to be responsible. - Lionel Atwill... Dr Otto von Niemann - Fay Wray... Ruth Bertin - Melvyn Douglas... Karl Brettschneider - Maude Eburne... Aunt Gussie - George E. Stone... Kringen https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024727/

(1932) Island of Lost Souls An obsessed scientist conducts profane experiments in evolution, eventually establishing himself as the self-styled demigod to a race of mutated, half-human abominations. A masterpiece of the macabre - often copied, rarely surpassed... the mood and the tension mostly due to the performance of Charles Laughton as a menacing Dr Moreau. Also not forgetting that this is the movie that gave us the immortal line "the natives... they are restless tonight". - Charles Laughton... Dr Moreau - Richard Arlen... Edward Parker - Leila Hyams... Ruth Thomas - Bela Lugosi... Sayer of the Law - Kathleen Burke... The Panther Woman https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024188/

(1932) The Mummy A resurrected Egyptian mummy stalks a beautiful woman he believes to be the reincarnation of his lover and bride. I would call this the first "complete" horror movie because it contains all the elements... solving mysteries, the supernatural, mind control, damsel in distress, and not forgetting the tragedy of love. - Boris Karloff... Imhotep - Zita Johann... Helen Grosvenor - David Manners... Frank Whemple - Arthur Byron... Sir John Whemple - Noble Johnson... The Nubian - Bramwell Fletcher... Ralph Norton https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023245/

(1932) White Zombie A young man turns to a witch doctor to lure the woman he loves away from her fiancé, but instead turns her into a zombie slave. The tacit implication with mind control is always to ask "what would you get her to do?" but never explicitly said... and careful what you wish for. - Bela Lugosi... 'Murder' Legendre - Madge Bellamy... Madeline Short Parker - Joseph Cawthorn... Dr Bruner - Robert Frazer... Charles Beaumont - John Harron... Neil Parker https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023694/

(1932) Freaks A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance. Oh boy, the world was not ready for this daring piece of work. Tod Browning, fresh from the success of directing Dracula the year before, went from hero to zero as Freaks got banned for being too extreme. The story itself was not so bad, but it was the use of real sideshow/freakshow attractions that many found too troublesome to stomach. - Wallace Ford... Phroso - Leila Hyams... Venus - Olga Baclanova... Cleopatra - Henry Victor... Hercules - The "Freaks"... (too numerous to list individually) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022913/

(1931) Dracula The ancient vampire Count Dracula arrives in England and begins to prey upon the virtuous young Mina. I must confess that I prefer the silent classic Nosferatu much better, but Bela Lugosi's Count Dracula nevertheless deserves its place in the cult classics. - Bela Lugosi... Count Dracula - Helen Chandler... Mina - David Manners... John Harker - Dwight Frye... Renfield - Frances Dade... Lucy https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021814/

(1931) Frankenstein An obsessed scientist assembles a living being from parts of exhumed corpses. Pre-code also gave rise to the horror movie. The controversy was not always what was visually portrayed but what was said - for Frankenstein to declare that he knows what it feels like to be God would never have been allowed after Hays Code was strictly enforced. - Colin Clive... Henry Frankenstein - Mae Clarke... Elizabeth - John Boles... Victor Moritz - Boris Karloff... The Monster https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021884/

I've been making fresh rips of the classic monster movies - increasing dialogue volume etc (I don't like straining to hear what they're saying!) - hope to have these up before the weekend.

(1931) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Dr. Jekyll faces horrible consequences when he lets his dark side run wild with a potion that transforms him into the animalistic Mr. Hyde. Miriam Hopkins provides the pre-code titillation that Frederic March's suitably menacing Mr Hyde consumes. - Frederic March... Dr Jekyll / Mr Hyde - MIriam Hopkins... Ivy Pearson - Rose Hobart... Muriel Carew - Holmes Herbert... Dr Lanyon https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022835/

(1931) Mädchen in Uniform (with English subtitles) German film in which a sensitive girl is sent to an all-girls boarding school and develops a romantic attachment to one of her female teachers. Banned upon its release in both USA and Germany, copies were burned by the Nazis for degeneracy despite there being no nudity. This was the first lesbian drama that took the subject seriously. USA release was subsequently allowed in 1933 after intervention by the First Lady. - Emilia Unda... Oberin des Stifts - Dorothea Wieck... Frl. von Bernburg https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022183/

(1934) BLACK MOON A young girl lost her parents to a voodoo sacrifice. Years later, as an adult, she feels a strong compulsion to return to the island to confront her past. TCM to the rescue once again for a copy of this movie - another little gem of a movie that relies on invoking feeling in viewers more than explicitly showing them (or to put it another way, it all buids up to the climactic ending). - Jack Holt... Stephen Lane - Fay Wray... Gail Hamilton - Dorothy Burgess... Juanita Perez Lane - Cora Sue Collins... Nancy Lane - Arnold Korff... Dr. Raymond Perez https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024895/

(1930) Our Blushing Brides Three department store girls share an apartment in New York City. Each earns little more than 20 dollars per week. Jerry is the sensible one, but the others throw themselves at amoral rich men in an attempt to hook one and better themselves. They end up being hurt and disappointed despite Jerry's attempts to warn them. - Joan Crawford... Jerry March - Anita Page... Connie Blair - Dorothy Sebastian... Franky Daniels - Robert Montgomery... Tony Jardine - Raymond Hackett... David Jardine https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021223/

(1929) Our Modern Maidens A flapper charms a diplomat to procure her fiancé a career opportunity, but her fiancé starts a relationship with her best friend. - Joan Crawford... Billie - Rod La Rocque... Abbott - Douglas Fairbanks Jr.... Gil - Anita Page... Kentucky - Josephine Dunn... Ginger https://www.imdb.com/title/tt00020247/

(1928) Our Dancing Daughters A flapper who's secretly a good girl and a gold digging floozy masquerading as an ingénue both vie for the hand of a millionaire. - Joan Crawford... Diana Medford - Johnny Mack Brown... Ben Blaine - Nils Asther... Norman - Anita Page... Ann - Dorothy Sebastian... Beatrice https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019237/

———- The Flapper Trilogy ———- (1928) Our Dancing Daughters (1929) Our Modern Maidens (1930) Our Blushing Brides Joan Crawford starred in three movies, all offering a view of the "modern flapper"... and with these all being pre-code, there's a fair bit of flesh on show. I cannot find HD versions at all for these, so looks like they haven't been restored (they deserve to be), but thanks to TCM we have versions good enough to enjoy.

(1930) PAID Sent to prison for a crime she did not commit, Mary Turner plots her revenge... The sound is a wee bit scratchy, but this is an above avergae drama worth a watch. Crawford puts in a great performance as Mary Turner. - Joan Crawford... Mary Turner - Robert Armstrong... Joe Garson - Marie Prevost... Agnes Lynch - John Miljan... Inspector Burke https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021228/

(1933) Ladies They Talk About Nan (Stanwyck), member of a bank-robbery gang, goes to prison thanks to evangelist Dave Slade...who loves her. Women behind bars... pre-code style! - Barbara Stanwyck... Nan Taylor - Preston Foster... David Slade - Dorothy Burgess... Susie - Lillian Roth... Linda https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024238/

(1931) ILLICIT Convinced marriage will ruin their love, Anne Vincent (Stanwyck) insists they live in sin... But she found that stolen sweets must be paid for! This is mostly one for Stanwyck fans, no pre-code "action" as such, but obviously living together out of wedlock was a huge taboo in itself, so this movie is a scandal from start to finish. - Barbara Stanwyck... Anne Vincent - James Rennie... Dick Ives II - Ricardo Cortez... Price Baines - Natalie Moorhead... Margie True - Joan Blondell... 'Duckie' Helen Childers https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021992/