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0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 For pre code nostalgia only. May 13, 2010
Baby Face:
Its not often you get a movie that uses Nietzsche as a pretext for the plot (2 stars just for that). Barbara Stanwyck is sleazy and cool (as well as gorgeous as usual). Not a great movie, maybe not even good (cause everyone's naivety her improbable fortuitousness) but something worth watching out of perverse curiosity.
Red-Headed Woman:
First , since it existed (tho expense) they could of used Technicolor for this flick, why make a movie about a read head if its black and white? Pointless, which shows how highly they thought of the prospect of this move making any money or perhaps being any good. The move got old pretty quick, its also annoying. Finally I don't think Jean Harlow is attractive or sexy, not even in a slutty way.
Waterloo Bridge:
The 1940 remake is rated as being much better than this, the original version. Should be because I couldn't get past first 30 minutes of this one.
 Forbidden Hollywood = forbidden history Apr 24, 2010
Baby Face and Red-Headed Woman are well-known as risque vehicles for Barbary Stanwick and Jean Harlow, the first detailing the cold-hearted use of sex as a tool to escape poverty and abuse, and the second flaunting the damage done by an impoverished sexual enthusiast using that same tool, but while figuratively smacking her lips. Both are valuable reflections of their time as well as enjoyable movies.
The third film was unknown to me before buying this set, but deserves to be as widely viewed as the others. Once again, a poor woman is forced to use sex as a commodity to survive but, in this case, her values preclude damage to a true innocent. I was especially moved by the peer-to-peer exchanges between the girl and her suiter's mother.
This collection is well worth owning, as is the second volume of the same set.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 A treat Feb 15, 2010
Most people who consider buying this set will probably be fans of early talkies. For anybody else who's intrigued but not sure what the movies would be like, here's an overview by a non-expert.
One of the two discs is devoted to TWO versions of Baby Face. The message of the original version is that real love soars when it's untethered from role-playing, when man and woman see each other as equals. The message of the censored version is that if a girl wants a good marriage, she needs to understand her proper, subserviant role. This film was the "straw that broke the camel's back" and made censorship standard. In my opinion the two best things about both versions are:
(1) the fresh, natural acting of Barbara Stanwyck. Her character lives in the early '30s, but her acting is anything but dated. The guys are more cardboard.
(2) the extended and natural relationship between Stanwyck's character and her character's best friend, who happens to be black. I'm not sure if any other relationship like this appears in mainstream movies for several decades.
Waterloo Bridge, on the other disc, has an excellent script and also boasts natural, strong acting by both the female and male leads. There's no mistaking the fact that it's a film of a stage play. It's still more believable and fun than some films that won Oscars back then.
Redheaded Woman is enjoyable; Harlow and Una Merkel are good. But to me the film seems like a warm-up for Baby Face.
Bottom line: I'm glad I bought this set. If you're intrigued I'd snap one up before it disappears.
0 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Should have remained forbidden Sep 12, 2009
Not very interesting films selected simply because they fell under the approved subjects for their time.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
What's Most Shocking Is What Isn't Shown Aug 30, 2009
These Pre-Code films are being touted for the frankness of the subject matter. What I found interesting is despite the supposedly sordid material on display it seems that the makers were censoring themselves and only alluding to the most base behavior demonstrated by the films' "heroines". For the most prurient among us there is no nudity or wanton displays of carnal knowledge. As far as I'm concerned that's alright because in this age of anything goes some of our auteur's could use a little self-policing. The best of the bunch is "Baby Face" where Barbara Stanwyck plays a down-and-outer who has been mistreated by men her whole life. Directed to Nietzchean philosophy by a professorial type she learns how to exploit her feminine wiles in the corporate world and leaving casualties in her wake. There's a certain morality in the end that some may take offense to but I found it to be satisfying. "Waterloo Bridge" is a rather conventional love story between an American girl and a Canadian G.I. What distinguishes the film is that the girl is a streetwalker and the makers make no bones about her profession. A gritty film that could have been better if the principals, Mae Clarke and Kent Douglas, were better actors. Check out the remake with Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor even if it is a somewhat sanitized version. The weakest film in the set I found to be is "Red Headed Woman". Once again we find a girl from the wrong side of the tracks(Jean Harlow) attempting to sleep her way to the top despite the ancilliary damage she may cause. The film suffers from a certain degree of staginess and incidental campiness. Harlow, a gifted comedienne taken before her time, elevates the otherwise inert material. I recommend this collection because I think it fascinating how social mores have changed in some ways and other ways not since these films were released in the Thirties.
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