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micklas
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Joined: November 5th, 2007, 8:23 am

Post by micklas »

Tracey K -- Of course you're in on time.

I haven't noticed that about Garbo and Dietrich getting away with more after the Code. I'm not all that sure they did. Dietrich's PRE-CODE movies are pretty risque, while Garbo's aren't particularly, with the exception of QUEEN CHRISTINA. But after the Code both have to comply -- and I think Garbo made out better, because the kind of movies she did, about sin and redemption, were a closer match with the Code than the more baroque exporations found in Dietrich movies. I may be remembering wrong, but doesn't she end up a nun in THE GARDEN OF ALLAH?

I don't know about the Dietrich DVDs, but if BLONDE VENUS begins with a scene of Dietrich in new York, stop watching -- it's a cut sequence.

Coffee Dan -- No, I wouldn't write about the writers. One of the theses of both books was that the producers and performers were more important in that era than the directors or the writers. Writing about the writers wouldn't hold much interest for me, though i have to say I was never more impressed by the skill of the Hollywood screenwriters than when I read the novels -- i read A LOT of them -- that the pre-Code movies were based on. In almost every case, the movies were much better than the novels, and sometimes the novels were just plain lousy. Anyway, I don't expect to write another book about pre-Code movies, unless someone comes at me with some money and begs me to, which will never happen.
I read the Ursula Parrott books and I thought they were both less daring than THE DIVORCEE and STRANGERS MAY KISS.
Do write it -- you have a clear field. But write a proposal first. IT's hard to get a film book published. Way hard. Also be careful in stating the thesis. The novels couldn't have really inspired the pre-Code movies. The star personas inspired the search for the right material. They were going to find that material or make it up, with or without those novels, and the novels are so different from the finished product anyway.
Good luck.

Pilgrimsoul -- Constraints may have inspired imaginative solutions, but Dmytryk's comments (and Capra said pretty much the same thing) ignore the fact that censorship was just as much about WHAT movies were saying, not just HOW they were saying it. I address this in both books. For a filmmaker like Capra who had nothing political to say or nothing feminist to assert, censorship wouldn't be much of a problem. But put it this way: Sex dramas, the staple of pre-Code cinema, disappeared after mid-1934. And women have been on the decline at the box office never since. Dmytryk never tried to make a Kay Francis picture under censorship or he would have had a different idea.

Paramount is controlled by the Evil Empire known as Universal. So long as it is, we'll never see many Paramounts.

Lee Tracy's fall was a personal thing, unrelated to pre-Code. Not sure if he was bitter. That boy had a serious drinking problem throughout his life and it kept getting him into trouble. Interesting, wonderful actor.

Who would I like to see rediscovered? I wonder if Shearer IS rediscovered. I think she must be in a way. I mean, in 1993, they put out a bunch of FORBIDDEN HOLLYWOOD tapes and Shearer wasn't included. But in 2007, we have A FREE SOUL and THE DIVORCEE on the second FORBIDDEN HOLLYWOOD set. That has to have something to do with modern scholarship -- not Lambert, I don't think, but me AND, don't forget, MARK VIEIRA. Vieira's Hurrell book featured Shearer prominently and then his Pre-Code book did the same.
Of course, the major reason for Shearer's rediscovery is that starting in the mid-1990s . . . PEOPLE SUDDENLY WERE ABLE TO SEE, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SIXTY YEARS, HER BEST MOVIES. Not dreck like Marie Antoinette and (heaven help us) ROMEO AND JULIET but the really good pre-Code stuff. And that's when the tide began to turn.
As for who else should be rediscovered? Barthelmess, Hopkins and Harding would be nice. But as it stands, they have a place at the table now, also thanks to the availability of their films . . . which is another way of saying thanks to TCM.

HEY EVERYBODY, IT HAS BEEN A PLEASURE. KEEP IN TOUCH. I MEAN IT.
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moira finnie
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Post by moira finnie »

Thank you for being so generous with your time, Mick. It's been a pleasure. I'm quite sure that we hope that you'll stay in touch with us as well. You are always welcome to visit with us and I'm sure that we'll be visiting your blog and looking for a new book that will take us on a different voyage of discovery someday!

Best wishes for a peaceful Holiday to you and your family. You are always welcome here.
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