Wikipedia's List of Pre-Code Films
by georgebobolink | created - 27 Sep 2012 | updated - 27 Sep 2012 | PublicPre-Code Hollywood refers to the era in the American film industry between the introduction of sound in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code) censorship guidelines.
Although the Code was adopted in 1930, oversight was poor and it did not become effectively enforced until July 1, 1934. Before that date, movie content was restricted more by local laws, negotiations between the Studio Relations Committee and the major studios, and popular opinion than strict adherence to the Hays Code, which was often ignored by Hollywood filmmakers. Criteria for inclusion on this list is the direct mention of a film as a Pre-Code in a mainstream source, or its discussion in an article, essay, or book on Pre-Codes.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Pre-Code_films
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1. Alibi (1929)
TV-PG | 91 min | Crime
Chick Williams, a prohibition gangster, rejoins his mob soon after being released from prison. When a policeman is murdered during a robbery, he falls under suspicion. The gangster took ... See full summary »
Director: Roland West | Stars: Chester Morris, Harry Stubbs, Mae Busch, Eleanor Griffith
Votes: 666
2. Applause (1929)
Passed | 80 min | Drama, Musical
A burlesque star seeks to keep her convent-raised daughter away from her low-down life and abusive lover/stage manager.
Director: Rouben Mamoulian | Stars: Helen Morgan, Joan Peers, Fuller Mellish Jr., Jack Cameron
Votes: 1,271
3. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)
Not Rated | 143 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
A Jewish prince seeks to find his family and revenge himself upon his childhood friend who had him wrongly imprisoned.
Directors: Fred Niblo, Charles Brabin, Christy Cabanne, J.J. Cohn, Rex Ingram | Stars: Ramon Novarro, Francis X. Bushman, May McAvoy, Betty Bronson
Votes: 7,058 | Gross: $12.45M
Rereleased with audio in 1929.
4. The Broadway Melody (1929)
Passed | 100 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A pair of sisters from the vaudeville circuit try to make it big time on Broadway, but matters of the heart complicate the attempt.
Director: Harry Beaumont | Stars: Bessie Love, Anita Page, Charles King, The Angeles Twins
Votes: 6,348 | Gross: $6.12M
Best Picture Winner for 1929.
5. The Cocoanuts (1929)
Not Rated | 96 min | Comedy, Musical
During the Florida land boom, The Marx Brothers run a hotel, auction off some land, thwart a jewel robbery, and generally act like themselves.
Directors: Robert Florey, Joseph Santley | Stars: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, Zeppo Marx
Votes: 6,915
6. Coquette (1929)
Unrated | 76 min | Drama, Romance
A flirtatious Southern belle is compromised with one of her suitors.
Director: Sam Taylor | Stars: Mary Pickford, Johnny Mack Brown, Matt Moore, John St. Polis
Votes: 1,984
7. The Desert Song (1929)
123 min | Musical
The Desert Song is a 1929 American Pre-Code operetta film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring John Boles, Louise Fazenda, and Myrna Loy.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: John Boles, Carlotta King, Louise Fazenda, Johnny Arthur
Votes: 78
8. The Godless Girl (1928)
Passed | 113 min | Drama
Two teenagers, one an atheist and the other a Christian, fall in love at a brutal reform school.
Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: Lina Basquette, Marie Prevost, Tom Keene, Noah Beery
Votes: 688
9. Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929)
Passed | 101 min | Comedy, Musical
Three Broadway chorus girls seek rich husbands.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Nancy Welford, Conway Tearle, Winnie Lightner, Ann Pennington
Votes: 144 | Gross: $5.54M
10. Glorifying the American Girl (1929)
Passed | 95 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
The rise of a showgirl, Gloria Hughes, culminating in a Ziegfeld extravaganza "Glorifying the American Girl".
Director: Millard Webb | Stars: Mary Eaton, Eddie Cantor, Helen Morgan, Rudy Vallee
Votes: 623
11. Hallelujah (1929)
Passed | 109 min | Drama, Musical
A sharecropper decides to become a preacher after falling for a vamp from the city.
Director: King Vidor | Stars: Daniel L. Haynes, Nina Mae McKinney, William Fountaine, Harry Gray
Votes: 1,531
12. The Lady Lies (1929)
Drama
Much to the disapproval of his snooty children, a wealthy widowed attorney takes up with a beautiful but "lower-class" woman.
Director: Hobart Henley | Stars: Walter Huston, Claudette Colbert, Charles Ruggles, Patricia Deering
Votes: 70
13. The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929)
Passed | 94 min | Comedy, Drama
There is a big charity function at the house of Mrs. Cheyney and a lot of society is present. With her rich husband, deceased, rich old Lord Elton and playboy Lord Arthur Dilling are both ... See full summary »
Director: Sidney Franklin | Stars: Norma Shearer, Basil Rathbone, George Barraud, Herbert Bunston
Votes: 385
14. The Love Parade (1929)
Passed | 107 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
The queen of mythical Sylvania marries a courtier, who finds his new life unsatisfying.
Director: Ernst Lubitsch | Stars: Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Lupino Lane, Lillian Roth
Votes: 1,933
15. Our Modern Maidens (1929)
Passed | 76 min | Drama, Comedy
A flapper charms a diplomat to procure her fiancé a career opportunity, while the fiancé starts a relationship with her best friend.
Director: Jack Conway | Stars: Joan Crawford, Rod La Rocque, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Anita Page
Votes: 603
16. Redskin (1929)
82 min | Western, Adventure, Drama
Director: Victor Schertzinger | Stars: Richard Dix, Julie Carter, Tully Marshall, George Regas
Votes: 158
17. Rio Rita (1929)
Passed | 140 min | Adventure, Music, Romance
Capt. James Stewart pursues the bandit "The Kinkajou" over the Mexican border and falls in love with Rita. He suspects, that her brother is the bandit.
Director: Luther Reed | Stars: Bebe Daniels, John Boles, Bert Wheeler, Robert Woolsey
Votes: 692
18. The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929)
Passed | 113 min | Drama
Mary Dugan, a Broadway showgirl, is charged with murder in the knifing death of her wealthy lover, and goes on trial for her life. When her defense counsel appears to bungle his job, Mary's... See full summary »
Director: Bayard Veiller | Stars: Norma Shearer, Lewis Stone, H.B. Warner, Raymond Hackett
Votes: 105
19. Sunny Side Up (1929)
Passed | 121 min | Comedy, Musical
Molly and Bee, sweet young 'working girls,' live in a cheap room over a New York grocery store. Molly's idol, wealthy Jack Cromwell, lives in a Long Island mansion but is markedly less ... See full summary »
Director: David Butler | Stars: Janet Gaynor, Charles Farrell, Marjorie White, El Brendel
Votes: 359
20. The Voice of the City (1929)
Passed | 81 min | Crime, Drama
An escaped convict and the detective tasked with hunting him down end up working in parallel to clear the convict's name and nab the gangsters that framed him.
Director: Willard Mack | Stars: Robert Ames, Willard Mack, Sylvia Field, Jim Farley
Votes: 62
21. The Wolf Song (1929)
80 min | Romance, Western, Drama
In 1840, Sam Lash heads west for adventure. He meets up with some Mountain Men, and they head for the Rockies to trap beavers and cats. In Taos he meets Lola, a beautiful Mexican girl from ... See full summary »
Director: Victor Fleming | Stars: Gary Cooper, Lupe Velez, Louis Wolheim, Constantine Romanoff
Votes: 50
22. Africa Speaks! (1930)
Passed | 75 min | Documentary, Adventure, History
Explorer Paul Hoefler leads a safari into central Africa and what was then called the Belgian Congo, in the regions inhabited by the Wassara and the famous Ubangi tribes.
Director: Walter Futter | Stars: Harald Austin, Paul L. Hoefler, Lowell Thomas, Charles Gemora
Votes: 76
23. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Passed | 152 min | Drama, War
A German youth eagerly enters World War I, but his enthusiasm wanes as he gets a firsthand view of the horror.
Director: Lewis Milestone | Stars: Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, John Wray, Arnold Lucy
Votes: 56,489 | Gross: $3.27M
24. Animal Crackers (1930)
G | 97 min | Comedy, Musical
Mayhem and zaniness ensue when a valuable painting goes missing during a party in honor of famed African explorer Captain Spaulding.
Director: Victor Heerman | Stars: Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, The Marx Brothers
Votes: 13,373
25. Anna Christie (I) (1930)
Passed | 89 min | Drama, Romance
A young woman reunites with her estranged father and falls in love with a sailor, but struggles to tell them about her dark past.
Director: Clarence Brown | Stars: Greta Garbo, Charles Bickford, George F. Marion, Marie Dressler
Votes: 2,768 | Gross: $1.01M
26. The Bad Man (1930)
77 min | Western
Film version of a play about a Mexican bandit.
Director: Clarence G. Badger | Stars: Walter Huston, Dorothy Revier, James Rennie, O.P. Heggie
Votes: 18
27. The Big Pond (1930)
Passed | 72 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
A tour guide in Venice romances a visiting American tourist whose father owns a chewing-gum factory back in the U.S. She sets out to convince her skeptical father to bring the tour guide to America and give him a job in the plant.
Director: Hobart Henley | Stars: Maurice Chevalier, Claudette Colbert, George Barbier, Marion Ballou
Votes: 213
28. The Blue Angel (1930)
Not Rated | 104 min | Drama, Music
An elderly professor's ordered life spins dangerously out of control when he falls for a nightclub singer.
Director: Josef von Sternberg | Stars: Emil Jannings, Marlene Dietrich, Kurt Gerron, Rosa Valetti
Votes: 13,353 | Gross: $0.08M
29. Bride of the Regiment (1930)
79 min | Musical, Romance
Filmed operetta in technicolor based on hit play/book that opened on Broadway in 1922 and ran 232 performances.
Director: John Francis Dillon | Stars: Vivienne Segal, Allan Prior, Walter Pidgeon, Louise Fazenda
Votes: 19
30. Bright Lights (1930)
Passed | 69 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
A successful Broadway star ready to retire from her wild career announces her engagement. But her tumultuous past isn't done with her yet.
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Dorothy Mackaill, Frank Fay, Noah Beery, Daphne Pollard
Votes: 243
31. Cheer Up and Smile (1930)
76 min | Musical
When a popular radio singer is knocked unconscious during a robbery, a squeaky-voiced college boy fills in for him. To everyone's amazement, especially his recent girlfriend, who just broke up with him, he becomes an overnight sensation.
Director: Sidney Lanfield | Stars: Arthur Lake, Dixie Lee, Olga Baclanova, 'Whispering' Jack Smith
Votes: 54
32. Children of Pleasure (1930)
Passed | 70 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Successful songwriter falls for society girl who is just playing around. He doesn't realize that his girl-Friday is the one he really loves until it is almost too late. Although he is ... See full summary »
Director: Harry Beaumont | Stars: Lawrence Gray, Wynne Gibson, Judith Wood, Kenneth Thomson
Votes: 117
33. The Divorcee (1930)
Passed | 84 min | Romance, Drama
When a woman discovers that her husband has been unfaithful to her, she decides to respond to his infidelities in kind.
Director: Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: Norma Shearer, Robert Montgomery, Chester Morris, Conrad Nagel
Votes: 2,726
34. Good News (1930)
Passed | 78 min | Comedy, Musical
Tom Marlowe is the star of his college football team, and has a promising romance with a female college student, Connie Lane. He does not excel, however, in his college studies. A series of... See full summary »
Director: Nick Grinde | Stars: Mary Lawlor, Stanley Smith, Bessie Love, Cliff Edwards
Votes: 324
35. Hell's Angels (1930)
Passed | 127 min | Drama, War
Brothers Monte and Ray leave Oxford to join the Royal Flying Corps. Ray loves Helen; Helen enjoys an affair with Monte; before they leave on their mission over Germany they find her in still another man's arms.
Directors: Howard Hughes, Edmund Goulding, James Whale | Stars: Ben Lyon, James Hall, Jean Harlow, John Darrow
Votes: 4,763
36. Hold Everything (1930)
Passed | 74 min | Comedy, Music, Romance
A man is mistaken for a champion fighter.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Joe E. Brown, Winnie Lightner, Georges Carpentier, Sally O'Neil
Votes: 16
37. Kismet (1930)
Passed | 90 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Musical
Hajj, a rascally beggar on the periphery of the court of Baghdad, schemes to marry his daughter to royalty and to win the heart of the queen of the castle himself.
Director: John Francis Dillon | Stars: Otis Skinner, Loretta Young, David Manners, Sidney Blackmer
Votes: 54
38. Ladies of Leisure (1930)
Passed | 99 min | Drama, Romance
An upper-crust artist hires a 'party girl' as a model; romance follows.
Director: Frank Capra | Stars: Barbara Stanwyck, Ralph Graves, Lowell Sherman, Marie Prevost
Votes: 1,042
39. Let Us Be Gay (1930)
Passed | 79 min | Comedy, Drama
Dowdy housewife Kitty dotes on her self-centered husband but divorces him when his mistress shows up at their home one day to break up their marriage. Bob had become bored with her ... See full summary »
Director: Robert Z. Leonard | Stars: Norma Shearer, Rod La Rocque, Marie Dressler, Gilbert Emery
Votes: 417
40. The Life of the Party (1930)
Passed | 79 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Two attractive female song-pluggers decide to become gold-diggers, with comic results.
Director: Roy Del Ruth | Stars: Winnie Lightner, Irene Delroy, Jack Whiting, Charles Butterworth
Votes: 128
41. Loose Ankles (1930)
Passed | 69 min | Comedy, Romance
In this light romantic comedy, 17-year old Loretta Young is cast as Ann Harper, a wealthy socialite who has inherited a fortune provided the family is involved in no scandals appearing in ... See full summary »
Director: Ted Wilde | Stars: Loretta Young, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Louise Fazenda, Otis Harlan
Votes: 373
42. Madam Satan (1930)
Passed | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical
Angela and Bob Brooks are an upper class couple. Unfortunately, Bob is an unfaithful husband. But Angela has a plan to win back her husband's affections. An elaborate masquerade ball is to ... See full summary »
Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: Kay Johnson, Reginald Denny, Lillian Roth, Roland Young
Votes: 843 | Gross: $0.50M
43. The Man from Blankley's (1930)
67 min | Comedy
When a nobleman loses his way in the fog and enters a house where there's a party going on, he's mistaken for a hired butler.
Director: Alfred E. Green | Stars: John Barrymore, Loretta Young, William Austin, Albert Gran
Votes: 67
44. The Matrimonial Bed (1930)
Passed | 69 min | Comedy
It is the fifth anniversary of the death of Adolphe Noblet who died in a train wreck. His servant and friends still worship him but don't care much for his wife Sylvaine's second husband ... See full summary »
Director: Michael Curtiz | Stars: Frank Fay, James Gleason, Lilyan Tashman, Beryl Mercer
Votes: 155
45. Morocco (1930)
Passed | 92 min | Drama, Romance