Pre-Code Hollywood

(1933) 42nd Street A director puts on what may be his last Broadway show and, at the last moment, a naive newcomer has to replace the star. This is the original classic in pristine HD. - Warner Baxter... Julian Marsh - Bebe Daniels... Dorothy Brock - George Brent... Pat Denning - Ruby Keeler... Peggy Sawyer - Guy Kibbee... Abner Dillon - Una Merkel... Lorraine Fleming - Ginger Rogers... Ann Lowell - Toby Wing... Blonde in 'Young and Healthy' Number (uncredited) (Toby Wing has the peculiar honour of being the most famous/popular actress to appear uncredited in more movies than anybody else, despite her face being used as a box office draw in promos for many of those films, including 42nd Street - but she wasn't exactly there due to acting talent, if you know what I mean). https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024034/

(1932) A Bill of Divorcement A man, Hilary Fairfield, returns home after fifteen years in a mental asylum. However, he finds things are not the way they were when he left. Emotional drama that launched the career of Katherine Hepburn. - John Barrymore... Hilary Fairfield - Billie Burke... Margaret Fairfield - Katherine Hepburn... Sidney Fairfield - David Manners... Kit - Paul Cabanagh... Gray - Henry Stephenson... Dr. Alliot https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022685/

(1930) Morocco A cabaret singer and a Legionnaire fall in love, but their relationship is complicated by the results of his womanizing and a rich man who wants her for himself. Watch out for the kiss just after 18mins into the movie, where Dietrich steals a kiss from a woman after her cabaret act - perhaps the first "proper" lesbian kiss in the movies and definitely too sexually charged to be possible after the Hays Code crackdown of 1934. - Gary Cooper... Tom Brown - Marlene Dietrich... Amy Jolly - Adolphe Menjou... La Bessiere https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021156/

(1931) The Cheat A married woman runs up a gambling debt and gets herself into all kinds of trouble as she tries to protect her husband's social reputation. What makes this movie special is that the leading lady is none other than notorious hedonist, Tallulah Bankhead... her Hollywood orgies were known to have lasted 3 or 4 days at a time, where the drugs and booze ran free despite the prohibition. Along with Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead was one of the most prolific members of The Sewing Circle, the predatory lesbian network that seduced starlets and allowed Hollywood stars to experiment. - Tallulah Bankhead... Elsa Carlyle - Harvey Stephens... Jeffrey Carlyle - Irving Pichel... Hardy Livingstone https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021735/

(1930) The Blue Angel An elderly professor's ordered life spins dangerously out of control when he falls for a nightclub singer. This is the German language version (English subs are embedded) - the English language version isn't quite as good, probably due to the cast concentrating on delivering the English lines and so the acting was less natural. The Blue Angel was the first German "talkie". This Weimar classic instantly propelled Marlene Dietrich into an international sex symbol due in no small part to her extended scenes parading about with her stockings and suspenders on full display. - Emil Jennings... Prof. Immanuel Rath - Marlene Dietrich... Lola Lola - Kurt Gerron... Kiepert (the magician) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020697/

(1931) Blonde Crazy Wannabe hustler Bert (played by James Cagney) has an eye for a pretty blonde, and a desire for a bigger score. - James Cagney... Bert Harris - Joan Blondell... Anne Roberts - Louis Calhern... Dapper Dan - Noel Francis... Helen Wilson - Ray Milland... Joe Reynolds https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021673/

(1932) Are You LIstening? A radio writer/producer is in love with another woman while locked in a loveless marriage. He accidentally kills his wife and then attempts to escape an on-air hunt for him. - William Haines... Bill Grimes - Madge Evans... Laura O'Neil - Anita Page... Sally O'Neil - Karen Morley... Alice Grimes - Neil Hamilton... Jack Clayton https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022635/

I'll be off the grid for a couple of weeks - but as Arnie says... "I'll be back".

(1932) The Purchase Price Torch singer Joan Gordon, tiring of her relationship with small-time hood and racketeer Eddie Fields, flees to Montreal and becomes the mail-order bride of down-to-earth farmer Jim Gilson. - Barbara Stanwyck... Joan Gordon - George Brent... Jim Gilson - Lyle Talbot... Eddie Fields - Hardie Albright... Don Leslie https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023362/

(1934) Of Human Bondage A young man finds himself attracted to a cold and unfeeling waitress who may ultimately destroy them both. - Leslie Howard... Phillip Carey - Bette Davis... Mildred Rogers - Frances Dee... Sally Athelny - Kay Johnson... Norah - Reginald Denny... Harry Griffiths https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025586/

(1931) Trader Horn Two white traders in the darkest Africa of the 1870s find a missionary's daughter, who was captured as a child by a savage tribe and now worshiped as a goddess. The first adventure movie to be filmed on location in Africa (topless native girls - shocking), Edwina Booth contracted several tropical diseases that effectively ended her career. Trader Horn was a real historical person, but this tale is mostly fiction. - Harry Carey... Al "Trader" Horn - Edwina Booth... Nina Trent - Duncan Renaldo... Peru - Mutia Omoolu... Rencharo (Horn's gun bearer) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022495/

(1933) White Woman A nightclub singer marries the rich owner of a rubber plantation. When she returns with him to his estate in Malaysia, she finds out that he is cruel, vicious and insanely jealous. - Carole Lombard... Judith Denning - Charles Laughton... Horace H Prin (king of the river) - Charles Bickford... Ballister - Kent Taylor... David von Elst - Percy Kilbride... Jakey https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024771/

(1932) The Sign Of The Cross Marcus, Prefect of Rome, becomes torn between his love for a Christian woman and his loyalty to Emperor Nero. - Frederic March... Marcus Superbus - Elissa Landi... Mercia - Claudette Colbert... Empress Poppaea - Charles Laughton... Emperor Nero - Ian Keith... Tigelinus - Arthur Hohl... Titus https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023470/

(1932) The Old Dark House Comedy-Horror directed by James Whale, in which some travelers seeking shelter from a storm spend the night at the stately home of the Femm family. - Boris Karloff... Morgan - Melvyn Douglas... Penderel - Charles Laughton... Sir William Porterhouse - Lilian Bond... Gladys - Ernest Thesiger... Horace Femm - Eva Moore... Rebecca Femm - Raymond Massey... Philip Waverton - Gloria Stuart... Margaret Waverton https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023293/

(1930) Sin Takes A Holiday Romance starring Constance Bennett, in which her character steps up into money but it's a marriage of convenience, so she contemplates an affair with the local cad (Basil Rathbone). - Constance Bennett... Sylvia Brenner - Kenneth MacKenna... Gaylord Stanton - Basil Rathbone... Reggie Durant - Rita La Roy... Grace Lawrence - Zasu Pitts... Annie https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021377/

(1932) Rome Express A sinister character boards the Rome Express on the trail of a valuable Van Dyck painting, recently stolen from a Paris gallery. Much to his annoyance he finds the train populated with a motley assortment of passengers. including adulterous lovers, a very annoying golf fanatic, a French police chief and an American silent film star... any one of whom could have the painting he desperately seeks. - Conrad Veidt... Zurta - Esther Ralston... Asta Marvelle - Hugh Williams... Tony - Donald Calthrop... Poole - Joan Barry... Mrs Maxted https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023410/

(1933) Dancing Lady An attractive dancer is rescued from jail by a rich man, who helps her to have her first big opportunity at a musical play on Broadway. This is a mint-quality HD restoration, the extra effort probably done because Dancing Lady includes the first movie appearance of Fred Astaire in a small role. His dance with Joan Crawford has a beer theme, perhaps because the prohibition had recently been lifted, but it certainly makes it a curiosity piece. - Joan Crawford... Janie Barlow - Clark Gable... Patch Gallagher - Franchot Tone... Tod Newton - May Robson... Grandma Dolly Todhunter - Winnie Lightner... Rosette LaRue - Fred Astaire... Fred Astaire (as himself) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023926/

For horror classics produced after 1934, feel free to browse my Cult Classics channel, where you will find a wide selection of all sorts of stuff that will be added to over time. Cheers. https://t.me/cultclassics

I'm thinking of adding some silent movies here in addition to the pre-code stuff... mainly some Clara Bow and some Erich von Stroheim. If there's anything specific you'd like to see, please leave a comment and if it's in my collection, I'll happily add it. Incidentally, I've started other themed channels but still haven't officially shared the links yet - but in the long term, I will post a lot more stuff on them, as there is only a finite amount of quality pre-code content available in good quality print. Cheers.

(1933) The Ghoul An Egyptologist returns from the dead to take revenge on those who have violated his tomb. - Boris Karloff... Prof. Henry Morlant - Cedric Hardwicke... Broughton - Dorothy Hyson... Betty Harlon - Ernest Thesiger... Laing - Kathleen Harrison... Kaney - Anthony Bushell... Ralph Morlant https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024055/