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“THE BEST SHOW IN TOWN,” boasted Paramount Pictures in the trades — but for once it wasn’t mere hype. At one end of the spectrum Paramount’s Hollywood movies of the “Pre-Code” early 1930s featured cocktail shakers and white ties, sophisticated dialogue and/or international decadence served up amid lavish décor with a distinctive European flavor. German-born art director Hans Dreier headed a production team that was second to none, while directors Ernst Lubitsch, Josef von Sternberg, Rouben Mamoulian, and the decidedly American Cecil B. DeMille (who created his own brand of spectacular decadence), among others, poured out romance, sophisticated comedy and musical masterworks featuring a roster of stars that are still household names: Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Colbert, Lombard, Dietrich. At the same time, the studio ushered in the second golden age of comedy with The Marx Brothers and W.C. Fields, not to mention Betty Boop, adding a zany undertone to Lubitsch’s dominant innuendo. But in the depths of the Depression, just when it looked like the whole enterprise would fold, an unlikely 40-year-old dea ex machina named Mae West came to the rescue, adding double — and often single — entendre to Paramount’s bag of tricks... and doing more than her share to bring about the Hollywood Production Code crackdown. |
WE ARE MOST GRATEFUL TO BOB O’NEIL, VICE-PRESIDENT IN CHARGE OF FILM PRESERVATION, AND PAUL GINSBURG, VICE-PRESIDENT UNIVERSAL PICTURES DISTRIBUTION, AT NBC UNIVERSAL, COPYRIGHT OWNER OF THE POST-SILENT, PRE-1949 PARAMOUNT LIBRARY, AND TO THE UCLA FILM AND TELEVISION ARCHIVE. THANKS ALSO TO DAVE OAKDEN AND VERA LARIVEE (NBC UNIVERSAL); TODD WIENER (UCLA); LINDA EVANS-SMITH AND MARILEE WOMACK (WARNER BROS.); TIM LANZA (THE ROHAUER COLLECTION); RUSTY CASSELTON; JOSEPH YRANSKI; TOM MOLEN AND HARRY GARRISON (PARAMOUNT); MICHAEL SCHLESINGER; ERIC MYERS; HOWARD MANDELBAUM; AND CINEPHILE EXTRAORDINAIRE RICK SCHECKMAN.
PROGRAMMED BY BRUCE GOLDSTEIN
CLICK HERE FOR SCHEDULE OF ALL FILMS IN SERIES
MOST OF THIS SERIES IS PRESENTED AS DOUBLE
FEATURES (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)
Tickets for double features cannot be purchased on-line. They must be purchased
at the box office.
CLICK HERE for more information on when they are for sale.
Tickets for single features are available on-line up to 7 days in advance.
Links:
HEAR SONGS FROM THE PARAMOUNT PRE-CODE YEARS THIS SUNDAY, JULY 2 ON RICH CONATY'S “THE BIG BROADCAST” |
| RELATED EVENTS | |
PARAMOUNT AT ASTORIA. On Sunday, July 17, at 2:00 p.m., the Museum of the Moving Image will present a special screening of Laughter (1930), starring Nancy Carroll and Fredric March, filmed at Paramount’s East Coast studios in Astoria, just around the corner from the museum. Introduced by historian Richard Koszarski, author of The Astoria Studio and Its Fabulous Films. |
THE NIGHTHAWKS PLAY THE MUSIC OF PARAMOUNT. |
| JUNE 24/25 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
TROUBLE IN PARADISE (1932, ERNST LUBITSCH) Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins share champagne,
caviar, and moonlight, while debonairly picking each other’s pockets,
but Kay Francis proves rival as well as mark. “Spins a wonderful, sophisticated
tale in praise of immorality, money and sex.” – Time Out (London).
1:00, 4:30, 8:00
(1932, JOSEF VON STERNBERG) Herbert Marshall’s glimpse of Marlene Dietrich’s
skinny-dip leads to marriage and toddler Dickie Moore, their happiness derailed
when she must hit the streets to pay for hubbie’s radium poisoning treatments.
The most outlandish of the Dietrich/von Sternberg pictures, highlighted by
her gorilla-suited “Hot Voodoo” number, plus a lucrative affair
with young Cary Grant.
2:40, 6:10, 9:40
| JUNE 26 SUN (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
I’M NO ANGEL (1933, WESLEY RUGGLES) Mae West tells Beulah to peel her a grape and tames
a den of lions, an all-male jury, and socialite Cary Grant, in the picture
that was denounced from pulpits throughout the land... while Paramount cleaned
up at the box office. Plus four UCLA-restored Paramount trailers!
1:00, 4:40,
8:20
GIRLS ABOUT TOWN (1931, GEORGE CUKOR) Despite the Depression, wise-cracking “party
girls” Kay
Francis and Lilyan Tashman wear designer gowns and share a Deco penthouse.
How do they do it? Plus Betty Boop in the very Pre-Code Boop-oop-a-Doop.
2:55,
6:35, 10:15
| JUNE 27 MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
(1932, HARRY WAGSTAFF GRIBBLE & ALEXANDER HALL) Sprung from prison, con
woman Alison Skipworth’s “Countess Claudvig” hightails it
to ex-hubby Richard Bennett’s Wisconsin hotel, where she finds her two
daughters now grown up — one woman enough to be playing around with George
Raft.
2:50, 5:40, 8:30
(1932, BENJAMIN STOLOFF) Gambling drifter Edmund Lowe settles down as a grease
monkey at brother-in-law James Gleason’s garage, then finds wisecracking
romance with Gleason’s boss’s soon-to-be ex-girlfriend Wynne Gibson.
But why did that expensive car suddenly need an immediate paint job? Could
the garage be a front for. . . ?
1:30, 4:20, 7:10, 10:00
| JUNE 28 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
 HOT SATURDAY |
(1932, WILLIAM SEITER) “Scandal? What scandal?” wonders Randolph
Scott on the eve of his marriage to Nancy Carroll, but the whole town thinks
she’s spent the night with city man Cary Grant; and then comes the startlingly
frank pay-off to the wronged nice girl saga.
3:35, 6:40, 9:45
(1934, ERLE C. KENTON) Olympic swim stars Buster Crabbe and Ida Lupino (in
her U.S. debut) find their fitness magazine and health farm are actually fronts
for con men Robert Armstrong and James Gleason’s purveying of torrid
stories and beef-and-cheesecake shows.
2:00, 5:05, 8:10
| JUNE 29 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
 ISLAND OF LOST SOULS |
(1933, ERLE C. KENTON) “Are we not men?” protests Bela Lugosi,
but that’s not how those islanders started out, and when his “experiments” don’t
quite take, mad scientist Charles Laughton has to bring out the whip. Adapted
from H.G. Wells’s The Island of Dr. Moreau.
2:00, 4:50, 7:40
(1933, EDWARD SUTHERLAND) One of the most sadistic of Pre-Code
thrillers (directed by comedy specialist Sutherland) stars Lionel Atwill as
a demented big game hunter who takes ghoulish delight in eliminating his wife’s
lover.
3:30, 6:20, 9:00
| JUNE 30 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
(1930, LAURENCE SCHWAB & LLOYD CORRIGAN) Zelma O’Neal zings “I Wanna Be Bad,” then teams with Jack Haley to re-create their B’way show-stopper “Button Up Your Overcoat,” in thoroughly lovable all-singing-dancing-golfing hit. And Nancy Carroll’s red hair and green eyes light up the screen, in the most perfectly preserved 2-color Technicolor picture — restored from the original camera negative by the UCLA Film Archive. Plus Betty Boop and Ethel Merman sing-along!
 JUNE MOON |
2:35, 6:05, 10:00 (Note change to showtime*)
(1931, EDWARD SUTHERLAND) Schenectady wage slave Jack Oakie aims for songwriting
immortality on Tin Pan Alley with his malaprop-ridden masterpiece “June
Moon,” in super-rare comedy based on the Broadway play by George S. Kaufman
and Ring Lardner. With Frances Dee.
1:00, 4:30, 8:00*
*The 8:00 show will be followed by a panel discuss
with Anne Kaufman Schneider, daughter of George S. Kaufman,
James Lardner, grandson of Ring Lardner, theater historian Foster Hirsch,
musicologist Peter Mintun and Film Forum's Bruce Goldstein
| JULY 1 FRI (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
 THIS IS THE NIGHT |
(1932, FRANK TUTTLE) Back home to change after losing her skirt in a limousine
door while en route to a European tryst with lover Roland Young, Thelma Todd
runs into hubby Cary Grant (in his feature debut) — then as the explanations
escalate, Lili Damita, mistaken for a notorious actress, is recruited to masquerade
as Young’s wife. An unsung farce classic in the Lubitsch style.
3:05,
6:15, 9:25
 KISS AND MAKE-UP |
(1934, HARLAN THOMPSON) Singing beautician/plastic surgeon Cary Grant scorns
work on an important serum to cure the “disease of ugliness” at
his Temple de Beauté in Paris, then gets caught in a ménage à quatrewith
his greatest creation, Genevieve Tobin, her jealous hubby Edward Everett Horton,
and his own secretary Helen Mack.
1:30, 4:40, 7:50
| JULY 2 SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
(1932, WESLEY RUGGLES) On-the-lam gambler Clark Gable hides out in sleepy
Glendale, marrying local librarian Carole Lombard on a coin flip. Only screen
pairing of Gable & Lombard — indifferent to each other on the set,
love & marriage came 7 years later.
1:30, 4:35, 7:40
 WHITE WOMAN |
(1933, STUART WALKER) Alone among outcasts who haven’t
seen a white woman in ten years!. . . and she turns out to be Carole Lombard! — but
Charles Laughton steals scenes wholesale as supremely cockney Horace Prin,
King of the River, topped by a spear-strewn card game.
3:10, 6:15, 9:20
| JULY 3/4 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
DUCK SOUP (1933, LEO MCCAREY) “I can’t call off the war. I’ve paid
a month’s rent on the battlefield.” When the Sylvanian ambassador
insults Groucho’s Rufus T. Firefly, president of Freedonia, “the
country’s going to war” — and so do Harpo, Chico, Zeppo,
and Margaret Dumont. “The most perfect of Marxist masterpieces.” – Time
Out.
1:00, 3:55, 6:50, 9:45
Click here for more information about DUCK SOUP
(1932, NORMAN Z. MCLEOD) “Whatever it is, I’m against it!” declares
Groucho’s Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff, new president of Huxley College,
as speakeasy-recruited football ringers Chico and Harpo re-write the rule book
to help win The Big Game. Laugh for laugh, arguably the Marx boys’ funniest
picture.
2:25, 5:20, 8:15
Click here for more information about HORSE FEATHERS
| JULY 5/6 TUE/WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
 LADIES OF THE BIG HOUSE |
(1933, MARION GERING) Fresh out of the pen with no place
to go, Sylvia Sidney moves in with taxi driver George Raft, but then predatory
socialite Lillian Bond puts the moves on Raft — and Sidney’s gangster
husband comes gunning for him.
TUE 1:10, 4:20, 7:30
WED 1:10, 4:20
(1931, MARION GERING) Unsung slimeball great Earle Foxe complicates ex-moll
Sylvia Sidney and Gene Raymond’s wedding day by framing them for murder.
TUE 2:45, 5:55, 9:05
WED 2:45 ONLY
| JULY 6 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
 CITY STREETS |
(1931, ROUBEN MAMOULIAN) “When you talk to me, take that toothpick
outta your mouth!” Carny worker Gary Cooper is roped into crime by his
love for gangster’s daughter Sylvia Sidney. Crime specialist Dashiell
Hammett's first original screen story, directed with stunning stylization by
Mamoulian.
7:40
(1933, CECIL B. DEMILLE) DeMille’s First Great Spectacle of Modern
Times! A vigilante fantasy — some say an incitement to fascism — with
schoolboys led by Richard Cromwell finding new ways to rid their town of rampant
gangsterism, including grilling mobster Charles Bickford over a pit of rats.
6:00, 9:20
| JULY 7 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
 THE BIG BROADCAST |
(1932, FRANK TUTTLE) Can Leila Hyams head off the suicide pact of crooner
Bing Crosby and oilman Stuart Erwin and bring off the “big broadcast” that’ll
save the station? One of Paramount’s zaniest productions features some
of the biggest names in radio, including Kate Smith, Cab Calloway, and Burns
and Allen. Plus Jack Benny short A Broadway Romeo.
1:00, 4:10, 7:25*
*7:25
show introduced by Rich Conaty, host of WFUV’s “The
Big Broadcast” radio show
(1933, EDWARD SUTHERLAND) “Don’t let the pansy fool ya.” As
the bidders for Dr. Wong’s “radioscope” (aka TV) gather in
Wu Hu, China, U.S. exec Stu Erwin postpones his wedding due to chicken pox;
Rudy Vallee, Cab Calloway, and Burns and Allen do their stuff; and W.C. Fields
flies in on his seemingly beer-fuelled auto-gyro, The Spirit of Brooklyn.
2:45,
6:00, 9:10
| JULY 8 FRI (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
SHANGHAI EXPRESS (1932, JOSEF VON STERNBERG) “It took more than one man to change my
name to Shanghai Lily.” Aboard the title train, befeathered Marlene Dietrich
meets mysterious Anna May Wong and stoic ex-amour Clive Brook, but Chinese
rebel leader Warner Oland demands an unscheduled stop, barking, “The
white woman stays with me!” “Irresistibly enjoyable...a triumphant
fusion of sin, glamour, shamelessness, art, and, perhaps, a furtive sense of
humor.” – Pauline Kael.
2:45, 6:05, 9:25
(1933, ROUBEN MAMOULIAN) In her first non-Sternbergian Hollywood outing,
naïve country lass Marlene Dietrich poses nude for sculptor Brian Aherne
out of love, but gets conned into marrying his patron.
1:00, 4:20, 7:40
| JULY 9 SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
 AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY |
(1931, JOSEF VON STERNBERG) Phillips Holmes seems to strike it rich when
romance blossoms with rich girl Frances Dee, but he’s still involved
with poor girl Sylvia Sydney, in the first adaptation of the Theodore Dreiser
classic (re-made in the ‘50s as A Place in the Sun). “The first
time that sex, birth control and murder have been put into a picture with sense,
taste, and reality.” – Pare Lorentz.
3:35, 7:30
 THE BLUE ANGEL |
(1930, JOSEF VON STERNBERG) Lured to the über-seedy title cabaret, prim
professor Emil Jannings ends up marrying the club’s fickle singer. .
.Marlene Dietrich. Co-financed and imported by Paramount (and made by Par contract
director Sternberg), it also gave the studio one of its biggest stars.
1:30,
5:25, 9:20
Click here for more information about THE BLUE ANGEL
| JULY 10 SUN (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
 THE SIGN OF THE CROSS |
(1932, CECIL B. DEMILLE) Vintage sin, sanctity, and spectacle, as Emperor’s
mistress Claudette Colbert bathes in asses’s milk; Charles Laughton’s
campy Nero chortles while Rome burns and salivates over “delicious debauchery”;
virginal Christian Elissa Landi shrinks from often-cut “Dance of the
Naked Moon”; while pagan Fredric March races his chariot through the
teeming Roman streets. Uncut, uncensored version.
3:00, 7:30
(1934, CECIL B. DEMILLE) Claudette Colbert’s scantily clad queen just
has to pop out of a rug to vamp Warren William’s Caesar — but Henry
Wilcoxon’s Antony gets the full DeMille treatment via a tryst aboard
the legendary barge, with the sea battle of Actium to come.
1:00, 5:30
| JULY 11/12 MON/TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
The era’s Paramount-released, made-in-Manhattan (at 1600 Broadway)
cartoons of the Fleischer brothers, Max and Dave, are as Pre-Code as they come.
Here are some of the outrageous Fleischers, starring Bimbo, Koko and, the queen
of the animated screen herself, Betty Boop.
MON 3:10, 7:10
TUE 3:10 ONLY
For its features, cartoons and musical short subjects, Paramount signed the
era’s top talents of Broadway, vaudeville, radio, and jazz, among them
Ginger Rogers, Cab Calloway, Helen Kane (the original “boopoop- a-doop
girl”), Lillian Roth, even Cary Grant . . . all included in this bouncy
program. And more!
MON 1:10, 5:10, 9:10
TUE 1:10, 5:10
| JULY 12 TUE (SEPARATE ADMISSION) |
SING, YOU SINNERS!
Tonight, piano virtuoso, pop music historian and national treasure Peter
Mintun pays tribute — in performance and film clips — to the studio’s
stable of top songwriters, including Johnny Green, Richard Whiting, Sam Coslow,
and the teams of Leo Robin & Ralph Rainger and Mack Gordon & Harry
Revel.
8:00 ONLY
| JULY 13/14 WED/THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
 MURDER AT THE VANITIES |
(1934, MITCHELL LEISEN) Murder backstage, as blood drips onto a chorine’s
breast, while raffish cops Jack Oakie and Victor McLaglen chase clues and dates,
Carl Brisson warbles “Cocktails For Two” to Kitty Carlisle, Duke
Ellington swings, near-nude showgirls cavort, and a Berkeleyesque number extols
the joys of “marahuana.”
WED 2:40, 6:05, 9:30
THU 2:40 ONLY
(1934, WESLEY RUGGLES) He rose to fame on a ladder of dancing ladies! Ex-coal
miner George Raft moves from Jersey beer garden to swank Paris boîte,
as he and dance partner Carole Lombard heat up the screen tangoing to Ravel’s
eponymous number. With Ray Milland.
WED 1:00, 4:25, 7:50
THU 1:00, 4:25
| JULY 14 THU - (BASTILLE DAY) (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
“I’ve been to Paris, France and I’ve been to Paris, Paramount. I prefer Paris, Paramount.” – Lubitsch.
 ONE HOUR WITH YOU |
(1932, ROUBEN MAMOULIAN) “The son of a gun is nothing but a tailor,” but
isn’t it romantic? Poseur Maurice Chevalier, out to collect from a deadbeat
vicomte, carries off his aristocratic masquerade long enough to hotly pursue
princess Jeanette MacDonald — all to rapturous Rodgers & Hart melodies.
7:45
(1932, ERNST LUBITSCH & GEORGE CUKOR) When Jeanette MacDonald realizes
visiting friend Genevieve Tobin is putting the moves on doctor hubbie Maurice
Chevalier, she decides “what’s sauce for the goose . . . ,” even
as Tobin’s spouse Roland Young is bringing in the private dicks. Restored
by UCLA with original color tints.
6:10, 9:30
| JULY 15/16 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
 THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE |
(1933, STEPHEN ROBERTS) In this adaptation of Faulkner’s notorious
Sanctuary, upper-class Miriam Hopkins is kidnapped by scuzzball Jack La Rue
and — what else? “Are you...? Did he...?” So shocking in
its day it was attacked by the press even before release — and still
kinda creepy.
2:55, 6:15, 9:35
(1931, ROUBEN MAMOULIAN) Fredric March in Oscar-winning performance as Robert
Louis Stevenson’s doctor/monster, his transformation achieved without
cuts through the use of succeeding color filters. Hyde’s sadistic sexual
encounters with Cockney slavey Miriam Hopkins are among the most sordid of
the era — subsequent reissues were heavily censored and cut. Complete
original version.
1:00, 4:20, 7:40
| JULY 17/18 SUN/MON (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
(1931, NORMAN Z. MCLEOD) “You call this a party? The beer is
warm and the women are cold!” The Four Marx Bros. stow away
on a luxury liner, chase blondes (including peerless foil Thelma Todd),
catch crooks, and imitate Maurice Chevalier, in the first screenplay written
especially for the team. Plus the Marx Brothers in a rare promo short for
the picture.
1:30, 4:35, 7:40
Click here for more information about MONKEY BUSINESS
(1932, EDWARD CLINE) W.C. Fields stars as the Indian-wrestling president
of “Klopstokia,” where all the women are called Angela, all the
men named George, and everyone’s a worldclass athlete. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
(!) wrote the original story. “One of the silliest and funniest pictures
ever made.” – The New Yorker.
3:15, 6:20, 9:25
| JULY 19 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
 TWO KINDS OF WOMEN |
(1932, WILLIAM C. DEMILLE) “Is New York City America? The answer is ‘No!’” As
a South Dakota Senator visits Gotham to denounce its wicked influence on the
rest of the nation, his daughter Miriam Hopkins falls hard for already-married
playboy Phillips Holmes.
1:00, 4:05, 7:10, 10:15
(1931, RICHARD WALLACE) Ex-con Regis Toomey goes straight for wifey Clara
Bow, until a botched heist by her “snowbird” brother and a frame-up
by crooked cops. Bow’s final Paramount picture — she’d been
the studio’s biggest draw — was sabotaged by her on-set breakdown.
2:30, 5:35, 8:40
| JULY 20 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
 MOROCCO |
(1932, FRANK BORZAGE) On the Italian front in WWI, soldier Gary Cooper falls
for nurse Helen Hayes, and, hearing of her pregnancy during the disastrous
retreat from the Battle of Caporetto, decides to opt out of the war. First-ever
Hemingway adaptation; he nixed the studio’s happy ending. Oscar for Best
Cinematography.
3:35, 7:10
(1930, JOSEF VON STERNBERG) In her Hollywood debut, Marlene Dietrich’s
sultry top-hot-andwhite- tailed chanteuse (“What Am I Bid for My Apples?”)
startles a female patron in her North African cabaret with a kiss on the lips,
then turns the heads of filthy rich colonial Adolphe Menjou and pouting legionnaire
Gary Cooper. “Enchantingly silly, full of soulful grand passions and
drifting cigarette smoke.” – Pauline Kael.
1:45, 5:20, 8:55
| JULY 21 THU (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION) |
(1933, LOWELL SHERMAN) “Is that a gun in your pocket or are you
just glad to see me?” One of the lines that got Mae West in hot water and
a Depression-stricken Paramount into the black, in Mae’s blockbuster
adaptation of her stage hit “Diamond Lil,” with Salvation Army
captain Cary Grant as the hunk she asks to “come up and see me sometime.”
2:00,
4:50, 7:40
Click here for more information about SHE DONE HIM WRONG
(1932, ARCHIE MAYO) Just as ex-pug/speakeasy owner George Raft, after falling
for elegant but down-on-her-luck Constance Cummings, has hired Alison Skipworth
for lessons in “class,” who should show up but double-entendre
doyenne Mae West (in her debut) — and then gangsters muscle in as well.
3:25, 6:15, 9:05
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