In 1932 Warner Brothers Studio executives sent a memo to their production staff saying that two out of every five movies should be “hot.” And most other films “should be pepped up with a little ginger.”
The euphemisms may be old fashioned but what came on the screen wasn’t: carnality, eroticism, sex. Mixed in with a level of violence and just plain weird tales never before seen on the screen.
It was the heart of the pre-code years. The four year period from the changeover to talking pictures to the arrival at of a censor with teeth in at the Production Code Administration.
It’s a time that has never been re-created. Glamor combined with raw sex. Sternberg made Marlene Dietrich the most desirable woman in the world. Joan Crawford seduced everything in her path – and Barbara Stanwyck – smouldered.
The irony is that the arrival of censorship initiated Hollywood’s Golden Age. Censoring Cinema – pre-code Hollywood in this hour.
(Hosted by Michael Goldfarb)
Guests:
Thomas Doherty and Mark Vieral