TCM Archives - Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 2

The Divorcee / A Free Soul / Night Nurse

There’s a lot your grandparents never told you about the old days.

I’m currently watching through the excellent collection of pre-code Hollywood films -- the films made before the Hays office and the Catholic League of Decency stepped in to tamper down the sex and violence in films. If watching an old film makes you think that no one did anything slightly indecent before the 1960s, you should try watching this collection … and rethink the greatest generation.

“The Divorcee” and “A Free Soul” are two classic examples of the prevailing sexuality of the post stock market crash era. People wanted to see the rich and the libidinous and that’s just what Norma Shearer delivers in these two semi-morality tales. “The Divorcee” is clearly the best of them. Based on the 1929 Ursula Parrott novel "Ex-wife", Norma Shearer discovers that her husband has had an affair with another woman. Though he insists its “no big deal” it clearly is and she decides to “even their account.” Exposing the double standards of men and women, the husband clearly can’t take having been cheated on. Women are not supposed to do these things (even though its no big deal for a man.) Ultimately, the wife has many torrid affairs and returns to her husband and all is well.

“A Free Soul” sees Shearer gets involved with her drunken lawyer father’s gangster client (Clark Gable) and ultimately ends up costing the family and herself more than she could have ever imagined. There is a happy ending, but it seems so downbeat that you don’t even notice it.

“Night Nurse” is a Joan Crawford tale that twists and turns around her attempts to be nurse … and a good one at that. She soon discovers that she is to care for two children who are being killed slowly by a greedy shoffer (Clark Gable again) with designs on marrying the drunken wife and collect their trust fund. It turns out that an early friend in the underworld she made saves the day by … calling some guys and taking him for a ride. Essentially, he has him murdered. It is this kind of story that makes you wonder what people are thinking about when they make movies now.

Included are some good commentaries by movie history buffs (who sometimes make you laugh and sometimes make you wonder what audience they are talking to) and an excellent documentary of the entire process leading to the enforcement of the code in 1934.

I haven’t watched “Three on a Match” and “Female” so I expect to review those in future blogs.