During the 1930s, newspaper movie advertisements frequently employed racy and sensational language to quickly capture readers' attention amid the diverse content of the newspapers. Limited by space and black-and-white printing, advertisers relied on bold, provocative text to stand out. This approach was particularly crucial during the Great Depression, as enticing ads could persuade people to spend their limited disposable income on entertainment.
As someone who has seen most of the films, I can tell you that the key to Pre-Code films is not their salaciousness. That’s what the ads sell, but the movies themselves are tamer than the ads. No, the real beauty of Pre-Code films is you could tell ALL stories. Then the Code got enforced, and now you were limited to telling only SOME stories.
In real life, for instance, if a woman grew out of love with her husband, met someone else and fell in love with them, divorced their husband and married the new person, they often ended up happier. Not in a Code film, they couldn’t. You were not allowed to tell that story. She had to be punished at the end, or change her mind and be sorrowful.
In real life characters had agency. In Code films they had narrow lanes of behavior or else they got punished. Thus the storytelling became — by definition — limited.
As someone who has seen most of the films, I can tell you that the key to Pre-Code films is not their salaciousness. That’s what the ads sell, but the movies themselves are tamer than the ads. No, the real beauty of Pre-Code films is you could tell ALL stories. Then the Code got enforced, and now you were limited to telling only SOME stories.
In real life, for instance, if a woman grew out of love with her husband, met someone else and fell in love with them, divorced their husband and married the new person, they often ended up happier. Not in a Code film, they couldn’t. You were not allowed to tell that story. She had to be punished at the end, or change her mind and be sorrowful.
In real life characters had agency. In Code films they had narrow lanes of behavior or else they got punished. Thus the storytelling became — by definition — limited.
Amazing. It sort of anticipates the kind of photos that "Playboy" would be built on.
(I did notice that Carole Lombard's name was misspelled- the "e" got dropped).