Pre-Code Hollywood

(1932) Thirteen Women Ursula plots revenge on 12 women who had rejected her from their sorority at college years before. As per the notes above, this is the censored version - it is unknown if an uncensored copy still exists. - Myrna Loy... Ursula Georgi - Irene Dunne... Laura Stanhope - Ricardo Cortez... Sgt Barry Clive - Jill Esmond... Jo Turner and Peg Entwistle as Hazel Cousins (only in early parts of the movie).

Thirteen Women (cont'd) Peg's suicide note read, "I am afraid, I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E." One source states: "Starring as one of the eponymous 13 women, Entwistle was promised a significant supporting role as the character of Hazel Clay Cousins. Created in a seedy Tiffany Thayer novel, the literary Hazel was scandalous in print due to being a school girl caught in a lurid lesbian relationship with a classmate, leading to Hazel eventually committing suicide. While suicide and explicit lesbianism was not in Selznick’s movie, he did attempt to skirt the then burgeoning Hayes Code by heavily implying Hazel partook in a lesbian relationship, leading to her murdering her husband." Peg's character originally had 16 minutes screen time, but ended up with only four minutes after censorship, with the studio then refusing to renew her contract - so most of the controversy appears to have come from Peg's character and this may have made her "untouchable" by Hollywood, leading to her suicide. The censored version of the movie is obviously not a masterpiece (especially with a fifth of it removed), but it is actually still a half-decent psychological thriller.

Thirteen Women (1932) One of the more notorious movies of the Pre-Code era was Thirteen Women. The censors butchered it with a massive 14 minutes of cuts - that's 19% of the entire movie! There were screenings of the uncensored version in 1932, but audiences were thoroughly repulsed by it. Sadly, we only have the censored version and can only speculate at what was removed. At very least, we can say that two of the 13 women were removed from the movie completely (so the title doesn't quite add up if you know what I mean). The book on which the movie was based has some lesbianism in it, but there is no indication that this made it into the movie version (but equally, a lot of decadence could be squeezed into 14 minutes of censored footage). The other notorious fact about this movie is that it was the only performance of "The Hollywood Sign Girl" i.e. Peg Entwistle (pictured above). Just two days after the movie was released, Peg climbed to the top of the Hollywood sign and threw herself off.

(1947) Song of the Thin Man Nick and Nora Charles are on a gambling boat when someone is murdered. The two main suspects are at large and come to Nick for help. Nick turns them into the police but then sets out to figure out the mystery. - William Powell... Nick Charles - Myrna Loy... Nora Charles - Keenan Wynn... Clarence 'Clinker' Krause - Dean Stockwell... Nick Charles Jr. - Gloria Grahame... Fran Ledue Page - Patricia Morison... Phyllis Talbin https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039853/

(1944) The Thin Man Goes Home Nick and Nora Charles visit Nicks parents in Nick's hometown of Sycamore Springs. The town is a very peaceful and law-abiding one but Nick soon has a murder case on his hands. - William Powell... Nick Charles - Myrna Loy... Nora Charles - Harry Davenport... Dr Bertram Charles - Lucile Watson... Mrs Cgarles - Gloria DeHaven... Laurabelle Ronson https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037365/

(1941) Shadow of the Thin Man A jockey has been shot dead at the race track. Famous detective Nick Charles and his wife Nora happen to be on the scene and Lt. Abrahams asks for Nick's expert help. - William Powell... Nick Charles - Myrna Loy... Nora Charles - Barry Nelson... Paul Clarke - Donna Reed... Molly Ford - Sam Levene... (Lt) Abrams https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034172/

(1939) Another Thin Man An explosives manufacturer suspects a young man is out to kill him. He calls in new parents Nick and Nora to sort things out. - William Powell... Nick Charles - Myrna Loy... Nora Charles - Virginia Grey... Lois McFey - Otto Kruger... Van Slack - Nat Pendleton... (Lt) Guild - C Aubrey Smith... Colonel MacFay - Ruth Hussey... Dorothy Waters https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031047/

(1936) After The Thin Man Private detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora are back home at last and hoping for a quiet New Year when Nora's brother-in-law is murdered. The obvious suspect is his wife, Nora's sister, Selma. - William Powell... Nick Charles - Myrna Loy... Nora Charles - James Stewart... David Graham - Elissa Landi... Selma Landis - Joseph Calleia... 'Dancer' https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027260/

(1934) The Thin Man Former detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora investigate a murder case, mostly for the fun of it. - William Powell... Nick Charles - Myrna Loy... Nora Charles - Maureen O'Sullivan... Dorothy Wynant - Nat Pendleton... Guild - Minna Gombell... Mimi Wynant Jorgenson - Cesar Romero... Chris Jorgenson https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025878/

The Thin Man (movie collection) The Thin Man was a pre-code comedy-mystery movie that paired William Powell and Myrna Loy (and not forgetting their hilarious dog, Asta). The perfect chemistry between the pair resulted in a further five movies being made over the course of the next 13 years. An all-time favourite series of movies. I'll post all six of the movies here in pre-code and share the links into Cult Classics when they're done.

(1933) Topaze An honest and naive schoolteacher gets a lesson in how the world works outside the classroom, when a rich Baron and his mistress use the teacher's name and outstanding reputation in a crooked business scheme. The first time I saw this I almost switched it off - but the fabulous Myrna Loy kept me watching - once the movie gets going it gets really good. - John Barrymore... Professor Topaze - Myrna Loy... Coco - Reginald Mason... The Baron - Jobyna Howland... The Baroness https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024684/

(1932) Forbidden A librarian takes a cruise and falls for an unobtainable man, a district attorney married to an invalid. Then she has a baby... - Barbara Stanwyck... Lulu - Adolphe Menjou... Bob - Ralph Bellamy... Holland - Dorothy Peterson... Helen https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022905/

(1931) City Streets A shooting gallery showman called "The Kid' joins a gang of bootleggers to free his girlfriend from prison. An often overlooked pre-code classic. - Gary Cooper... The Kid - Sylvia Sidney... Nan Cooley - Paul Lukas... Big Fellow Maskal - William Boyd... McCoy - Wynne Gibson... Agnes - Guy Kibbee... Pop Cooley https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021750/

(1933) Son of Kong The showman who brought Kong to New York returns to Skull Island and finds Kong's son, a spunky 12-footer with a winning personality and his dad's awesome strength. With the massive success of Kong, Son of Kong was hastily thrown together - but due to stop-motion animation taking a lot of time to create, Son of Kong only has monsters in the final act. They still made an OK job of it I reckon, although obviously not a patch on the original Kong. - Robert Armstrong... Carl Denham - Helen Mack... Hilda - Frank Reicher... Captain Englehorn - John Marston... Capt. Nils Helstrom https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024593/

(1940) One Million B.C. A tale of Prehistoric survival and love between a male and a female belonging to opposing tribes that happened to be at slightly different stages of evolution. Carole Landis looks fantastic in her "cave-girl" dress... so long as it wasn't see-through in any way, the censors were fine with it being rather tight and form-fitting... the story context also justified plenty of legs on display. - Victor Mature... Tumak - Carole Landis... Loana - Lon Chaney Jr... Akhoba - Conrad Nagel... the narrator https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032871/

(1931) The Skin Game An old traditional family and a modern family battle over land in a small English village and almost destroy each other. This is an old fashioned theatre-style of movie i.e. imagine you're at the theatre and each static sets won't seem so bad - it was just the way some movies of this nature were shot at the time. - CV France... Mr Hillcrist - Helen Haye... Mrs Hillcrist - Jill Esmond... Jill Hillcrist - Edmund Gwenn... Charles Hornblower https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022395/

(1937) A Star Is Born A young woman comes to Hollywood with dreams of stardom, and achieves them only with the help of an alcoholic leading man whose best days are behind him. This is the original - technically, the 1932 movie 'What Price Hollywood' could be considered the absolute first but I can't seem to find it on sale anywhere, so here's the 1937 classic. - Janet Gaynor... Esther a.k.a. Vicki Lester - Frederic March... Norman Maine - Adolphe Menjou... Oliver Niles https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029606/

(1992) The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side At a reception for a fading film star making a screen comeback, a gushing, pushy fan is poisoned by a drink apparently meant for the actress.

(1987) 4.50 From Paddington A friend of Miss Marple's sees a woman being strangled in a passing train. When police cannot find a body and doubt the story, Miss Marple enlists professional housekeeper, Lucy Eyelesbarrow, to go undercover.

(1986) The Murder at the Vicarage Faced with two false confessions and numerous suspects after a despised civil magistrate is found shot in the local vicarage, Detective Inspector Slack reluctantly accepts help from Miss Marple.