Pre-Code Hollywood Collection

Universal Home Video plunges into the sex, sin, and bathtub gin of pre-code Hollywood films with this answer to the Forbidden Hollywood series from Warner Home Video. Although the Pre-Code Hollywood Collection is branded as part of the “Universal Backlot Series,” the six films collected here are actually Paramount titles (Universal owns the rights to the early Paramount catalogue). Paramount boasted an elegant style and opulent touch, with more glamour and soft-focus gloss than the other studios. Presented with the sexy and smart-alecky attitude and snappy pace of the best pre-code studio pictures, the most notable entry here is Mitchell Leisen's Murder at the Vanities (1934), a combination backstage musical, showbiz comedy, and murder mystery in which Carl Brisson and Kitty Carlisle headline the show onstage, although the offstage antics of fast-talking manager Jack Oakie steal the film. Merrily We Go to Hell (1932), which daringly acknowledged extramarital affairs and New York society decadence, stars Fredric March as a charming alcoholic newspaperman in a troubled marriage with sweet society girl Sylvia Sidney (the film was directed by Dorothy Arzner, a rare woman director during Hollywood's early sound era). Search for Beauty (1934) is headlined by Larry “Buster” Crabbe and Ida Lupino (still sporting a British accent) as Olympic champions scammed into endorsing a skin magazine, but con man Robert Armstrong (of King Kong fame) runs off with the film. The set is filled out with The Cheat (1931), starring Tallulah Bankhead as a society woman and compulsive gambler willing to do anything to pay off her debt; Hot Saturday (1932), with Cary Grant as a notorious playboy who kicks off a scandal; and Torch Singer (1933), with Claudette Colbert as a saucy nightclub singer searching for the illegitimate daughter she gave up for adoption years before. DVD extras include the featurette “Forbidden Film: The Production Code Era” and a printed reproduction of the original 1934 code. Highly recommended (S. Axmaker)