Complicated Women : Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood

Rating:
Summary: A Piercing Look at Pre-Codes
Review: "The Code came in to prevent women from having fun. It was designed to put the genie back in the bottle-and the wife back in the kitchen," says Mick LaSalle, film critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and professor of film studies at University of California at Berkeley, in his excellent book of film criticism, "Complicated Women: Power and Sex in Pre-Code Hollywood." Before reading this page-turner, I had assumed that "women's pictures" came into existence during the '40s, featuring the femmes fatales of films noirs. Now I know that not to be the case because actors of the Pre-Code era, such as Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Jean Harlow, Constance Bennett, Ruth Chatterton, and Ann Harding, were modern and daring women who made some great films like "Queen Christina," "The Divorcee," "Red Dust," "The Easiest Way," "Madame X," and "The Animal Kingdom."

"The best era for women's pictures," according to Mr. LaSalle, "was the pre-Code era, the five years between the point that talkies became widely accepted in 1929 through July 1934, when the dread and draconian Production Code became the law of Hollywoodland." Moreover, in pre-1940 American films, actors were showcased through innovative close-ups, and directors took second seats to film stars and producers. In those days, "image-the public's idea of personality-was everything." Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer were two stars whose images were packaged and polished by the production studios. Before their time, in the silent era and in the first talkies, women were cast into two film roles: vamp and ingénue. "Garbo, by nature aloof and mysterious, was forced to play the vamp, a role she hated. Shearer, who radiated integrity, was forced to play the innocent ingénue, which frustrated her. So they rebelled."

Fans of Garbo and Shearer will love Mr. LaSalle's book. He uses his insider's knowledge to contrast their respective vamp-turned-martyr and ingénue-turned-modern-woman roles. Now I can re-view these favorite films, from the time when there was no censorship, with this book as companion and guide to understanding and appreciating the challenges that were faced by these "complicated women."

Rating:
Summary: THERE'S GOOD REASON THIS IS A BESTSELLER
Review: . . . Actually, there are several good reasons. The lavish photos. The viewers's guide. The great story. The wit and passion of the writing. Perhaps the best reason is that COMPLICATED WOMEN is one of those books that you start reading and the next thing you know two days have gone by and you haven't been able to get your head out of the book -- you just have to know what happens next. This deserves to be nominated for the National Book Award.

Rating:
Summary: You Go, Girls!
Review: All too often, film genre studies read like textbooks, filled with ponderous pronouncements and bone-dry prose. Not COMPLICATED WOMEN. From its start, this lively, smart, and hip take on pre-Code Hollywood anti-heroines is as fascinating and complex as the dames themselves. Mick Lasalle not only nails his subject, but writes with such remarkable ease and assurance that I plowed through his book in a single sitting. One of the year's best. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Welcome Back, Ladies!
Review: As a lover of movie books about the classic era, I instantly fell in love with Mick LaSalle's book about the screen goddesses of the pre-code era. All of my favorite stars came jumping out at me from the printed page in all their beauty and glamour and reminded me that the era of filmmaking talked about was one of great change, changes that pretty accurately reflected real life, as women especially were evolving from the repression of many centuries. Mick LaSalle writes a very entertaining as well as a very informative story about those marvelous ladies and their films, and it's obvious that he likes and appreciates his subjects. Let's have more film books like this one. Could not put it down!

Rating:
Summary: AN EXCELLENT RESOURCE GUIDE.
Review: As an avid fan of pre-code Hollywood films, I found this book to be an exceptionally well-written, entertaining reference source which goes into vivid, right-to-the-point details of the women who dominated American film in the fascinating pre-code talkie era which lasted until 1934. Among the many actresses who contributed their talents include: Norma Shearer, Loretta Young, Mae West, Nancy Carroll, Miriam Hopkins, Wynne Gibson, Helen Twelvetrees and MANY more. The text in the back of the book gives the reader information on pre-code films which can be either purchased on video - or watched on TCM. I wish more of these throroughly fascinating films would become available to the public on video: clearly, since they can be viewed on Cable television, many do indeed exist! Hint, hint....... P.S. For a great companion piece, read the equally well-written DANGEROUS MEN: it's about the men in pre-code Hollywood and THEIR contribution to that elusive, revealing era. Written by the same author: he does a splendid job in every respect: Again, LaSalle lists an exhaustive number of films available for the public to view on video & TCM. Hey, video people: get cracking!!! Perhaps Ted Turner owns these films and has exclusive copyright.

Rating:
Summary: The Age of Sexual Immunity
Review: Before the Hollywood infrastructure got its meat hooks into the fledgling talkie medium, there was a grace period when women spoke freely. The vamp, the seducer, even that most threatening of feminine archetypes - the socially empowered ingénue - were allowed to roam the parlors and nightclubs like a wild tonic in grayscale. For anyone who appreciates unfettered female expression and all its intricacies, Mick La Salle's book, Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood, is an inspired revelation. La Salle prods us to explore the concept of morality in 20th century America and its representation on film which, contrary to popular belief, does not plummet through decades of ignorance as one looks back from the 60s. In fact, he depicts an age (1929-1934) prior to the censorship of Production Code figurehead Will Hays and its chief architect Joseph Breen in which women were not burning their bras so much as simply not wearing them. With the focus primarily on the legendary Greta Garbo and the tragically forgotten Norma Shearer, Complicated Women lends insight into the burgeoning sexuality of the liberated heroine whose modern attitudes went without apology and, more importantly, without punishment.

Rating:
Summary: A BRILLIANT, BALANCED WORK
Review: COMPLICATED WOMEN is a brilliant work, and far from "left-wing propaganda," as the previous reviewer suggests. Interestingly, in that previous reviewer's criticism, he (or she) uses quotations -- but they're not at all quotations from the book. They're paraphrased quotations from the TCM documentary that was made from the book. This suggests that the person didn't even read the book but only saw the TV show, which would, alas, be typical.
One of the great virtues of the book is that it has the courage to nail absolutely and forever Joseph Breen -- the man who administered and forced the code on the public -- as a foaming-at-the-mouth anti-Semite, and for this one doesn't have to trust Mick LaSalle. The evidence comes from Breen himself, in his voluminous correspondence, which is full of anti-Jewish invective. Indeed, LaSalle may go too easy on him. Evidence of Breen's anti-Semitism is even more damning in Geoffrey Black's book, Hollywood Censored.
But then, this is hardly a book about politics. It's a wonderful meld of history, film criticism and culture -- as strong as LaSalle's other brilliant book, DANGEROUS MEN -- and it's true glory is in the way it celebrates and rediscovers some of the most influential, interesting and lovable women of the previous century. It is essential reading.

Rating:
Summary: COMPLICATED WOMEN GOT AWAY WITH MURDER
Review: COMPLICATED WOMEN is about the wonderful period in Hollywood when movies were uncensored and a lot of great women -- Garbo, Shearer, Harlow, Crawford, Stanwyck, Dietrich, Colbert, Kay Francis and a dozen others -- got away with murder.

It's a story that can't be beat. I think it's the most exciting and important story in movie history. That's why I wrote the book.

Here's something most people don't know: Before July, 1934, Hollywood films were uncensored. When most of us think of old movies, we think of the staid, safe films from the forties and fifties, which invariably ended with women apologizing all over themselves for having a job, a lover, a life.

Those films were the result of the Production Code, created by a cabal of reactionaries who wanted to turn back the clock and put the wife back in the kitchen. BEFORE the Code, things were different. Women acted like women. They took lovers, had babies out of wedlock, got rid of cheating husbands, enjoyed their sexuality, held down professional positions without apologizing for their self-sufficiency, and, in general, acted the way many of us think women acted only after 1968. They had fun.

COMPLICATED WOMEN is their story. It's about the real-life heroines who fought to push the boundaries -- and about the movies they made.

Here's a quote for you: "The morals of yesterday are no more. They are as dead as the day they were lived. Economic independence has put woman on exactly the same footing as man." Who said that? Germaine Greer in 1971? No, it was Norma Shearer, talking to a fan magazine in 1932.

Here's another: "The modern girl ... is built for speed. We have tremendous vitality of body and complete emancipation of mind. None of the old taboos mean a damn to us. WE DON'T CARE." Actress Dorothy Mackaill said that in 1930. See, these women knew they were part of a larger social movement, and they took their role seriously. No wonder the forces of repression did everything they could to stamp them out.

The bad news is the bad guys ultimately succeeded, damaging careers in the process.

The good news -- the great news -- is we still have those movies, scores of films that document the emerging new woman -- films that explore sexuality, question tradition and challenge institutions. They still seem modern today.

The thing is, the people who created the Code did what they did because they did not approve of assertive, free, happy women. But we approve of them, and it's time we reclaimed tham and the pictures they left us. COMPLICATED WOMEN was written to help you do that.

I invite your comments. [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: A MUST READ FOR ALL FILM FANS!!!!!
Review: For those of you who enjoy movies from this time period (pre-code) this is the book you've been waiting for. For those of you who are not yet Norma Shearer fans, after reading this book you will be! It is a fascinating, richly detailed examination of all the characters, politics, and stars involved in the whole era of these movies. You will not put this book down once you start it. You will want to run to your nearest video store and check out these movies (at least the few that are available on video) After you read this book, you will be amazed at how tame(in comparison)movies of today are. Most of the stories and lines from these pre-code films could not be done today. Just get a copy of this book ASAP and you'll see what I mean!

Rating:
Summary: A POWERFUL EXPERIENCE
Review: I bought COMPLICATED WOMEN after reading about it in Entertainment Weekly and wound up devouring it in two days. I didn't intend to -- I just took it everywhere and read it nonstop. I'm surprised by the intense emotions it made me feel -- happy to know about these fabulous women, but also frustrated that this shining period in American culture was brought to an end by a bunch of fanatics and weirdos. Now I have to see all the movies.