Welcome to Mick LaSalle

Past chats with our guests.
micklas
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Post by micklas »

Hays was just a front man, and his goal was to spare Hollywood from censorship. Joseph Breen was the viper who walked for Hays as a publicity man but who, at the same time, tried to drum up anti-Hollywood resentment in order to get the production code enforced. All the pre-Codes happened under Hays' watch.

I know in the silent days there were scenes acceptable to foreign audiences that were cut or re-shot for domestic consumption. Not sure about the talkies, but I don't think so.

The only place to see movies that were not signatories of the Code were either in sleaze houses or in art film places playing European films.

I don't know about the production history of the Mummy. Nothing in my research indicated that THE OLD DARK HOUSE was controversial, and I think ISLAND OF LOST SOULS, one of the best horror films of the thirties, barely made a splash in 1932.

Joan Blondell was great. Surprisingly, her movies are not feminist, though maybe it's not surprising, since Warners was mainly a guys' studio, in the same way that MGM was more for actresses.
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moira finnie
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Post by moira finnie »

Hi Mick,
Thanks for mentioning our little site in your blog on the SF Chronicle and, of course, thanks for being here again today.

I enjoyed your description of director Monta Bell's influence on Norma Shearer's development on screen during the silent era in CW and felt that your vivid analysis of Lady of the Night (1925) was as close to seeing the movie as I'm likely to get. What happened to Bell after Shearer married Thalberg? Are any of the collaborations of Shearer and Bell available on home video? Do you think that Monta Bell had any influence on other directors who came after him?
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Sue Sue Applegate
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Post by Sue Sue Applegate »

Dear Mr. LaSalle,

I am so pleased that you are visiting us here at the Silver Screen Oasis.
Thank you for allowing us to have these great exchanges about film.

Your book, Complicated Women, truly opened up a whole new world of film appreciation for me, because after I'd read it, I knew I had fallen in love with precodes. And the subsequent film on TCM narrated by Jane Fonda was a great companion piece, and I hope you feel the same.

I am afraid that I'm another fan of Design for Living, and in that film Miriam Hopkins' role is not a stereotypical ingenue, and is quite a departure from the standard ingenue role of the time. Did this film change the public perception of her, or create a stir for her personally?

How do you feel that the Ben Hecht script , loosely based on a Noel Coward play, is significant today? Did Gary Cooper and Frederic March choose this vehicle for themselves or was it chosen for them specifically or because they were under contract to Paramount? I also feel that these actors work well with the parts in DFL and enjoy this as one of my favorite precodes, as well as Queen Christina, Baby Face, Torch Singer, Divorcee , Female, and The Smiling Lieutenant.

Thank you!
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ken123
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Post by ken123 »

Mr LaSalle,
I wish that you could expand on your Joan Blondell comments. Thanks !
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mrsl
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Post by mrsl »

Hi there:

I had a question here, but after re-reading it, I thought it was really out of your realm, so I moved it to another thread. I apologize if I troubled you.

Thank you,

Anne
Last edited by mrsl on December 18th, 2007, 11:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Anne


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Post by Mr. Arkadin »

Hi Mick, could you give me a little background on the making of Doorway to Hell (1930)? I think this was actually a better gangster film than Little Ceasar (1930) or The Public Enemy (1931)(even has Cagney doing a great supporting role), but it's rarely ever mentioned. What gives?
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Post by Dawtrina »

Hi Mick and welcome. I'm pretty new here myself and in fact signed up precisely because I saw you were going to be a guest.

I've read both Complicated Women and Dangerous Men. As I'm sure is the case with many, they are what introduced me both to precodes in general and to certain new favourite films and stars. They proved valuable reading. At the time I'd never even heard of people like Warren William, Lee Tracy or Kay Francis but now I eagerly devour anything I can find with them (and many others) in the credits. I'm now a confirmed precode fan and view much classic cinema in terms of what it would have been if only it had been made before 1934.

And to my question...

For my explorations into classic film, I've found certain Top 100 lists really useful as starting points from which to explore a genre or an era. Many aren't particularly helpful, like the predictable AFI lists; but some, such as the Silent Era 100, critic Jonathan Rosenbaum's Alternate Top 100 and a list compiled at the Home Theater Forum of the 100 Greatest Films of the 1930s (all easily googleable) have proved massively useful to me.

I've never found a starting list for precodes, but I've often envisaged something that could perhaps be called The 100 Most Precode Precodes that we viewers could use as a launching pad into the genre. It could list the most definitive examples of films that could only have been made during that short time window by and with people who unfortunately couldn't survive for long outside of it.

You would seem to be the most qualified person to compile such a list. Have you ever considered compiling one? What would your thoughts be on such a task? Would it be a blog entry or a feature article or a book?

And would sending you to stay with Walter Huston in Kongo be sufficient incentive or should we call on Johnny Eck? : )
micklas
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Post by micklas »

Moira -- LADY OF THE NIGHT has been on TCM. There's a new soundtrack and everything. It's great.

Bell switched to producing, mainly. He ran the Astoria studio for Paramount and I believe he may have directed Jeanne Eagels in one of her late vehicles. His talkies weren't distinguished, with the exception of DOWNSTAIRS -- and that no one particularly noticed until about 40 years later. I think Bell ultimately ended up broke and suffering from crippling arthritis, and he died in 1956 or 57, I believe, at around 67 years old. Something like that.
micklas
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Post by micklas »

Sue Sue -- DESIGN FOR LIVING didn't really chang perception of Miriam Hopkins. She was already an established star when she made it. And I like Ben Hecht's script better than Noel Coward's play -- it's a lot less subtle in some ways.

Dawtrina -- The best 100 sounds like a good idea. I might do that on my blog soon.

Mr. Arkadin -- DOORWAY TO HELL is one of the precursors of the gangster genre. It's the second to portray the gangster in an engaging light (after ALIBI) and the first to keep him fairly sympathetic to the end. The only problem is that Lew Ayres just isn't scary. I think that's what keeps it from being famous today, but it was a big hit and an important step in its time.

Ken -- The only thing I would say to expand on the Joan Blondell comment is that when I said her movies aren't feminist what I meant was that her movies, with the exception of BLONDIE JOHNSON, weren't constructed as feminist statements. She usually a side element in the story, and the thrust of most of her films had to do with the action of the guy, as was the case with most Warners pictures.
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Post by pilgrimsoul »

Good afternoon, Mick.

Could you please discuss some of the most intriguing directors during the Pre-Code period? I'm particularly interested in the work of Frank Capra, John Cromwell and Gregory La Cava. Do you think that their somewhat racy movies such as Platinum Blonde, Forbidden, Ann Vickers, Bed of Roses, The Half-Naked Truth and Vice Squad may have helped to bring about the Production Code enforcement?

Though I realize that they were quite aged when you first became involved in researching film, did you ever have a chance to interview Capra or Cromwell or have access to the archives containing the papers about their work and lives?

Did you have a chance to interview Kay Johnson (a marvelous actress & Mrs. John Cromwell for several years) and Frances Dee, both of whom appeared in the TCM documentary "Complicated Women"? If so, could you please tell us what they were like? )

Do you think that Cecil B. DeMille was able to adapt his risque material rather well in the new era because he placed his stories in the distant past and often drew material from the Bible?

I appreciate any information you might want to share.
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Post by SSO Admins »

I just finished rereading both the books (I tried to have them done before you got here, but life intervened). One lack, understandable given the focus, was the role that the studios played in breaking down these barriers. Some of the pre-codes were pretty risky for the time (or our time), and I'm interested how the studios came to be so groundbreaking.

I'm particularly interested in MGM, since it was well kown that Meyer wanted to make family pictures. Were they entirely Thalberg's influence? Meyer being realistic in the face of what was going at other studios?

Thoughts?
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Post by Gentree »

Hey Mick, what precode film do you think pushed the limits more than any other film of the era in terms of outright sexuality? Thanks in advance!
micklas
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Post by micklas »

Gentree -- Hard to say which pushed the limits further. The very last pre-Code, THE SCARLET EMPRESS, has full frontal nudity (though it goes by quickly) and a story all about a woman seducing an entire army, so that would be as good a candidate as any.

Jondaris -- The studios were more important than the directors, and they worked with the actresses on pushing their image into public consciousness and they collaborated on shaping that image. Neither Mayer nor Thalberg were averse to making money, but Thalberg had more of an anarchic streak, and in fact he was the one who encouraged Salka Viertel to include to lesbian element in Queen Christina.

Frances Dee was in the documentary, but she taped her segment on a different day. There was really little point in interviewing her. She was barely a pre-Code actress. Kay Johnson was dead in 1975, so no chance there. I talked to Ginger Rogers and Loretta Young, and I only happened to talk to Ginger Rogers because she was in town in the early '90s selling a book. This was long before I started writing CW.

I don't think any of the movies mentioned were particularly important in bringing about the Code. Those are important directors, but not as pertained to what I was writing about. If a single director could be singled out as important with regard to the coming of the Code, it would be DeMille.

You could definitely say he adapted nicely to the new climate because he succeeded. But artistically his work took a nosedive, and movies like SAMSON AND DELILAH are almost unwatchable.
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Post by klondike »

Hey, Mick, I'm back!
(This time with no bad jokes about fictional relatives);

I noticed back up the page a bit you mentioned Island of Lost Souls, which I was going to ask you about anyway, as it's one of my most favorite of the 30's films . . I've always thought that it had few rivals indeed for the pervasive, lurking creepiness it evokes, and must certainly have had a profound influence on up-&-comers like Lewton & Tourneur.
What elements do you think would have been missing, or altered, or down-played if the Production Code had been in full effect prior to its release?
Also, do you think that with the right amount of support (or pressure) behind him, Will Hays could ever have challenged Joe Breen for leadership of the PCA, or was he just too strong a contender? And who had his back?
Thanks again for your generosity of time with us!
micklas
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Post by micklas »

Island of Lost Souls, like Frankenstein, posits a mechanistic universe, in which human beings are essentially revealed as to not having souls. This is heavy stuff and would have been considered too unseemly to be made at all under the Code. You can take it to the bank that two years later that movie would have not existed.

Will Hays was Breen's boss, and Breen manipulated Hays into creating the PCA and making Breen the enforcer. But when I said that Hays wasn't a bad guy, I don't mean to imply that he cared anything about movies. He didn't care about either movies or morality, just about the business side of movies, making sure the government stayed out of the censorship business and making sure everybody kept making money. Breen provided as effective a solution as any (an effective solution to a problem he helped instigate) and that was OK with Hays.

The state censor boards -- I'm not sure they existed after 1934. They probably did. But the main thing Breen had to contend with, once he had the job, was in getting movies censored to the point that they would be considered acceptable by the Legion of Decency.

Breen was horrible, an idiot as a story editor, an anti-semite and a creep. I can't believe how some historians have tried to whitewash him or paint him in flattering hues. He's the worst thing that ever happened to American cinema, a belligerent oaf given license to destroy art.
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