Was the rape scene cut out?
I know those pre-code movies were racy, but do you think there was really a rape scene in this? I think they were just racy for those days.
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Yes, on the boat. I'm intrigued with these pre-code movies and get the feeling that maybe some is censored. But compared to today, they're tame of course. Just wondering if she was supposedly raped...
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Thanks - stranger. (:
I'm new to this pre-code thing and am fascinated by it, because as a code, I knew certain movies were risque, that we could watch on TV - real oldies - early talkies - but I remember when they got cleaned up. It was in the back of my mind always, but now I understand the whole thing, since I got wind of pre-code info.
The movie was not good, but I'm fascinated by the whole genre. Did you see The Divorcee with Norma Shearer? I would like to see one that has some juicy stuff in it!
runsunny,
"I would like to see one that has some juicy stuff in it!"
My recommendation would be Baby Face. It's a 1933 film with Barbara Stanwyck caught up in the Depression. A conniving secretary, she sleeps her way up to an executive's office. John Wayne briefly is seen as one of her office worker rejects.
It's as suggestive as a film could get then without starring Mae West.
The movie had trouble with the censors. Even at that time, the year before the Production Code began to get tough, parts were edited. In 2005 I saw a restored print.
A couple things-
What rape?
How come it says Marie Prevost in the credits? She's not in it. But I assume it was cut out.
Was it just me or did LaRocque come off as the wronged person in the film. He may have been aggressive with Babs, but later on he got the raw end of the deal big time and that's maybe because the three others were snobby uptight twits.
Also- I am a HUGE Stanwyck fan, but this is by far her weakest role of all her leads. She really came off unlikable.
A very weak film with too many problems.
pedro4300,
Frank Devereaux(LaRocque)was "wronged?!
There's a reason for his pencil thin mustache. He's a slimebag. Frank isn't just a little aggressive with Ann. He tries to force himself on her. How many women have found themselves in that type of situation and been blamed for the consequences? He also wants to marry the young, unsuspecting Helen, maybe for her money. But she doesn't know he's just had an affair with a married woman.
That's not to mention his attempt at blackmailing Ann.
It's the execution that made me feel that way, because I understand it all on "paper." It's the direction that is at fault.
My complaint is, and this is just a thin one too, is that if there was anyone to blame it was the daft women who allowed themselves to be seduced by him and the dumb men who blamed him and not their woman for cheating and falling for him. He was a cad, sure, but did he deserve to be shot at and or beaten up? No. Not the way it was presented to me in that film.
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I've seen about 30 Stanwyck films and this one is by far her weakest performance and doesn't hold a candle to her later works. I know it's early in her career, so I accept that, but I think the blame lies with the director, who did a horrible job. In a bout 3 years she would show her supremacy in Bitter Tea of General Lee among other notable gems. But to me, there is no defending this. She's not perfect, you know. All actors have missteps.
Yeah, you can tell she wasn't experienced in this movie. She never seemed to find her focus.
In 1930 she showed what movie-goers were in for in, Women of Leisure. If you've never seen this movie, be sure to catch it. It's directed by Frank Capra. Stanwyck plays a streetwise, happy-go-lucky call girl who falls in love with an artist. Her acting is mesmerizing. I've got to give Capra credit for excellent direction. He took a B movie and made it worthy of an A. This movie has been touted as the movie that made her a star.
Then in 1931 she gave a star worthy performance in, The Miracle Woman. She had a couple of more stinkers between (Ten Cents a Dance, I'm thinkin of you) TLD and Baby Face..But there were some gems in between.
Don't go putting all the blame on the director, the inexperience of Barbara and a bad cast! Note that "sound" had been invented just a couple of years earlier and was still an imperfect and relatively expensive technology. Of all the pictures made in Hollywood in 1929, no more than a third had sound. Not only were the cast and crew inexprienced at perfroming for and recording sound respectively, but the technology was very pimirtive. The microphones had a very limited dynamic range and couldn't be moved around during shots. The actors had to speak slowly, loudly and clearly to ensure that the mike would pick up their speech. They probably even used to overdo it back then to avoid doing too many takes since shooting with sound was not only complicated, but also expensive. That's just the way directors had to direct back then and nobody was really a keen expert on sound so early on. I honestly don't think one can expect much better than it gets in The Locked Door from a 1929 talkie. I'm sure most of you disgruntled viewers don't think so beacause the sound recording and overall filming technology evolved quite rapidly from 1930 onward. Most (if not all) talkies from 1930 put those from the previous year to shame in terms of techincal quality. The same goes for 1931 in comparison to 1930. In my opinion, by 1933 the overall technical quality of Hollywood movies had more or less reached its peak for the decade, Technicolor notwithstanding.
I'm here, Mr. Man, I can not tell no lie and I'll be right here till the day I die
"....The Bitter Tea of General Lee...."
That movie was The Bitter Tea of General Yen. The title character is a Chinese warlord.
I meant as a "kid", not as a "code!"
shareMinor Spoilers ** Seventy five yrs later, its unlikely we'll find out exactly how/why the original edits were done, but there ARE several edits done while Deveraux and Ann Carter are alone in the cabin:
1. when he forces her to kiss him, there is a quick extra snip of a scene where it appears she may have slapped him [you can see her arm moving quickly] but its only for a split second, and all of a sudden their heads have pulled back from each other. i had to keep doing slow-mo back & forward to see this one.
2. We don't see her dress get disheveled when the cops are rushing towards them in their motorboats. first, her dress is all in order, then its all messed up. We don't see any messy splices here, just a continuity issue.
This was about five years before they started enforcing the Hays code, but its possible the director Fitzmaurice made these changes himself in the editing room.
any thoughts? Fun movie. LaRocque is soooo stilted. Does anyone else think he sounds like deputy dog? or was it another nasal cartoon character? Stanwyck did quite well for a first speaking part. /ksf-2