5.0 out of 5 stars Another good set of pre-code gems

D.M. · December 7, 2007

(function() { P.when('cr-A', 'ready').execute(function(A) { if(typeof A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel === 'function') { A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel('review_text_read_more', 'Read more of this review', 'Read less of this review'); } }); })(); .review-text-read-more-expander:focus-visible { outline: 2px solid #2162a1; outline-offset: 2px; border-radius: 5px; } The announcement of the second set of the Forbidden Hollywood series is welcome. The set falls neatly into 2 groups - the MGM pair and the Warners trio.The former are well mounted up-market A pictures with the prestigious Norma Shearer. Shearer was the wife of MGM wonderboy producer Irving Thalberg and his management of her limited talent was masterful. Both films carefully showcase her in "modern" stories of liberated women with attitudes to sex which were scandalous in 1930.- In "The Divorcee", Shearer won the best actress Oscar playing a woman who divorces her husband because he is unfaithful then proceeds to "liberate" herself with other men. The film is a very early talkie with all the associated limitations - stagy, endless talk and some corny acting, including a very mannered Shearer. The disk contains a commentary which notes these limitations, particularly Shearer's.- "A Free Soul" enhanced Shearer's reputation as THE prototype of the sexually liberated woman in this tale of a woman whose fiance, Leslie Howard, murders her lover, a very raunchy Clark Gable. Lionel Barrymore won an Oscar for his performance as Shearer's lawyer father and deservedly so. This is a much better film than "The Divorcee", demonstrating how quickly Hollywood progressed with talkies - better direction, photography, recording and acting. The story is really interesting with some great twists and Shearer is generally less mannered and accordingly much more effective than the earlier film. She also wears some of the best clothes ever seen on the screen, transforming her dumpy figure into a svelte and sexy one.The remaining trio reflect Warner's assembly line approach to film making at the time and have shorter running times and faster pace.- "Night Nurse" is a sordid tale starring the relentless Barbara Stanwyck as a nurse, with great support from Joan Blondell and a particularly nasty Clark Gable whose star quality is impossible to ignore. Stanwyck and Blondell seem to be constantly stripping for the camera and there are some great lines. Blondell says "I used to worry that the hospital would burn down. Now I have to watch myself with matches".- "Three on a Match" is a very short film which moves with lightening speed. It stars the luminous Ann Dvorak as a bored wife, the reliable Blondell as the heart-of-gold showgirl and an attractive but subdued Bette Davis as a secretary/nanny of all things. The women, who were childhood friends, renew acquaintance at lunch and light their cigarettes with one match, a superstition with ominous consequences. The film's plot involves kidnapping, a subject taken straight from the headlines in 1932, and covers sex and drugs and rock 'n roll, well jazz anyway. Note also the array of great players in supporting or cameo roles, some unbilled - Glenda Farrell in the reform school, Humphrey Bogart as a particularly vicious gangster, Allen Jenkins as one of the gang, Edward Arnold as the head of the kidnappers, Frankie Darro as as a schoolboy and Anne Shirley, billed as Dawn O'Day, playing Dvorak as a child.- "Female" is the oddest film in the bunch because it stars the sophisticated and dry Ruth Chatterton, a polished diva probably more suited to MGM gloss than gritty Warner's realism. Chatterton plays a business woman competing in a man's world until she meets her nemesis George Brent. The pre-code aspects of the film relate to Chatterton placing her sex life in a compartment with a string of lovers on call, but no time for true love. It is surprising. The film is very funny at times and Brent, who was married to Chatterton at the time, is excellent.The prints of all the films are good enough, with "Three on a Match" particularly mint. The Warners group contain the original trailers. The set includes a first rate documentary on the pre-code era which neatly captures the intrigue of this short period as talkies evolved. The documentary, produced by TCM, largely confines itself to the products of MGM and Warners which of course are the TCM libraries. "Night Nurse" contains an entertaining commentary shared between 2 relaxed historians.It is worth noting that the stars of all of these films are women, like the previous Forbidden Hollywood Series. The Hays Code curtailed the actions and attitudes of women, taking them out of the bedroom and boardroom and placing them back in the kitchen and lounge. For men, nothing really changed much. By the way, that's Bette Davis, who was very attractive in those days, on the cover.

3.0 out of 5 stars defective discs

M.C. · May 1, 2023

First disc has two movies. First movie disc stop and gets stuck midway through movie and you cannot continue. Second movie on disc will not play.

5.0 out of 5 stars Love and sex, pre-Code style

m. · August 25, 2008

There were a few years in movie making when sound was first introduced but the Production Codes had not yet been in force. These codes would severely limit the ability of movies to depict the real world: sex, violence and corruption were toned down - often to the point of sheer blandness. Crime could never pay, authority figures were always forces of good and even married couples were confined to twin beds. There were those few years, however, from the late-1920s to 1934 which was known as the pre-Code era, a period that offered films that would be much more daring than the movies of just a few years later.TCM's set, Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Volume Two, showcases five such pre-Code movies. On the first of three discs are a pair of Norma Shearer films. In The Divorcee, she won an Oscar as a wife who discovers that her husband had an affair. Although he assures her it means nothing, it is an obvious hypocrisy that's exposed when she balances the books with an affair of her own. In A Free Soul, she defiantly has a fling with gangster Clark Gable, only to discover that the relationship will have unintended complications. Lionel Barrymore, playing her alcoholic father, won an Oscar for his role and Gable's performance would help transform him from a supporting player into a star.On Disc Two, there is Three on a Match and Female. The former is a story of three schoolmates who meet in adulthood. Joan Blondell is the bad girl turned good, Ann Dvorak is the good girl turned bad, and Bette Davis is somewhere in the middle. This movie features an early gangster role by Humphrey Bogart. Female has Ruth Chatterton as the driven owner of an auto company. She works hard by day and chooses various male employees to be her playthings at night. It's a fine arrangement until she meets George Brent as the one man who resists her charms.Finally, on Disc Three, Barbara Stanwyck is the Night Nurse, a woman from the wrong side of the tracks who betters herself by becoming a nurse. Unfortunately, the ethics of the profession compel her to look the other way when she sees malpractice, but she'll put what's right above what's required. Clark Gable is in one of his most villainous roles as a thuggish chauffeur out to kill a couple children. The resolution of this one would involve an act that would never be allowed under the Code.Also on the third disc is a nice documentary called Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood. This feature describes more fully what this era meant to film, and what it meant when it ended. One thing that stands out is that this was a time where actresses could have juicy roles, a heyday for Blondell, Davis, Stanwyck and Shearer as well as folks like Crawford, Hepburn and Loy. The Code with its "family values" agenda would pigeonhole the women into much more limited roles.All these movies are well-made and relatively short: the longest (A Free Soul) runs 93 minutes and Female is just an hour. With the documentary and a couple commentaries (on The Divorcee and Night Nurse), this is a wonderful set that will not only entertain, but serve as a reminder as to what the Production Code took away from movie making.

With French subtitles

L.s. · February 15, 2025

(function() { P.when('cr-A', 'ready').execute(function(A) { if(typeof A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel === 'function') { A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel('review_text_read_more', 'Read more of this review', 'Read less of this review'); } }); })(); .review-text-read-more-expander:focus-visible { outline: 2px solid #2162a1; outline-offset: 2px; border-radius: 5px; } J'ai constaté que mon petit coffret DVD « Forbidden Hollywood Collection Vol. II (TCM Archives) », tout bleuté, vient heureusement avec des sous-titres français. Alors : 5 *

"forbidden" is the word!

j.h. · December 16, 2011

i can understand how such hollywood films as the ones in this set were largely banned by the hays office, as some of the content is rather daring for the times. nevertheless, there are some excellent films to be seen here. "night nurse," "three on a match" and "a free soul are the best ones in my opinion.each film has various references to violence and to drug and alcohol abuse and is slightly graphic at times but used to good effect in highlighting the plight of the various characters."night nurse" and "a free soul" feature clark gable in early film roles and he's effective as the heavy in both.i thought that the documentary in this dvd set was fascinating but i agree with the previous customer's review.

Disc One was defective, hence the poor review.

V. · July 30, 2012

I would have loved to give this set a wonderful review, but when I got it home and tried to play the first disc, my Bluray player spit it right back out. I thought maybe my player was acting up, but when I checked the back of the disc for any scratches, I noticed that it had a milky white film over the entire play area. The other two discs in the set appeared to be fine.I have sent this product back for a full refund. I've no doubt the actual movies and doucmentary are worth 5 stars, but I am extremely saddened that I had to send the product back. I was really looking forward to watching all five films on here.My advice: Do go ahead and check all discs to make sure that they all run perfectly. This is the first time I've ever had to return a defective product, so hopefully this won't happen again :)

Shearer and Stanwyck Showcase of Early Films

M. · December 25, 2010

This is the second volume of the three volume collection of Pre-Code Hollywood movies. These films offer a fascinating glimpse into 1930's social mores that we rarely would be able to see once the censorship code took effect in Hollywood.The collection has two fascinating films starring Norma Shearer. I have to admit that Shearer is not one of my favourite actresses, but the films are interesting nevertheless. The first of these two, The Divorcee, is an exploration of a woman's relationships after she has a divorce. Fearful of any new commitment, she begins having a series of meaningless affairs, the point being that she does not have to be sexually tied down due to her divorce. The second film, A Free Soul, is about a woman who does not believe in any social or moral conventions regarding her sexuality, and therefore has no problem having sexual relations before marriage, a rather avant garde lifestyle for a woman of the time. Clark Gable is in this film, before his superstar status, playing a hard nosed gangster who ends up wanting the Shearer character to make a permanent commitment to him against her will. Leslie Howard is also in the film, again before his emergence as a star, playing the cuckolded ex-boyfriend who ends up saving her from Gable.In Night Nurse, we have a very young Barbara Stanwyck playing a nurse with a strong conscience and devotion to her profession trying to save two children from being murdered. This film also has a pre-superstar Clark Gable in not only his most villainous role, but probably in one of the most villainous roles in Hollywood history. He is absolutely amazing in playing the handsome but banally evil and brutish chauffeur, his screen presence overwhelming in its menace. This film is worth viewing if only to witness his performance.Three On A Match is an okay film starring Ann Dvorak, who plays a wife and mother who leaves her husband for the excitement of a playboy. What is especially notable in this film is the small supporting role of Bette Davis, and an early Humphrey Bogart performance as a villain. It is interesting to see Bogart early in his career, how even with supporting roles he tends to dominate the screen with his charisma. In this film he makes an amusing gesture referring to Ann Dvoraks' character's addiction to cocaine.Finally, we have Female, starring the mostly forgotten yet talented Ruth Chatterton. In this film she plays a business tycoon that uses her wealth and power to seduce a series of male employees until she meets her match in George Brent. The story is relatively weak and silly, but it is interesting to see a film of the day exploring the sexual promiscuity of an intelligent and powerful woman, and a glimpse of George Brent at the beginning of his film career.These films are particularly remarkle in their feminist inclination, many decades before the feminist revolution of the 60's and 70's, and how they unabashedly explore themes of sexual promiscuity, drug addiction, adultery, and the murder of children. These themes would rarely be seen in Hollywood movies in such a graphic honesty after the pre-code era.

Wow, love the classics.

L.M. · May 17, 2014

I love classic movies, these are great, I know if before the code is supposedly outrageous, heaven only knows we have no code whatsoever these days....... Just buy this set for the classic of the beginning code to the end...... Truly a great collection......