Pre-Code Hollywood (She Done Him Wrong & Baby Face)

Paul and Chris return to the pod to bring their expertise on classic Hollywood. In 1934, Will Hays, then the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, began strenuously enforcing the Production Code. This code was a guideline used to determine what films could depict on screen and the behavior of characters. These included drug use, promiscuity, and yes, homosexuality. Despite limiting these things, it inspired creative filmmakers to work around the code and find new and clever ways to challenge it. The films we chose, She Done Him Wrong and Baby Face were each released in 1933, and a case could be made that they led to stricter enforcement of the code. Baby Face stars Barbara Stanwyck as Lily, a woman who escapes her evil father and makes her way in the city, quite literally sleeping her way to the top of high society. She Done Him Wrong is based on Mae West's own play, and she plays a nightclub owner who must contend with a jealous ex who escapes from prison, and a young Cary Grant, a police captain.