What are your favorite pre-code films?

Also known as the talkie era, what are your favorite Hollywood sound films before they began enforcing the Hays production code in late 1934?


Here are two personal favorites of mine:

Gold Diggers of 1933

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M (1931)



The General (1926)

M

I Am a Fugitive from the Chain Gang



It's got everything you'd expect in a modern blockbuster.

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I may go back to hating you. It was more fun.

That's a tough one. City Lights, Metropolis, and King Kong were pretty good.

Holy crap!

Absolute favorite would probably have to be Nosferatu, but if we're just talking American movies, hmmm . . . Chaplin's silents, Dracula, King Kong, the opening "warning" in Frankenstein (although the movie itself has never really grabbed me). Gotta love the grapefruit bit in The Public Enemy. Trapped by the Mormons is good for a giggle.

Other movies I like from the '30s all seem to have come out post-Code. Guess I really need to brush up!

(Don't remember which movie it was in, but I can't help thinking of Groucho Marx trying to get a key away from a woman who ends up dropping it down the front of her shirt. Groucho turns to the camera and says something like: "I've got to find a way to get that key without getting in trouble with the Hays office!" )

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"You seem a decent fellow. I hate to die."

You guys notice who plays the kid ogling the women? I'll hide it if you want to guess or see if you recognize him. :cool.

Ha! I never would have pegged him, but that's perfect!

Trouble in Paradise, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Jewel Robbery, she done him wrong, shanghai express.

Ooh. Jewel Robbery is a really good one. You've got the joints and the title is a great double entendre.

Does The Tramp count?

I counted Chaplin's old stuff, so I vote yeah, sure.

But does that count? M is a German film, and the Hayes Code was American, wasn't it? While great, I don't think M counts. I could be mistaken, of course.

My favorite would be All Quiet on the Western Front. It came out in 1930, and it looks well advanced for its time, and it's also just an awesome film. The battle scenes are terrific, and the story is perfectly smooth. Great stuff. With the battles, I can see what looks like more modern battle images than stuff even from the 60s. It's no-holds barred (or however that's spelt), and adds to the atmosphere. I also like the lack of music. I think it fit the film well.

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Thanks again, Mr Portridge.

While I always appreciate and value constructive criticism, I interpreted the word "Hollywood" in the original post to mean films released by Hollywood - not just films made in Hollywood. If I was mistaken, you are obviously correct.

I guess we'll have to ask the OP because now I'm not sure. Hm.

While M may have been distributed in the US, it was produced and filmed in Germany so it is decidedly not a pre-code picture. The Hays code was something cooked up by the Hollywood studios for the Hollywood studios, to keep control over their content so that the government wouldn't step in and censor everything.

Nevertheless, it is a classic.

That answers that, then. Thanks for the clarification!