Have seen lots of these movies recently; pre code era shown a lot on TCM. 42nd Street part of this time period. So was Footlight Parade. Skimpy women's costumes were all the rage. Talkies were new. Hotties were in, ala that scrumptious Clark Gable or Humphrey Bogart or James Cagney. The stock market crash was a recent bad memory. The Great Depression was the worst and biggest news of all, and people wanted to see a world where women wore good clothes and had great jewelry, even if they had to sell their bodies to get them.
This documentary lightly touches upon Mae West. More of her genius was spent on the live stage. In 1927 she produced a racy stage show, that was so provocative that it was raided by police and she was thrown in jail for a week. She used the incident as mere publicity, and lots of men were outside waiting for her when her jail term ended. It is said that she was rather friendly to the warden, so she was able to get out of jail early. She even said how she discovered Cary Grant.
This documentary erroneously depicts the American public as only liking movies. Perhaps the lower classes did just that, but others still preferred going to see live drama. That is where I feel this documentary falls short; yes, it is about the film industry, but film was not the only mass entertainment.
It was interesting that the post code era drew lots of audiences eager to see sensuality only hinted at; where long kisses drew audiences awaiting romance instead of sleazy bedhopping. That post code era quickly gave way to war movies; singing and dancing, flashy machine gunners and airplane fliers. Film noir of late forties and early fifties took over, with a little sexuality shown by some such as Marlon Brando in Streetcar Named Desire.
Post code predated World War II. Clark Gable was in World War II. Jimmy Cagney made movies such as Yankee Doodle Dandy; very patriotic, including singing and dancing. Criminals named Capone and Malone were being replaced by names such as Hitler and Mussolini. Breen and church groups were still policing movies. Moviegoers now wanted to see happy times. Singing, dancing, clean movies were big, such as Meet Me in St. Louis, Little Women, The Pirate, An American in Paris, and on into the 1950s.
Back to pre code: Interesting in this documentary was the part about Busby Berkeley, who used shadowed images of scantily clad or unclad women in his geometrical designs. He was able to get past the censors.
Code breakers: they were very daring.
8/10
This documentary lightly touches upon Mae West. More of her genius was spent on the live stage. In 1927 she produced a racy stage show, that was so provocative that it was raided by police and she was thrown in jail for a week. She used the incident as mere publicity, and lots of men were outside waiting for her when her jail term ended. It is said that she was rather friendly to the warden, so she was able to get out of jail early. She even said how she discovered Cary Grant.
This documentary erroneously depicts the American public as only liking movies. Perhaps the lower classes did just that, but others still preferred going to see live drama. That is where I feel this documentary falls short; yes, it is about the film industry, but film was not the only mass entertainment.
It was interesting that the post code era drew lots of audiences eager to see sensuality only hinted at; where long kisses drew audiences awaiting romance instead of sleazy bedhopping. That post code era quickly gave way to war movies; singing and dancing, flashy machine gunners and airplane fliers. Film noir of late forties and early fifties took over, with a little sexuality shown by some such as Marlon Brando in Streetcar Named Desire.
Post code predated World War II. Clark Gable was in World War II. Jimmy Cagney made movies such as Yankee Doodle Dandy; very patriotic, including singing and dancing. Criminals named Capone and Malone were being replaced by names such as Hitler and Mussolini. Breen and church groups were still policing movies. Moviegoers now wanted to see happy times. Singing, dancing, clean movies were big, such as Meet Me in St. Louis, Little Women, The Pirate, An American in Paris, and on into the 1950s.
Back to pre code: Interesting in this documentary was the part about Busby Berkeley, who used shadowed images of scantily clad or unclad women in his geometrical designs. He was able to get past the censors.
Code breakers: they were very daring.
8/10