Hollywood studios faced a great dilemma in the early 1930s. A Production Code was on the books to get the studios to restrict the depiction of nudity, violence, sexuality, drug use and "correct standards for life." Yet as the Great Depression deepened and box-office receipts declined, the studios had to find ways to sell tickets.
In a case of commerce -- and some might say art and honesty, as well -- triumphing over censorship, the studios decided to ignore the code or challenge its implementation. This resulted in the production of hugely popular, and violent, gangster movies such as 1931's "Little Caesar" and "The Public Enemy" and socially conscious films depicting prison brutality, such as 1932's "I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang."
But it was primarily in the area of sexuality that Hollywood films from 1930 to 1934 took on the censors and served up the kind of racy fare that wouldn't be seen again until the 1950s and '60s. The era became known as "pre-code Hollywood" even though the code existed. (It wasn't seriously enforced until 1934.)
Five of these films are packaged in "TCM Archives: Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 2" (Warner, $50), a fascinating three-disc collection that includes an excellent documentary, "Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood." Here's a quick look:
"The Divorcee" (1930): This controversial film was a direct challenge to the code by its studio, MGM, and resulted in an Oscar for its star, Norma Shearer. She plays a devoted wife who learns that her husband (Chester Morris) has been having an affair. Her response is to sleep with her husband's best friend -- and that's just for starters. Even though Shearer's character reconciles with her husband, the film represents a remarkable depiction of female empowerment and sexual expression.
"A Free Soul" (1931): Shearer this time plays a free-spirited San Francisco socialite who dumps her upper-crust fiancé (Leslie Howard) after she gets one glimpse of the rugged gangster (Clark Gable) her lawyer father (Lionel Barrymore) is defending in a murder trial. Shearer becomes Gable's mistress and has some steamy love scenes with him. But she dumps him after she makes a pact with her alcoholic father -- she won't see Gable anymore if he'll give up drinking. Shearer is as appealing as ever, and Barrymore won an Oscar for his performance, but it's Gable, in one of his first major roles, who stands out.
"Three on a Match" (1932): Director Mervyn LeRoy's film -- filled with alcoholism, drug abuse and child neglect -- is about three childhood friends from different social strata who grow up to become Bette Davis, Joan Blondell and Ann Dvorak. As a wealthy woman who deserts her kind husband and young son for a life of debauchery, Dvorak has the showiest and raunchiest part. Humphrey Bogart appears in one of his early screen roles, playing a gangster.
"Female" (1933): Sort of a romantic comedy from director Michael Curtiz, this film is distinguished by its sexual role reversal: Ruth Chatterton stars as the president of a large automobile corporation who sleeps with various men in her employ before meeting her match in a new employee (George Brent, Chatterton's husband at the time).
