It Happened One Night (1934), Trouble in Paradise (1932), Freaks (1932), Footlight Parade (1933), Love Me Tonight (1932), Design for Living (1933), One Way Passage (1932), Island of Lost Souls (1933) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Pre-code movies.
Storyline: Ellie Andrews has just tied the knot with society aviator King Westley when she is whisked away to her father's yacht and out of King's clutches. Ellie jumps ship and eventually winds up on a bus headed back to her husband. Reluctantly she must accept the help of out-of- work reporter Peter Warne. Actually, Warne doesn't give her any choice: either she sticks with him until he gets her back to her husband, or he'll blow the whistle on Ellie to her father. Either way, Peter gets what (he thinks!) he wants .... a really juicy newspaper story.
Plot Keywords: romance, comedy, classic, road movie, journalist, opposites attract, oscar winner ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: High class European thief Gaston Monescu meets his soul mate Lily, a pickpocket masquerading as a countess. The two join forces and come under the employ of Mme. Colet, the beautiful owner of the Colet perfume company. Gaston works as Mme. Colet's personal secretary under the alias Monsieur La Valle. Rumors start to fly as 'M. La Valle' steals Mme. Colet away from her other suitors. When the secret of his true identity catches up to him, Gaston is caught between the two beautiful women.
Plot Keywords: comedy, romance, drama, classic, 1930s, black and white, witty ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: A circus trapeze artist, Cleopatra, takes an interest in Hans, a midget who works in the circus sideshow. Her interest however is in the money Hans will be inheriting and she is actually carrying on an affair with another circus performer, Hercules. Hans's fiancée does her best to convince him that he is being used but to no avail. At their wedding party, a drunken Cleopatra tells the sideshow freaks just what she thinks of them. Together, the freaks decide to make her one of their own.
Plot Keywords: horror, science fiction, classic, black and white, thriller, drama, fantasy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Chester Kent produces musical comedies on the stage. With the beginning of the talkies era he changes to producing short musical prologues for movies. This is stressful to him, because he always needs new units and his rival is stealing his ideas. He can get an contract with a producer if he is able to stage in three days three new prologues. In spite of great problems, he does it.—Stephan Eichenberg <eichenbe@fak-cbg.tu-muenchen.de>
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, great depression era, broadway, musical theater, warner bros ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: When Parisienne tailor Maurice Courtelin learns that one of his aristocratic clients, the Viscount Gilbert de Varèze, is a deadbeat who never pays for the merchandise he acquires, he heads off to try and collect what is owed to him. He gets little in the way of cash from the Viscount who is desperate that his uncle, the Duke D'Artelines not learn of his debts. He suggests that Maurice spend a little time at the chateau until the money can be found. The Duke takes an immediate liking to Maurice - who's been introduced as a Baron - but that's not the case for the Princess Jeanette who, after an encounter with him him on the road earlier that day. Over time Jeannette falls in love with him—garykmcd
Plot Keywords: musical, romance, comedy, 1930s, paris, french, song and dance ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Two Americans sharing a flat in Paris, playwright Tom Chambers and painter George Curtis, fall for free-spirited Gilda Farrell. When she can't make up her mind which one of them she prefers, she proposes a "gentleman's agreement": She will move in with them as a friend and critic of their work, but they will never have sex. But when Tom goes to London to supervise a production of one of his plays, leaving Gilda alone with George, how long will their gentleman's agreement last?—Capel Cleggs <capelcleggs@my-deja.com>
Plot Keywords: comedy, romance, love triangle, classic, romantic comedy, golden age hollywood, noel coward ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Suave Dan Hardesty, a convicted murderer, is apprehended by Steve Burke, a police detective, in Hong Kong and accompanied on the SS Maloa headed for San Francisco. On board, Dan romances Joan Ames, a terminally ill socialite. She is unaware that his ultimate destination is San Quentin. Both realize that their time together is fleeting so they make a pact to meet at a Mexican night club on New Years Eve. When they part in San Francisco they know that the odds are against them.—Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca>
Plot Keywords: romance, drama, classic, 1930s, black and white, tragedy, hollywood ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: After his ship goes down, Edward Parker is rescued at sea. Parker gets into a fight with Captain Davies of the Apia and the Captain tosses him overboard while making a delivery to the tiny tropical island of Dr. Moreau. Parker discovers that Moreau has good reason to be so secretive on his lonely island. The doctor is a whip-cracking task master to a growing population of his own gruesome human/animal experiments. He does have one prize result, Lota the beautiful panther woman. Parker's fortunes for escape look up after his fiancée Ruth finds him with the help of fearless Captain Donohue. However, when Moreau's tribe of near-humans rises up to rebel, no one is safe...—Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca>
Plot Keywords: horror, science fiction, classic, black and white, adaptation, 1930s, island ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: This first film version of "The Children's Hour" uses a heterosexual triangle rather than the play's lesbian theme. The plot concerns schoolteachers Karen Wright and Martha Dobie, both of whom are in love with Dr. Joe Cardin. The malicious lie of one of their students involves all three in a scandal which disrupts all their lives.—Daniel Bubbeo <dbubbeo@cmp.com>
Plot Keywords: drama, romance, film noir, adaptation, play adaptation, love triangle, forbidden love ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Renowned Broadway producer/director Julian Marsh is hired to put together a new musical revue. It's being financed by Abner Dillon to provide a starring vehicle for his girlfriend, songstress Dorothy Brock. Marsh, who is quite ill, is a difficult task master working long hours and continually pushing the cast to do better. When Brock breaks her ankle one of the chorus girls, Peggy Sawyer, gets her big chance to be the star. She also finds romance along the way.—garykmcd
Plot Keywords: musical, dance, broadway, show business, director, ensemble cast, theater ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: When a baroness is present during a robbery at a jewellers in Vienna, she finds the gang's debonair leader more attractive than either her husband or her lover.—Ian Harries <ih@doc.ic.ac.uk>
Plot Keywords: crime, comedy, romance, thriller, 1930s, black comedy, romantic comedy ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Kurt Anderson is the tyrannical manager of a New York department store in financial straits. He thinks nothing of firing an employee of more than 20 years or of toying with the affections of every woman he meets. One such victim is Madeline, a beautiful young woman in need of a job. Anderson hires her as a salesgirl, but not before the two spend the night together. Madeline is ashamed, especially after she falls for Martin West, a rising young star at the store. Her biggest fear is that Martin finds out the truth about her "career move."—<dbubbeo@cmp.com>
Plot Keywords: drama, romance, workplace, great depression, power struggle, moral dilemma, film noir ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Mary Keaton, Vivian Kirkwood (née Revere), and Ruth Westcott have just run into each other having not seen each other in ten years since they graduated from Public School 62 together, and become friends of sorts in their re-acquaintance. Their intervening lives went much as probably would have been predicted when they were in public school: Mary, the troublemaker who almost didn't graduate with her class, spent some time in a reformatory but went straight and became a showgirl; Vivian, the popular beauty with a charmed life, married wealthy and renowned lawyer Robert Kirkwood, the two with an adolescent son, Robert Jr.; and Ruth, the quiet, hard-working, smart one, who became a stenographer. While Mary's life took a positive turn since her reformatory years, Vivian has come to the realization that she is unhappy with her life, its path a little too easy in its predetermination. She realizes she probably never loved Robert. Her quest for pleasure, with a blessing of sorts from Robert who doesn't want his wife, whom he still loves, to be as distant as she seems, will affect Mary, as well. Their collective destinies may be foreshadowed by an old wives' tale about three sharing a single match, from which the film takes its name.—Huggo (updated by R.M. Sieger)
Plot Keywords: crime, drama, film noir, classic, 1930s, female lead, social issues ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Andre and Colette Bertier are happily married. When Colette introduces her husband to her flirtatious best friend, Mitzi, he does his best to resist her advances. But she is persistent, and very cute, and he succumbs. Mitzi's husband wants to divorce her, and has been having her tailed. Andre gets caught, and must confess to his wife. But Colette has had problems resisting the attentions of another man herself, and they forgive each other.—John Oswalt <jao@jao.com>
Plot Keywords: musical, comedy, romance, 1930s, black and white, infidelity, lighthearted ...
Movie Details Click Here !Storyline: Lora Hart manages to land a job in a hospital as a trainee nurse. Upon completion of her training she goes to work as a night nurse for two small children who seem to be very sick, but something much more sinister is going on.—Col Needham <col@imdb.com>
Plot Keywords: crime, drama, thriller, film noir, nurse, medical, murder ...
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