msladysoul Posted September 13, 2004 Share Posted September 13, 2004 Which is the better era of movie-making? I chose the pre-code era. The early 1930s. To me that was the best. I guess because there were no rules. Even though some things were sexual and blatant. The actors and actresses were good in keeping certain things to the imagination and using talented sexual innuendos. Its sosmething about that era that I always loved. Every actresses had their own image. The movies could really control your emotions. Also Blacks in the movies had more to do in their roles then just be seen and not heard. In the 1940s, movies were more so sophisticated and un-realistic. I never been much of a fan of the 1940s movies. I hate the code was passed to stop films being made like they were in the pre-code era. Was America getting alarmed that the pre-code era of movies were showing that America wasn't all what it was cracked up to me meaning showing people weren't so innocent and pure as America wanted the image to seem like. For instance in "Torch Singer." Claudette Colbert played a woman having a child out of wedlock. Barbara Stanwyck in "Baby Face" played a woman who slept her way to the top. In "Night Court" the movie showed the corruption with the law. In "Safe In Hell" Nina Mae McKinney(the first black actress) has more of a scene then a stereotype and embraces Dorothy MacKaill and other whites of the movie. The underworld, race, drugs, sex, liquor was very evident in the pre-code movie making. Many others I could use as an example. The pre-code movies were entertaining but had some truth to it in the reality of the world. After the code was passed, a lot of studio got rid of their pre-code films. We can see the ones made by Warner Bros and MGM on TCM. The ones made at other studios you can buy at Ebay... the ones with Nancy Carroll, Helen Twelvetrees, Alice White, etc. What's your views? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithFromKC Posted September 13, 2004 Share Posted September 13, 2004 I have found great films from EVERY era, so I can't really answer a question like this. The pre-codes ARE pretty wonderful, msladysoul........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bggalaxy Posted September 13, 2004 Share Posted September 13, 2004 welcome back msladysoul, it's been awhile. I too, like keith, have found favorites in every era of film. I guess if I had to choose it would be the 30's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classicsfan1119 Posted September 14, 2004 Share Posted September 14, 2004 I think that each Era of movie-making produced spectacular movies. My personal favorites are the Silent Era, the Era during the 30's and 40's (I adore the Romantic Comedies), and the Era of the great MGM Musicals...which isn't to say that these Era's are "better" than another Era, however. ;)ML Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feaito Posted September 14, 2004 Share Posted September 14, 2004 I love the 30's too..I've got a weakness for 1930's in general....especially Pre-Codes....But still, I also love silents , 1940's films & 1950's, even early 1960's. Dramas, Comedies and musicals, mostly. This does not mean that there are many good movies from the 1960's until the present day....but the '30s got sth.....they do "sth. to me"...as the Cole Porter song says. I also havw a weakness for Paramount's pre-codes and 30's movies in general, maybe beacuse they're so difficult to obtain??... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moviegeek3000 Posted September 14, 2004 Share Posted September 14, 2004 not a fan of the 40's? WOW?!?! That's wild! that's my favorite era.....post WW2 changed the way Americans made movies. Granted, the 30's were great, but when you compare the biggest from each era.......40's, no contest. Casablanca the Film Noirmovement Humphrey Bogart as a good guy/hero Rita Hayworth Hitchcock EXPLOSION Cary Grant DETECTIVE cinema Dime novel EXPLOSION CYNICISM or REALISM(certainly not un-realistic) we showed the World that even our country can be subject to social devastation. We welcome in the German mastermind Directors like: Siodmak, Preminger, Lang, & Kubrick We see a MUCH more inventive and free style and tone in movies. Sure the 30's paved the driveway for the 40's, but the 40's showed us how amazing the cinema could be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feaito Posted September 14, 2004 Share Posted September 14, 2004 Of course I'm a fan of the '40s too, read carefully what I'm stating: the thirties are my weakness (one cannnot "explain" its own tastes)..., I'm not at all "dismissing the '40s", in fact it is my second fave decade.... many of my fave movies were made during the '40s..."Letter from and Unknown Woman", "Portrait of Jennie", "The Lady Eve", "The More the Merrier", "High Sierra", etc, etc. Maybe, as said, it's because always movies from the '30s were more difficult to obtain/watch (at least in my country). Love Pre-Codes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 14, 2004 Share Posted September 14, 2004 I also like the silent era, as well as the '30s and '40s, but there are movies I like that were produced in all the subsequent decades, too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moviegeek3000 Posted September 14, 2004 Share Posted September 14, 2004 no not you, feito. the original poster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
feaito Posted September 14, 2004 Share Posted September 14, 2004 Sorry Moviegeek, I misunderstood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredrandyp Posted September 15, 2004 Share Posted September 15, 2004 I like the 40s middle . for the charley chan movies, the boris karloff movies ,the east side kids , only when he was calles muggs with klimpy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leobertucelli Posted September 15, 2004 Share Posted September 15, 2004 I also like the charlie chan flicks and films from the 40 and 50's as well. In fact any interesting film except those silents which really ought to be silenced. If one wish's to study screenplay and production, then look at films by John Huston, David Lean, Fellini--there are so many to pick from where one can learn and be entertained at same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
venerados Posted September 15, 2004 Share Posted September 15, 2004 Easily the late 50's-mid 60s for me. Hitchcock, Wilder, Godard, Fellini, Bergman, Kurosawa, Ray, Tarkovsky, Bresson, Kubrick, Truffaut, Antonioni, Lean were all at their peaks. Earlier generation filmmakers John Ford, Yasujiro Ozu, and Dreyer were still active. Cassavetes and Oshima and Imamura were just starting out. Seems like the perfect cross-section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deeanddaisy666 Posted September 15, 2004 Share Posted September 15, 2004 Wow, msladysoul, I don't think I have ever seen any of your posts, and WE could have been separated at birth!! I completely and utterly agree. The pre-code films done before that nasty minded little Hays hypocrite got his foul hands on the coding system were amazing, weren't they? One in particular, though not a 'great' film, blew me away with one of its lines. It was 'The Last of Mrs. Cheyney' with Basil Rathbone...at one point, a male character tells Basil that the female lead is, I forget the exact word now, 'handsome'. Basil replys: Saying a woman is 'handsome' is like intimating that her undergarments are made of lead. Again, I may be misquoting, but the idea is there. I almost lost it when I heard that line. That approximates everything about the early 1930s films to me, the daring, the scanty clothing, the experimentation, the freedom, the joy, the unabashed sexuality, the FREEDOM! I despise Hays and hope he is in a particularly painful sort of censored afterlife. I didn't realize that some pre-code movies were only available for sale, and were not being shown. How horrific. I despise censorship, despise it. I wonder what TCM's policy is on it? They, as I've said, have shown the only movies which are pre-code that I've seen. 'Penthouse' with Myrna Loy, which was just recently shown, concerned a...gasp!...'NON-lady' who won the guy and lived happily ever after. She was drop dead gorgeous in it, have you seen it? I SO agree, msladysoul, the 1930s and the 1940s with their film noirs strike me to my very soul. I've posted here that IF a film has striped furniture, venetian blinds and long dresses (especially those of Orry-Kelly), I am in cinematic heaven. I have always adored the films of these two decades, and therefore hope TCM will go on, just as it is, showing these films forever and ever. How NICE to read your post!! Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theresabackle Posted September 15, 2004 Share Posted September 15, 2004 The 30's and the 40's were the best. It was all about an aura of glamour, sex appeal and mystery. The whole package. Talk about cinematic heaven....I can watch them over and over (especially the 30's) and escape to that period of time. I did my living room in a 30's decor complete with black and white photos of actress's of the 30's in evening gowns on the wall and my friends love it. I am really grateful to TCM for preserving these films and showing them. I am glad you enjoy them as much as I do. Terry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjrogan2003 Posted September 15, 2004 Share Posted September 15, 2004 It would definitely be the '80s. That's when music videos became an artform, and lots of memorable movies came out. Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, St. Elmo's Fire, Back to the Future, Some Kind of Wonderful...oh yeah. The '30s and '40s were extremely mediocre as there was NO television, NO vinyl records, NO cassettes, NO CDs, NO music videos and NO good looking girls! gwtwbooklover, you are an IDIOT. "Singin' in the Rain" is NOT a video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 15, 2004 Share Posted September 15, 2004 No good-looking girls in the '30s and '40s? You seriously think that? Wow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenwal34 Posted September 15, 2004 Share Posted September 15, 2004 cjrogan, Usually I don't feel compeled to reply to a given topic,but in this case I do. You stated in your thread that films of the '30s and '40s were extremely mediocre since there was no television. Just what did the absence of TV have on the status of good films?.Lets make it clear where i'm coming from.Many of the films shown today on TCM, I saw first run in theaters.No matter how good a TV ,dvd or tape print is, it cannot compare to the 35 mil print in a theater. I wont take up space naming any of the fine films from this era.Fans know what they were..And the "no good looking girls" remark.I won't make a comment on this.Enough said from this corner!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
path40a Posted September 15, 2004 Share Posted September 15, 2004 Ken, you've fallen into another leo-like trap. Don't feed the trolls;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grsshrp Posted September 16, 2004 Share Posted September 16, 2004 This is what I think. Every era has great movies. I agree that there were great movies made with Jean Harlow, Louise Brooks, Chaplin, Garbo, Cary Grant, Gene Kelly, Piper Laurie, Paul Newman, Taylor, Burton, Hackman, Pacino. I think every era has their greats. Just watched Casablanca again this weekend. There is nothing better. Then I watched Random Hearts...how great is that. But then I think of movies of the 60's 70's and so on and I have my favorites there two. For pure escapism..give me the 30's and 40's...for drama..some 40's 50's then start throwing in the social issues...60's and 70's. I guess I don't find a lot today that speaks to me. I like a good story, I want to feel involved. Anchorman just doesn't do that for me....neither does Nemo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cjrogan2003 Posted September 16, 2004 Share Posted September 16, 2004 Did you miss the OTHER thing I added: no vinyl records? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 16, 2004 Share Posted September 16, 2004 They may not've been vinyl, but there were records back then... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bansi4 Posted September 16, 2004 Share Posted September 16, 2004 Oh my God! Just when we are getting rid of you-know-who this other jerk rogan pops up with this vinyl crap. We are discussing movies here and not platters (I believe that's what they called records once). Give us a break...already! Mongo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
classicsfan1119 Posted September 16, 2004 Share Posted September 16, 2004 Path, with all due respect, I believe that Ken's comments were worth posting and reading. He personalized his comments, and his questions were valuable per this discussion. He also avoided falling into "name calling" or perpetuating previous bashing. Please, let's not start censoring the wrong people here! ;)ML Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
path40a Posted September 16, 2004 Share Posted September 16, 2004 ML, you completely misunderstood my post. I was not attempting to censor anybody, merely trying to suggest that Ken not respond to trolls (folks who post provocative things just to get a reaction). I agree that Ken's comments were "worth posting and reading". However, one things leads to another (as I'm sure we all know by now) when you play games with trolls. Hopefully you agree with these sentiments;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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