MovieChat Forums > No More Orchids (1932) Discussion > 2 things oft forgotten about pre-Code mo...

2 things oft forgotten about pre-Code movies:

posted 10 years ago by eebyo
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1. They can be pretty dark. Hays Code movies weren't just "no sin without punishment," they also insisted on happy endings. This ending's decidedly mixed, expressed beautifully in the closing line. A very different but even darker story, "Baby Face," is another good example of this.

2. What sex there is in this movie is - while unmistakeable to this grownup viewer - only implied, by language so indirect and subtle as to be safe around 1st-graders. The story arc is not (see 1 above).

[–] Helena727 8 years ago

Good points, and an FYI:

A very different but even darker story, "Baby Face," is another good example of this.

Even in the pre-Code era, Baby Face (1933) was sanitized: There are two endings, the theatrical release (happy-ish -- she and her hub head to a mill town to become hardworkin' reg'lar folks) and the darker non-theatrical release (I'm guessing that's the one you're referring to).

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."