Pre-Code Hollywood Collection (The Cheat / Merrily We Go to Hell / Hot Saturday / Torch Singer / Murder at the Vanities / Search for Beauty) (Universal Backlot Series)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Cary Grant, Fredric March, Randolph Scott, Sylvia Sidney, Tallulah BankheadBrand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 420 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-04-07
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of Pre-Code Hollywood Collection (The Cheat / Merrily We Go to Hell / Hot Saturday / Torch Singer / Murder at the Vanities / Search for Beauty) (Universal Backlot Series)
Movie Review: Merrily the code may go to hell
Summary: 5 Stars
This Collection combines six films from the Paramount Studios, now owned by Universal. As bonus material, you will get a printed copy of the "production code", strictly enforced in the summer of 1934 and regulating what may be presented oh screen and, more important, what may be not - with a maximum of bigotry. For this reason, films which are made in the pre code era must not necessarily be scandalous or (s)expolitative. Besides, Paramount Pictures at that time always hat a maximum of elegance and production values. The following may be said to the six films:
"Merrily We Go To Hell" (1932) is the best move of the collection, starring an outstanding Fredric March and a touching Sylvia Sidney, trying to stick to her husband while she belongs to the upper class and he is "only" a reporter, trying to have his breakthrough as a playwright. Besides, he is an alcoholic, and the film manages to take this seriously and does not show the alcoholic as comic relief, as in most films of the period. Billy Wilder always claimed to have made the first serious film about an alcoholic ("The Lost Weekend", 1945) - he is wrong. Besides, it is interesting that this film is directed by a woman, Dorothy Arzner, who was the first well-known female director (before Ida Lupino). When Sidney's last words "my baby" try to strengthen and to save her husband, this may also be a statement that women may well be stronger than men who sometimes would be helpless babies without their wives or girlfriends or mothers.
Sex sells: "Search For Beauty" (1934) hat lots of witty lines and is quite entertaining, but a bit skin deep, and Ida Lupino has not yet found her ideal casting in 1934: Two Olympic gold medal winners (Buster Crabbe and Ida Lupino) shall be misused to launch a "men's magazine" and to exploit the upcoming fitness movement. When they establish a beauty farm and training camp, assisted by athletic young men and women as trainers chosen through international beauty contests, the film takes the opportunity to show lots of beautiful bodies in lavishly staged and photographed poses. At last, we have equality of sex in these scenes, for they present not only - as most other films - the female, but also the athletic male body.
This may not be said for "Murder At The Vanities" (1934), which presents a staged show with "the most beautiful girls in the world" (shown as nude as possible), in combination with a murderous intrigue backstage. The mixture works quite well, but one shouldn't be too feminist to enjoy it... Unfortunately, the cast does not contain a single great star and the stronger parts are attributed to the comic sidekicks than to the leads.
But what a great star Tallulah Bankhead is, may be seen in "The Cheat" (1931) - which is a typical Paramount upper class drama and has the same combination of lavish production values, exotism and perversity as a Paramount Marlene Dietrich vehicle by Josef von Sternberg (a collector of oriental art treats Bankhead the same as his Asian "slaves" and even brands her as his statues in order to show she's his possession). Tallulah Bankhead is every inch a diva with great (but never exaggerated) passion and gesture, whom one may never imagine as a working girl. In doing so, she reminds a little of the later Bette Davis. Although you man really not imagine why people living in such extravagant places may have monetary problems (couldn't they sell some of their paintings, furniture and wardrobe???), it is a good and strong drama, and it's especially well acted by Bankhead. Therefore, I would consider it to be one of the best pictures of the collection.
This is also true for "Torch Singer" (1933), starring a strong and touching Claudette Colbert and dramatizing the subject of unwed motherhood (in a way in which it should become impossible unless Ida Lupino got along with it in 1949 - even under the production code). When she manages to go up from the dump to high-class nightclub life, the film becomes his typical Paramount polishing, but it is nevertheless an effective tearjerker. The end comes a little too quick and is a little too good to be true, but I liked it for it is more actual than ever that children need both mother and father.
Finally, "Hot Saturday" (1932) gives us the opportunity to watch Cary Grant in maybe his first typical Cary Grant leading role as notorious playboy Romer Sheffield. Although the story has a certain banality and Romer naturally gets the leading girl named Ruth (Nancy Carroll) after a hot Saturday, is has a special quality not to be overlooked. Of course, at the beginning one does not get the point why Ruth does not only fall in love to Romer, but really loves him (and why Romer really loves Ruth and wants to keep her forever). But the interesting point in the story is that Ruth is in the center of the plot, surrounded by a number of men who are all trying to tell her what and who is good for her. Being Romer the only person who does nothing of the same, it is plausible that Ruth and Romer belong to each other. This reminded me of a Sirkian attitude, e.g. shown in "All That Heaven Allows" (1954), although "Hot Saturday" is more skin deep - and funnier.
I would rate "Merrily We Go To Hell", "Torch Singer" and "The Cheat" five stars and the other three films four stars.
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Summary of Pre-Code Hollywood Collection (The Cheat / Merrily We Go to Hell / Hot Saturday / Torch Singer / Murder at the Vanities / Search for Beauty) (Universal Backlot Series)
For the first time ever, Universal opens its vaults to bring you 6 classic films from the most decadent era in motion picture history: Pre-Code Hollywood. In 1934, Hollywood was turned upside down by the enforcement of a strict ?Production Code? that would change the way movies were made for the next 34 years. During the ?pre-Code? period (1929 to mid-1934), censorship barely existed in Hollywood and filmmakers had free reign to make the movies they wanted and the public demanded. No subject was taboo including adultery, murder, or sex. Starring screen legends Cary Grant, Fredric March, Claudette Colbert, Tallulah Bankhead, Randolph Scott, and Sylvia Sidney, the Pre-Code Hollywood Collection forever captures one of the most unique periods in cinema history. The Cheat A compulsive gambler (Tallulah Bankhead) will do anything to pay off her debt - including turning to a wealthy businessman behind her husband?s back. Merrily We Go to Hell An abusive alcoholic (Fredric March) reunites with a woman from his past and drives his wife (Sylvia Sidney) to drastic measures. Hot Saturday Scandal erupts after a young woman (Nancy Carroll) innocently spends the night with a notorious playboy (Cary Grant) and neglects to tell her fiancé (Randolph Scott). Torch Singer After giving up her illegitimate child for adoption, a notorious nightclub singer (Claudette Colbert) attempts to find her daughter through a children?s radio show. Murder at the Vanities While sexy musical revue ?The Vanities? captivates an audience on its opening night, a murder investigation takes place backstage. Search for Beauty Olympic swimming champions (Buster Crabbe and Ida Lupino) are tricked into endorsing a racy magazine - and much worse.Similar DVD Movies
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