Filled with rare images and untold stories from filmmakers,
exhibitors, and moviegoers, Forbidden Hollywood is the ultimate guide
to a gloriously entertaining era when a lax code of censorship let sin
rule the movies.
Forbidden Hollywood is a history of "pre-Code" like none other you
will eavesdrop on production conferences, read nervous telegrams from
executives to censors, and hear Americans argue about "immoral" movies.
You will see decisions artfully wrought, so as to fool some of the
people long enough to get films into theaters. You will read what
theater managers thought of such craftiness, and hear from fans as they
applauded creativity or condemned crassness. You will see how these
films caused a grass-roots movement to gain control of Hollywood-and why
they were "forbidden" for fifty years.
The book spotlights the twenty-two films that led to the strict new Code
of 1934, including Red-Headed Woman, Call Her Savage, and She Done
Him Wrong. You'll see Paul Muni shoot a path to power in the original
Scarface; Barbara Stanwyck climb the corporate ladder on her own terms
in Baby Face; and misfits seek revenge in Freaks.
More than 200 newly restored (and some never-before-published)
photographs illustrate pivotal moments in the careers of Clara Bow, Joan
Crawford, Norma Shearer, and Greta Garbo; and the pre-Code stardom of
Claudette Colbert, Cary Grant, Marlene Dietrich, James Cagney, and Mae
West. This is the definitive portrait of an unforgettable era in
filmmaking.
