Today's Cinema Sunday looks at a trio of movies that came out before the censorship of the Hays Code, also known as the Motion Picture Production Code took effect.
Our first movie today came out in 1934 just ahead of the code taking effect, Murder in the Private Car.
It is a tale of mystery, romance, intrigue and (of course) MURDER!
Murder in the Private Car is barely one hour long but damn if this isn't a butt load of plot shoved into those 60 minutes.
Los Angeles switchboard operator Ruth Raymond is informed by lawyer Alden Murray she is actually the daughter of railroad tycoon Luke Carson . She had been kidnapped as a baby by Luke's brother and partner Elwood, and placed with strangers.
Well, ain't that some big life altering news! Ruth goes from a working girl barely getting by to a heiress to a gazillion dollars! Ain't life great!
Except being the heiress to a gazillion dollars puts Ruth in the crosshairs of an attempt on her life which is thankfully foiled by private detective Godfrey Scott.
In case you're wondering who hired the private detective, the answer is no one, Godfrey just sort of invites himself into the plot.
Ruth receives a telegram telling her to meet her father in New York and transportation on Luke's private car has been arranged.
Dudes, it's a trap!
Ruth, Alden, her best friend Georgia, her old boyfriend John and (for some reason) Godfrey are all on board when things start to go wrong!
In the private car, the lights go out and an announcement is heard, "Eight hours to live". Uh oh!
Then the train is suddenly stopped until the wreck of a circus train on the tracks is cleared.
An escaped circus gorilla attacks our cast before jumping from the train to its death.
(Don't feel bad. It was not a real gorilla. Very, very obviously not a real gorilla. Someone realized this fershlugginer movie was going to be less than an hour long then someone realized they had a gorilla suit. Someone may have asked "Is it a good gorilla suit?" but there was no time to do anything about it when the answer was "no". We got to get this damn movie up to 60 minutes. Cue the gorilla suit!)
Alden is murdered and "Five hours to live" is announced.
Well, that's not good!
Then Daddy Railroadbucks shows up! Luke Carson hitches a ride on the private car because it's his railroad, his train and his car!
It's also his.... DOOM!
The windows are blocked, the lights go out and the voice announce they are all going to die! DIE! DIE!
Luke recognizes the voice as his brother Elwood.
The private car becomes uncoupled from the train and begins to roll downhill towards another train barreling up the track behind them.
AND the private car is lined with explosives!
Well.... fuck!
Anyway, Godfrey finds and kills Elwood and then he MacGyver's a radio into working to transmit a warning to the train coming up from behind to go into reverse. Except there's freight train coming up behind that train.
So we've got a train moving in reverse staying mere feet away from the bomb ladened runaway car until they reach a rail yard (how convenient) for workers to frantically switch rails to keep the trains and the runaway car on separate tracks.
Apparently this entire rail line runs down hill because the runaway car continues to zip down the track out of the rail yard at break neck speed. A train engine is sent in pursuit and in a harrowing escape, the gang in the private car cross the cap from the car to the front of the engine while moving at a high rate of speed.
The private car comes to a particularly sharp turn in the track, goes off the rails, hits a rock and 'SPLODES!
Damn! That's a lot to shove into one 60 minute movie!
The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department
Godfrey D. Scott is played by Charles Ruggles who played Major Horace Applegate in Bringing Up Baby.
Our next film for today's Cinema Sunday post is a 1933 American pre-Code gangster film starring Joan Blondell called Blondie Johnson.
It's the Great Depression in New York City and life is hard for Virginia "Blondie" Johnson, jobless, homeless and her mother dies of pneumonia because no one will fucking help her except to offer useless advise to Blondie.
"Perhaps if you got a job, young lady" and bullshit like that.
Blondie vows to get rich, no matter what or how and show this city whose boss rich.
She starts off working a small scale grift, conning various men out of $5 here, $10 there. One of her marks is a gangster named Danny. Danny ain't sore about it; Blondie's not a bad looking dame and she's pretty smart too.
Danny's involved with a protection racket (you know, "nice place you got here, shame if something happened to it", that sort of thing). Blondie connives up a sting that scores her a wad of cash and gets the mark to sign up for Danny's protection racket.
Blondie's ambition drives her to urge Danny to take out his boss in the mob and put his name on the door of the protection business. Danny gets a bit tired of Blondie riding him to get more and more money and tries to ship her out of town to be some other gangster's moll. Blondie does not take kindly to that at all and stages a coup to take over the mob from Danny.
Now it's Virginia Johnson's name on the door.
But can Danny be trusted not to rat them out to the cops as an act of revenge for being shut out of the mob? Blondie OK's a hit on Danny.
Except...
She has a last second change of heart (because she's a woman and she loves Danny?) and tries to stop the hit on Danny. Danny's shot (several times) but not killed (really?). The racket is exposed and Blondie is convicted and sent to prison for six years. Blondie and Danny promise each other that they will make a fresh start (oh God, really?) after paying their debts to society (I think I'm going to be ill).
OK, I'm glad Danny didn't get killed. He was a good egg to take Blondie under her wing when she was at her lowest and it's a shame that fateful decision could ultimately lead to his death.
Yeah, it was wrong of him to try to ship her off to be some other gangster's moll so that's a strike against him.
But...
Blondie Johnson was about how Blondie's ambitions for ultimate wealth and power knew no limits. We've spent the entire movie watching her sacrifice love and happiness for the money and power she vowed to attain when her mother died.
The movie should've ended on a darker note, Blondie sitting still and cold as a stone at her desk, "Virginia Johnson" on the door, even as Danny, the man she could've loved is removed from the equation forever.
While Blondie Johnson was made before the advent of the Motion Picture Production Code, movies still had to contend with censorship as various community cinema censor boards would weigh in. Filmmakers might try to anticipate these varying concerns and I suspect the tacked on "redemption" at the end of Blondie Johnson was a sop to those concerns.
Or it could be just good old fashioned sexism at work. No way a woman would be that cold hearted to allow a hit like that. There have been many gangster films a mob boss ordering a hit on someone close to them. ("He was like a son to me. It would be a shame if something happened to him, get me?").
The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department
Sterling Holloway is Red the taxi driver. Holloway would go on to hundreds of appearance in film and television and would become most famous as the voice of Winnie the Pooh.
Our third pre-code film is Raffles starring Ronald Colman as the title character, a proper English gentleman who moonlights as a notorious jewel thief, and Kay Francis as his love interest.
The movie establishes up front that the police are just completely flummoxed by the rash of thefts committed by he notorious "Amateur Cracksman". He just too damn clever!
He's also tired of the whole gig. A.J. Raffles (Ronald Colman) decides to give up the "Amateur Cracksman" gig after falling in love with Lady Gwen (Kay Francis). Raffles is a gentlemen cricket player by day and the whole jewel thief by night was just for the thrill of it all. But the lovely Lady Gwen promises a better adventure.
However, Raffle's good friend Bunny gets into trouble with a gambling debt he can't replay so Raffles decides the "Amateur Cracksman" has one more job to do to get the money Bunny needs to get out of trouble.
Raffles, Bunny and Gwen are invited as guests of Lord and Lady Melrose. Raffles as an eye on acquiring the Melrose necklace, once the property of Empress Joséphine.
It seems a gang of thieves are also after the Melrose necklace and word of that plot reaches Inspector Mackenzie of Scotland Yard who arrives at the Melrose estate with a crew of officers to head that off at the pass.
Now we are told at the start of the movie that the "Amateur Cracksman" has confounded the police with many thefts. This person is really too damn smart and clever.
Why then does Raffles think it's a good idea to go ahead with the theft of the Melrose necklace?
Yeah, it does seem like Inspector Mackenzie of Scotland Yard is as dumb as a box of rocks but he's not a complete idiot and he's not alone. Way too many eyes on the old joint.
But Raffles decides to go ahead with the heist and use the other gang's efforts as cover for his theft.
And everything that can go wrong does and Inspector Mackenzie immediately suspects Raffles.
Raffles does show some considerable cleverness in eluding being arrested by the Inspector but damn the number of questionable decisions and actions by Raffles that puts him as suspect #1 by Scotland Yard begs the question, exactly how did "Amateur Cracksman" elude them for so long?
That is that for this week's Cinema Sunday and my series on pre-Code movies.
I'll be back next week with a movie of a more recent vintage.
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