For those who like Pre-Code movies...

Tonight TCM has "Ecstasy" with a young Hedy Lamarr at 2:15 eastern, then a documentary called Complicated Women based on the book by Mick LaSalle at 3:45. After that is "Baby Face" with Barbara Stanwyck and John Wayne before he was "The Duke."

Worth staying up for or setting your recording equipment!


edited to add times to the films

Pre-code?

General Principles

1. No picture shall be produced that will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience should never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.

2. Correct standards of life, subject only to the requirements of drama and entertainment, shall be presented.

3. Law, natural or human, shall not be ridiculed, nor shall sympathy be created for its violation.

http://www.artsreformation.com/a001/hays-code.html

A lot more at that link.

guidelines for filmmakers around 1934. No overt sexuality, husbands and wives had to sleep in separate twin beds, women were more covered up and proper, more "family oriented" type of content. It was not about just sex, but all form of "sin" according to the commission.

Prior to that, many early films were quite racy and overtly sexual in content. Check out some of Jean Harlow's movies for a perfect example of pre-code raciness. Hell's Angels, Platinum Blonde, Dinner at Eight, Red Headed women and many others. I think one of the reasons the Hays commission formed was in response to a number of her film roles, particularly her adulterous role in Red-Headed Woman.