The IT Girls

For the next two weeks, Film Forum is hosting a film series called It Girls, Flappers, Jazz Babies and Vamps. It's an amazing collection of movies from an era where women were able to star in roles that showed-off the power of female sexuality. Women played characters with a passion for life, love, and good bathtub gin. This female freedom mirrored the advances women were making politically and socially in this country. Unfortunately, the introduction of the Production Code Administration and the Legion of Decency turned Hollywood movies into a celluloid cage for women. Open sexuality was frowned upon and could only be shown if the woman who displayed it was properly punished by the end of the film. But before 1934, women were able to grab ahold of fast roles and run with it. Here are some of my favorite screen sirens from that era:

Joan Crawford

Most people think of Crawford in her Mildred Pierce (1945) phase where she was all shoulders, eyebrows, and slaps. But Crawford got her start two decades earlier in silent film where she played a definitive flapper, rolling her shoulders and kicking up her heels. The young Crawford's energy is electric and those big eyes shown with an unrestrained love of life. As sound came in she was able to transition to talkies with ease, and also survive the changes of the Code by turning her flapper persona into a girl who comes from nothing and fights her way to the top. You can see the two ends of this evolution by watching Our Dancing Daughters (1928)- the film that made Crawford a superstar and Possessed (1931) where she plays a factory girl who sees a better life with wealthy wheeler and dealer Skeets Gallagher (Clark Gable in his first film-pairing with Crawford.) If you haven't seen this era of Crawford's career, you don't have the full story of this Hollywood icon.

Marlene Dietrich

There has never been a screen image like Marlene Dietrich's. The German sex goddess first came to prominence in 1930's The Blue Angel where she played a heartless cabaret singer who ruins the life of a school professor who falls in love with her. She would continue in her next few films to play chanteuses or prostitutes who left destroyed men in their wakes. Dietrich's beauty is beyond question, but what made her unique was her ability to inhabit the image that was being so carefully sculpted around her by director and lover Josef von Sternberg. Von Sternberg's use of lighting to capture Dietrich's face is genius, and with her sly, sexy glance, Dietrich was able to breathe life into that image. Film Forum is showing two of her best from the beginning of her career: Blonde Venus (1932) (you can't miss the "Hot Voodoo" number) and Shanghai Express (1932) (with the equally sexy Anna Mae Wong).

Barbara Stanwyck 

I love Barbara Stanwyck. No matter what she played- whether it was a golddigger, a blousy mom, or a western matriarch, she always felt so authentic. Stanwyck never appeared to be acting, she just was- and if you didn't like it- you could take a flying leap. Early on she was able to play characters who used that sort of brashness to put a dent in the man's world by any means necessary. Stanwyck is the definitive social climber in Baby Face (1933) and even if the ending was changed, this film still shows off Stanwyck's ability to play a shysteress that we want desperately to get ahead.

Louise Brooks

There are many who consider Louise Brooks to be one of the best actresses of the silent era. What makes Brooks stand out is the naturalness of her acting during an era where naturalness was not a common feature in film performances. Brooks came to Hollywood by way of the celebrated Denishawn dance troupe. Her bob hair cut and impish gaze made her an instant celebrity. But Brooks hated Hollywood. She was easily distracted by life and had no desire to waste her time standing around film sets or playing the Hollywood game to get parts in unremarkable films. So when she got a chance to go to Germany and shoot with the legendary G.W. Pabst, she flipped Hollywood the bird and left. The result is a wonderful silent film that perfectly shows why Brooks was so exciting to watch. Pandora's Box (1929) shows the adventures of a young woman who plays with men (and women) at will, with little care for the repercussions. Brooks would be done with the movies by 1938, but would re-emerge decades later as the poster girl for the Silent Era.

Joan Blondell

Joan Blondell had a fresh mouth. Sure she was a cute blonde who knew how to sing and dance her way into your heart. But it was her ability to deliver the best wisecrack that made her the perfect co-star in movies throughout the '30's. No matter whether she was sharing the screen with Ginger Rogers, Ruby Keeler, or James Cagney, Blondell always walked away with the film. She's a perfect example of the actress that was built for the sound era. A line like "Hello, you great big, beautiful heel!" rolled out of her droll mouth effortlessly- and it made her a joy to watch. Check out two of her most fun musicals at the festival: Goldiggers of 1933 (1933) and Dames (1934).

So, who's your favorite IT girl?

These Movies Are Condemned!

The Catholic Legion of Decency.
No, CLOD is not from a Monty Python sketch. Nor is it a clandestine group of super-villains from a Venture Brothers episode.
Founded in 1933, the organization was the moral police for Hollywood, ushering in the Production Code Era. Before 1933, Hollywood studios paid lip service to religious organizations who were upset with the morals of Tinseltown and the degenerate films it produced. (Their word, not mine.) The movie moguls knew that sex and violence sold tickets so they saw no reason to change their business plans, but they needed to appease the shrill moralists who could organize boycotts of films. In 1930, they propped-up an ex-Postmaster General (Will H. Hayes), had him come up with a strict list of Don'ts and Be Carefuls that they publicly said they would honor, and went merrily about their way making movies full of sex and violence.

This gambit worked for a couple years but religious leaders like the Archbishop of Cincinnati finally felt that enough was enough and organized the Legion of Decency to force Hollywood to clean up its act. While its mission statement was to provide a ratings system to alert their parishioners to movies that were "immoral", the more effective purpose was to organize boycotts of films the Legion deemed unfit for human consumption. The threat of well-organized boycotts by Catholics in the larger urban centers where most theaters made their money was enough to finally force the hand of Hollywood producers.

They created the Production Code Administration under the helm of super-Catholic Joseph I. Breen, or as I like to call him, JIB. The Administration would be given the authority to oversee the moviemaking process from script to final-cut and "suggest" edits based on the Production Code's strict guidelines. And by suggest, I mean that if you didn't do what JIB said, you would not get a PCA Seal of Approval and theaters would not release your film for fear of reprisals from the Legion. This meant that from 1934 on, movies had to punish wrongdoers, not show a toilet, keep the romance out of the bedroom, make sure women's bits were covered tastefully, and forget any depiction of homosexuality.
What a bore, right?

Of course creative filmmakers were quickly able to find ways around the code, using visual shorthand like fade-outs after kissing, eye-matches, and clues that someone "smelled of lavender" to still give their savvy audience members the verboten thrills they craved. These clever end-runs helped create the Hollywood style that would dominate the movies from the '30's until the Code was replaced by the MPAA ratings system in 1968. And we owe it all to the goody-goodies of the Legion of Decency.

Turner Classic Movies is having some fun this Lent by showing films that either helped bring on the Code or caused a stir with the Legion after the code was implemented. They're calling it Condemned and you can go to their oddly designed website to see a list of the movies they are showing.

My picks?

 The Story of Temple Drake (1933)- Based on the William Faulkner novel Sanctuary, Temple Drake would be a difficult movie to make even today. Temple (Miriam Hopkins) is the daughter of a prominent Southern judge and she likes to live fast with booze and boys.

One stormy night she accidentally winds-up held hostage by a rough bootlegger (luggy Jack La Rue) who kills her escort and rapes her. If that's not bad enough, when he heads to the big city he takes Temple with him. But is Temple being held against her will- or has she got a bad case of Stockholm syndrome- or Bad Boy-itis? It's a complicated story that goes to the edge with issues of rape and female sexuality. This is one of those "degenerate" movies whose content inspired the creation of the Legion.

Black Narcissus (1947)- What could the Legion have found objectionable in a movie about a group of nuns living in a monastery in the Himalayas? Plenty. The Powell and Pressburger classic has a palpable sexual undertone with looks flying between Sister Superior (the always wonderful Deborah Kerr) and Mr. Dean (the well-legged David Farrar) which makes Sister Ruth (creepy, creepy Kathleen Bryon) literally go mad with jealousy. As with all Powell and Pressburger films, the Technicolor palate and settings are visually lush and the tense ending is worth the wait. Unfortunately flashback scenes to when Kerr wasn't a nun were cut out of the American release to appease the Legion.

The Outlaw (1943)- This is the movie that made Jane Russell's ta-tas stars. This story of Jesse James with some feminine license taken with history was originally shot by gazillionaire film producer and aviation wunderkind Howard Hughes in 1941. But Russell's low-cut blouses caused so much trouble with the PCA that the film wasn't released widely until 1946. By then the film was so notorious that it sold bonkers tickets and launched Russell's career as a no nonsense actress and cross-your-heart bra pitchperson.

Baby Face (1933)- This is one of my favorite Pre-Code films. Barbara Stanwyck is an un-apologetic social climber who goes from her father's speakeasy to extravagant New York penthouse by using her feminine charms. Along the way there are broken engagements, blackmail, and murder, but Stanwyck always manages to survive. Stanwyck is young and vital here- and so down-to-earth that you hardly blame her for all her misdeeds. She is the product of a rotten world and just does the best she can to survive in it. The ending for this film was re-shot because the New York State Censorship Board had a cow, but much of the naughtiness is left intact with lascivious looks, sex-charged-banter, and camera movement that perfectly visualizes Stanwyck's climb up the corporate ladder. A must-see.

Baby Doll (1956)- This movie is weird- but worth a look. Elia Kazan and Tennessee Williams re-teamed to film the story of Southerner Archie Leigh Meighan (a drawling Karl Malden) who marries a 17-year-old (also drawling Carroll Baker) who coos like a child, sleeps in a nursery crib, and dresses like Jon Benet. It's bad enough that Archie is still waiting to consummate his marriage but along comes an Italian slickster (swarthy-toned Eli Wallach) who has his own ideas about Baby Doll. One look at the trailer and you can guess why the Legion lost their minds. Somehow this film got four Oscar noms- I'm assuming because the Academy figured if it was Kazan, it had to be Oscar-worthy. Eh...

Strange Cargo (1940)- I really like this movie. The final pairing of Crawford and Gable, this strange film is a hybrid of prison escape film, romance, and religious allegory. Verne (Gable) is a prisoner in a French penal colony and Julie (Crawford) is a lady of the night who wants to get back to the mainland and start over. They meet cute on a dock, and when Verne and some fellow prisoners plot an escape, Verne takes Julie along. The intrepid band fights their way through jungles, swamps, and an ocean crossing to find freedom.

One of the escapees, Bible-quoting Cambreau (Ian Hunter) is a calming spiritual influence and seems to know what will happen before it does. Is Cambreau a man, or the Son of you-know-who? The Legion was not too happy about this thinly-veiled depiction of Christ, and Julie's "vocation", so edits were made. Luckily the sparks between Crawford and Gable are impossible to dull, and their electric banter is a reminder of why these two were paired so often on the screen- and why they maintained a long-standing affair off-screen.

So tune into TCM and piss off the Legion by watching some "immoral" movies!