Audiences in Scotland will be able to see brand new remasters of some of Tinseltown’s spiciest and wittiest movies when the PRE-CODE HOLLYWOOD: RULES ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN season gets underway at venues including Filmhouse in Edinburgh.
Featuring a starry line-up which includes Joan Blondell, James Cagney, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Norma Shearer and Barbara Stanwyck, the season celebrates the period in the early 1930s when filmmakers were pushing back against a clampdown on themes some deemed ‘immoral’.
The result was a spate of titles which not only tested the boundaries set by what became known as the Hays Code but also broke almost every one of them, often placing sexually liberated women centre stage and showcasing villains so charming their misdeeds are excused.
Author, critic and film historian Pamela Hutchinson, who co-curated the season with film critic Christina Newland, will give live context-setting talks before selected screenings in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Bo’ness, while other screenings at all four venues will offer pre-recorded intros.
One of the tour’s organisers, Glasgow exile, Mark Cosgrove, says: “This season is a rare chance to explore newly remastered versions of a selection of films from the time when Hollywood studios were testing the boundaries over what could be shown on screen and to watch the resulting stories, featuring feisty women, attractive rogues, high fashion, hard-living and dialogue that fizzes as they were made to be enjoyed – on a big screen amid an audience.”
The PRE-CODE HOLLYWOOD: RULES ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN opens at Glasgow Film Theatre on 1st Sept and ends in December at Eden Court in Inverness. To view the programme in detail, see venues’ own listings.
Glasgow Film Theatre (Sept 1 to 29) – glasgowfilm.org/shows/pre-code-hollywood
The Hippodrome, Bo’ness (Sept 3 – Oct 9) – hippodromecinema.co.uk
Filmhouse, Edinburgh (Sept 21 to Oct 18) – filmhousecinema.com
Eden Court, Inverness (Nov 1 – Dec 27) – eden-court.co.uk
The PRE-CODE HOLLYWOOD: RULES ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN tour is a Watershed (Bristol) presentation now touring in collaboration with Park Circus (Glasgow) and with support from BFI awarding funds from The National Lottery and MUBI.
