Tonight's movie was called "Red Dust" (1932), a minor classic from the pre-Code years of Hollywood. As you may know, the so-called "Hays Code" was instituted by the Motion Picture Producers Association in 1934, as a sort of forerunner to the modern ratings system (G, PG, R, etc), except that the Hays Code was pre-emptive. It called for censors to edit out anything in a film that might be deemed "obscene", which in those days was a pretty broad term. After the Hays Code, you certainly could not show a married couple in the same bed, for instance, even with pajamas on. The Code was strict in that regard; however, "make out" scenes were okay, hence all the screen close-ups of legendary kisses in the 30s and 40s.
But there was a brief window in Hollywood history known as the pre-Code era. Pre-Code goes back to Silent films, a few of which have notorious "cult" status. I do not know the titles, and they would not be as racy as you think anyway, but what is commonly known as "pre-Code" generally refers to movies in the early sound era, from 1930 to 1934. During that period, there was no official censorship of anything considered risque. Which is part of the reason that a movie like "Red Dust" seems such a classic.
Now, as I said, don't get the wrong idea : "pre-Code" is very much of it's era, and hardly means anything as in-your-face or crude, blunt, what-have-you, as many of today's over-the-top mainstream releases (most of which should be rated "S" for Stupid).
But still, in a pre-Code film made in 1932 like "Red Dust", you see adult situations treated pretty much as they would occur in real life, albeit with sophisticated banter written by top drawer screenwriters. Innuendo is the key to pre-Code situations, and it is both written and delivered with panache and thus never sinks into low brow titillation.
In "Red Dust", Clark Gable - looking young, ultra handsome and not yet weatherbeaten by cigs and booze - is the owner of a rubber plantation in Indochina, what would become Vietnam. He is dealing with a bad crop of rubber trees (i.e. sap), and alternating dust storms and monsoons. The local ferry boat drops off an American prostitute played by Hollywood legend Jean Harlow, who is on the run from police in Saigon. Gable finds her irritating to no end, but then promptly falls for her....until....
Until a scientist arrives, with his beautiful, sophisticated wife, played by Mary Astor, a very early Movie Star. The scientist is there to help Gable solve the rubber production problems, but Gable is soon only concerned with the scientist's wife, and an affair ensues. Jean Harlow, the prostitute, turns out to be the moral one; she confronts Clark Gable with what she knows, and from there, things play out in a manner that is fairly close to real life.
It's not often that you see a film with a perfect script, in which nothing is extraneous and everything fits together as a series of events leading to a conclusion, but in "Red Dust" that is exactly what you get. The cast is perfect : Jean Harlow, who is not well-known now but who should be given a renaissance, was so talented, and had such Movie Star presence, even way back in 1932 when that quality was just being born. She only lived to be 26, and she was only 21 in this movie, but she holds her own with the macho Gable and the ethereal Mary Astor, and really, they have to hold their own with her. She really was, and still is, one of the ultimate Movie Stars, and she defines what Hollywood was originally all about - pizazz.
Clark Gable is young here, as mentioned, and not beat-up as he would become, and so he portrays a man of force, of power over women, with a lot of conviction. Mary Astor is his prey, and she was a very talented and also very beautiful actress in the early sound era who is also not well known today, but should be.
We are seeing with the Buster Keaton retrospective just how "hip" people were one hundred years ago, how sophisticated and knowing and seemingly "above-it-all", just as we think we are today. And we might not have suspected folks of that era to possess a similar sophistication, or rather a "hipness", a feeling of "being perpetually current" or even ahead of the curve. And the same is true, and perhaps even more so, in a film like "Red Dust", which lays out an adult scenario in the pre-Code era with extreme sophistication, revealed in the banter and the dress of the women, and yet does so without ever stooping to locker room level or even close to that. I don't know how to even label such a film. Is it a melodrama? No. Is it a comedy? No, though it has a light comedic element. Is it a drama? Not in the classic sense. No long plot is played out.
I don't know what to call it, except a classic film, and because it was made pre-Hays Code, it is decidedly different from other films of the Golden Era. It is much more realistic. Not that I don't love the romanticised sheen of the Hays Code era; that era defines Classic Hollywood for the most part. But it's just fun, and quite an education, to see a film made in the pre-Code era, and especially starring Jean Harlow, who was made for that era, and who could easily have been a big star today.
Two Giant Thumbs Up for "Red Dust", a must-see for fans of Hollywood Movies and Movie Stars. ////
That was basically all today's news except for a nice hike out at Santa Susana this afternoon.
Elizabeth, I hope you had a great day at Sonic Boom. I am assuming it was today because I saw a few posts about it. It goes of course without saying that you got great photographs, and I also saw a comment about yesterday's Iceland/Red Dress photo in which a lady from Iceland mentioned that big mountain in the background of the picture, the same one I mentioned. She said it is the highest mountain in the country!
Pretty cool, if you ask me. :):)
See you in church in the morning.
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