Pre-code moral standards - Spoiler Alert

It's implied that Sadie never has sex with her husband. That means their marriage is never consummated or legitimized. That seemed completely odd considering how much he lusted for her upon meeting her.

At first I thought it was his constant drinking; maybe it made him impotent but he recovered. Also, Michael worked awfully hard to keep her from going with him to his home. In part it was to keep her from his money but at first it seemed he was doing it to protect her from him. He was all over her and Michael seemed to know he'd done it before.

I didn't get it. It was clear she had sex with Tommy. Why not her own husband? Then it came to me. Sadie couldn't be seen as the kind of girl who would have sex for money; even if she married into it.

I make this point because a lot of people seem to think moral standards only appeared after the code was enforced. This one kind of straddles the line. It was probably made pre-code but it may have been released after it was in effect. The Code approved message is not shown in the beginning but the year was a code year.

If that's the case, it shows pre-code movies had their moral standards too. It was hardly 'anything goes'. I've seen it in a lot of pre-coce movies but others never seem to agree that the code didn't suddenly change everything; not as much as some want to think.


Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]