Pre-Code Hollywood Collection DVD Set - The Cheat, Merrily We Go to Hell, Hot Saturday, Torch Singer, Murder at the Vanities & Search for Beauty | Universal Backlot Series | Classic 1930s Films for Movie Collectors & Film History Enthusiasts

The appeal of the pre-code movies isn't so much their prurience. In every way that defines adult subject matter the 1930s can't compete with our own wicked times. We're just sloppin over with decadence. No, their appeal is any generation's belief that their forebears had any interest in, or knew anything about, robust sexual desire. This fine collection of half-dozen movies from 1931-1934 does a good job of illustrating that grandma was just as lusty as we are. To be honest, none of these movies is really good. "Merrily We Go To Hell" and "Torch Singer" make an effort with a sincere job by Frederic March in the former and a game Claudette Colbert in the latter, featuring adult themes, Also wild parties, clinging gowns and leering men in tuxedoes. "Hot Saturday" stars young newcomers Cary Grant and Randolph Scott in a banal story of a town full of hypocrites punishing an innocent girl for something she didn't do. Too bad the story is so indifferently told. But there are wild parties with fabulously dressed women and men in tuxedos. As an aside, it's easy to see why some people would really, really like to believe that Grant and Scott, two uncommonly good-looking guys and real life roommates, were gay but, alas, they weren't. "Murder At The Vanities" combines a tedious murder tale with lots of musical spectacle highlighting women stripped as naked as they could get them and still get screened. Also a pretty lame number about marijuana.Two movies stand out from the rest. "The Cheat" stars the inimitable Tallulah Bankhead. She didn't make a lot of movies, being more about Broadway than Hollywood. Check her out in Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" She was one of those actresses who could say "dahling" a lot while waving a cigarette poised between well-manicured fingertips, and look totally natural. This is a truly strange yarn, one that seems fantastic from our 21st century point of view and ends with senationally unreal courtroom scenes. A lot happens in 74 minutes and it's worth a look. "Search For Beauty" is a comedy whose few laughs are unintentional. The plot, if that's the word I'm looking for, involves a large cast of athletes, so-called youths who mostly look to be pushing 30. The women are mostly dressed in fancy tight sweatsuits but the guys are stripped down to short shorts. This movie really makes an effort to flex its naughtiness. There is a surprising towel-snapping scene in the shower room. Dowdy matrons do everything but paw the turf and howl while looking at pictures of the athletes. Double entendres and 1930s slang are ricocheting off the walls. Buster Crabbe, an attractive slab and Olympic swimmer but an actor best suited to his subsequent roles as Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, teams with an unrecognizable Ida Lupino against fast-talking Robert Armstrong and comedy relief James Gleason. This is a movie that asks us to believe that hotel guests could be forced to "whistle gaily" while being brutally manhandled into calisthenics at 6:30 in the morning.As to the product itself this is a very handsome set that unfolds into three well illustrated sections, each disc securely mounted into its section. There is a good documentary about the Production Code on the first disc. Included is a copy of the actual Code, a real treasure and it makes for fascinating reading. Note the affirmation that movies are responsible for moral progress and correct thinking. "Correct thinking." If you have to think about that you are not a Correct Thinker.