From Turner Classic Movies and the creators of @precodedotcom, this is the essential film-by-film guide to must-see cinema from the pre-Code era—a wild and wonderful time in Hollywood history before strict enforcement of a censorship code that ruled moviemaking for decades.
With unparalleled freedom in the Golden Age of Hollywood, movies produced during the “pre-Code” era between 1930 and 1934 boldly confronted a wide range of provocative subjects, including sexual freedom, the glorification of outlaws, racial taboos, and class consciousness. Films of the period include beloved classics like
Grand Hotel
(1932) and
King Kong
(1933) but also lesser-known gems like
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
Ann Vickers
(1933). These films, produced at the height of the Great Depression, pushed the limits of contemporary social norms at a time when Hollywood studios were desperate to attract audiences—by any means necessary.
Pre-Code Essentials
invites modern readers to engage with that history while diving deep into movies that remain, as they were then, adventurous and uncompromising.
In their incisive text, film historians Kim Luperi and Danny Reid cover fifty films that take readers through the pre-Code era’s evolution. Perfect for both pre-Code novices and film aficionados alike, the book is packed with detailed production and censorship histories, recommendations, and trivia. Famous names like Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Harlow, Clark Gable, and Ernst Lubitsch get their due, while sidebars spotlight treasures of the period like Ann Dvorak, Joan Blondell, Paul Robeson, Nina Mae McKinney, Dorothy Arzner, Warren William, and Dolores De Rio. Post-Epilogue features discuss availability of the listed films and include the text of the 1930 Production Code. Illustrated by more than 200 photos, Production Code Administration records detailing correspondence between studios and censors, and more,
is both a gorgeous guide and an indispensable resource of Hollywood history.
Among the films profiled:
The Divorcee
,
All Quiet on the Western Front
Safe in Hell
Frankenstein
Shanghai Express
Freaks
Merrily We Go to Hell
Downstairs
Love Me Tonight
Trouble in Paradise
Three on a Match
The Sign of the Cross
Gabriel Over the White House
The Story of Temple Drake
The Emperor Jones
The Sin of Nora Moran
I Am Suzanne!
The Black Cat
Smarty
Murder at the Vanities
, and many more