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发帖数: 60932 | 1 Amazon has TCM Archives "Forbidden Hollywood" Collections, volume 2 (The
Divorcee / A Free Soul / Night Nurse / Three on a Match / Female) or volume
3 (Other Men's Women / The Purchase Price / Frisco Jenny / Midnight Mary /
Heroes for Sale / Wild Boys of the Road), for $16.99 each with free super-
saver shipping for orders over $25.
This is the lowest price these collections have ever been. If you like
early talking films from the early 1930's during the pre-code Hollywood era,
these are wonderful collections to have in your DVD library and would
likewise make great holiday gifts. The picture quality is outstanding from
the restored prints of these long ignored movies.
LINKS
volume 2:
Link:
http://www.amazon.com/TCM-Archives-Forbidden-Hollywood-Collection/dp/B000YRY7VC/
volume 3:
Link:
http://www.amazon.com/Forbidden-Hollywood-Collection-Purchase-Midnight/dp/B001OSC4G0/
full descriptions (via Amazon's descriptions):
VOLUME TWO
THE DIVORCEE (1930): After several blissful years of marriage a woman
catches her husband in a compromising position and forces him to confess his
infidelities Her solution to the problem is to then try to match him tryst
for tryst. Based on the 1929 Ursula Parrott novel "Ex-wife," this highly
controversial story was first published anonymously, with the authors name
added only after thousands of copies were sold. A FREE SOUL (1931): Lionel
Barrymore shines as Stephen Ashe, a brilliant alcoholic lawyer who
successfully defends dashing gangster Ace Wilfong (Clark Gable) on a murder
charge only to find that his headstrong daughter, Jan (Norma Shearer), has
fallen in love with his client. Jan, a fun-loving socialite seeking freedom
from her blue-blood upbring, is only too eager to dump her aristocratic
boyfriend (Leslie Howard) for the no-good gangster. Barrymore gives a
remarkable Oscar-winning performance culminating in a legendary courtroom
scene that is powerful and deeply moving. THREE ON A MATCH (1932): Childhood
friends Mary Keaton, Ruth Wescott and Vivian Deverse reunite ten years
after high school. Mary is now a chorus girl, level-headed Ruth has a job as
a secretary, and sexy Vivian is on the verge of deserting her wealthy
husband Henry Kirkwood and their baby in favor of a glamorous gangster.
FEMALE (1933): In Michael Curtiz's romantic comedy FEMALE, Ruth Chatterton
plays Alison Drake, the iron-fisted president of a motorcar company. Alison
oversees the daily operations of her male employees with a predatory gaze
and frequently exercises her right to engage with them in any way she deems
fit. She meets her match in an equally strong-minded new employee, Jim
Thorne (George Brent), and the two engage in a smoldering, contentious,
sexually charged duel. NIGHT NURSE (1931): William Wellman's NIGHT NURSE is
a sassy, unsentimental comedy about a private pediatric nurse named Lora
Hart (Barbara Stanwyck) who, after applying as an apprentice in a family
home, discovers there is a plot afoot to starve her two rich, fat, young
charges to death. The culprit is the family's chauffeur, Nick (Clark Gable),
a villain who plans to marry the kids' dissolute mother and make off with
their trust fund. THOU SHALT NOT: SEX, SIN AND CENSORSHIP IN PRE-CODE
HOLLYWOOD (2008): Over seventy years later, they've lost none of their power
to shock, entertain, and titillate. So-called "pre-Code" movies remain
among the most vital films America has ever produced. But why were these
films so much more sexually free and socially critical than what came before
or after? Who created the Code, and what did it forbid? And why did it
finally become a Hollywood commandment? The answer is a fascinating mix of
scandal, big business and social history - a unique collision of events that
resulted in one of the most dynamic - and delicious - periods in Hollywood
history.
VOLUME THREE
Five more Warner Bros. features produced before the Hollywood Production
Code await viewers on the third volume of TCMs consistently impressive
Forbidden Hollywood series. While suggestive content (and by 21st century
standards, extremely mild in its suggestiveness) is the overall binding
factor of the films in the series, Volume 3 centers around the work of
director William Wellman (Wings, The Public Enemy, The Ox-Bow Incident), who
helmed each of the pictures in the set. The strongest feature of the set,
both in terms of content and message, is perhaps 1933s Wild Boys of the Road
, with pint-sized Frankie Darro as a can-do kid searching for work amidst
the urban jungle of Depression-era New York. It, along with Heroes for Sale
(1933), with Richard Barthelmess as a World War I hero who battles drug
addiction and corporate shenanigans, only to end up among the jobless, paint
a fairly dark picture of the American middle class that may resonate in the
modern economic landscape. The remaining pictures offer a brighter outlook,
inspired, no doubt, by the arrival of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the
White House. Midnight Mary (1933), the only picture in the collection from
MGM, sees the eternally charming Loretta Young plunging headlong into a life
of crime, only to be rescued by wealthy Franchot Tone. Then its Barbara
Stanwyck in need of salvation in 1932s The Purchase Price; her unlikely
knight in shining armor is farmer George Brent, who offers her stability in
the form of hard rural living (all the better to support the agricultural
industry, one supposes). Frisco Jenny (1932) and Other Mens Women (1931) are
lighter-weight drama-romances; the former concerns a love triangle between
Mary Astor, Grant Withers and Regis Toomey (with James Cagney and Joan
Blondell stealing the scene in minor roles) against the backdrop of the
Southern Pacific railways in Los Angeles, while the latter is high melodrama
about bootlegger (Ruth Chatterton) who comes up against the district
attorney, only to discover that he is the son she gave up for adoption. All
six features offer an entertaining and intriguing glimpse of how Hollywood
managed to address mature themes under its own rigid production code, as
well as a reminder of Wellmans versatility and skill at producing exciting
fare in a wide variety of genres. As with previous Forbidden Hollywood
releases, Volume 3 includes a wealth of extras; chief among these are two
TCM documentaries on Wellman--1995s Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick, which
features interviews with Clint Eastwood, Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck;
and 2007s The Men Who Made the Movies by critic Richard Schickel. There are
also several two-reeler mysteries, Bosko cartoons, and a Pete Smith short,
as well as commentary on Midnight Mary, Heroes for Sale and Wild Boys of the
Road, with the latter including Wellmans son, actor/author William Wellman
Jr. --Paul Gaita
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