Pre-Code Yet to See
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- DirectorWalter LangStarsCarole LombardWalter ConnollyLouise Closser HaleAn heiress forced to marry into royalty in order to save her banker father falls in love with another man while on a cruise.
- DirectorHarry BeaumontStarsWilliam HainesMadge EvansAnita PageA radio writer/producer accidentally kills his wife, then attempts to escape the on-air hunt for him.
- DirectorAlfred E. GreenStarsWilliam PowellDoris KenyonMarian MarshGossip, snobbery, mistrust, divorce and a mail-order engagement dominate the lives of the British upper class living in the plantation colonies of Southeast Asia.
- DirectorLowell ShermanStarsJoan BlondellMadge EvansIna ClaireEx-showgirls and roommates Polaire Gwynn (Madge Evans) and Schatze Citroux (Joan Blondell) are reunited with their sometime friend and former co-worker, Jean Lawrence (Ina Claire), when she returns from France. Jean, a hard-boiled gold digger, asks the honest Polaire and loyal Schatze to introduce her to a new man, and Polaire calls her boyfriend, playboy Dey Emery (David Manners), for help. The girls meet Dey and his friend, pianist Boris Feldman (the film's director Lowell Sherman), at a speakeasy, where Boris bets Jean that if his piano playing does not induce her to love him, he will give her $5,000. Later, at Boris' apartment, Jean pretends to sleep through Boris' concert. Polaire then plays, and Boris, impressed with her talent, offers to be her teacher. He implies that she will have to be his lover as well as his student, however, and Polaire becomes upset when Dey does not protest. Dey mistakenly assumes that an exhibition of jealousy would be unwelcome, and his inaction results in Polaire's acceptance of Boris' proposition. After Polaire leaves to collect her things, Schatze and the heartbroken Dey also leave, but Jean stays to seduce Boris. Jean's calculated exhibitionism is successful, and Boris does not answer the door when Polaire returns. After she leaves, Polaire is hurt in an automobile accident and is hospitalized. Sometime later, Jean tires of Boris and breaks up with him, then pursues Dey. Dey welcomes Jean's attentions until Schatze tells him that Polaire has been in the hospital since their parting. Dey immediately goes to Polaire and proposes to her, and they reconcile. Later, Jean makes an unwelcome appearance at Polaire and Schatze's apartment while Polaire is waiting to meet Dey's father Justin (Phillips Smalley) for the first time. When Dey arrives and Jean learns that Polaire is to meet Justin at the Emery house, she slips a pearl necklace into Polaire's pocket so that she will have an excuse to follow. Polaire's interview with Justin is going splendidly until Jean arrives and intimates that Polaire stole the necklace. Indignant that Dey believes Jean, Polaire storms out, while Jean stays to flirt with Justin. Later, on the day of Jean and Justin's wedding, Schatze and Polaire arrive to retrieve a bracelet that Polaire loaned Jean. Jean returns the jewelry and miserably contemplates her future of wedded boredom as Schatze and Polaire brag about the fun they will have when they sail for France that afternoon. The trio are soon drunk, and Jean decides that she cannot exchange her freedom for Justin's fortune. She sneaks out of the house with Schatze, but Polaire is caught by Dey. Dey apologizes to Polaire for misjudging her, but Polaire leaves anyway. The determined Dey follows her onto the ocean liner, where Polaire consents to marry him when he states that he is certain of her virtue. The couple then cuddles happily as Jean flirts with Schatze's male traveling companion.
- DirectorVictor HalperinStarsCarole LombardRandolph ScottAlan DinehartA serial black widow murderess returns to life in the body of a young woman to exact revenge on a former lover, a phony spiritualist who betrayed her.
- DirectorCharles LamontStarsRay WalkerBerton ChurchillIrene WareA pair of detectives investigates the murder of an elderly millionaire who was the target of blackmail and death threats and find that there is no shortage of suspects, many of them in the victim's own family.
- DirectorRoy William NeillStarsAdolphe MenjouDonald CookGreta NissenSuave, lip-reading DA Thatcher Colt plans to get away from the big city for a while. So he and his secretary, Miss Kelly hop on a train for an Upstate NY town called Gilead. They expect a calm oasis, but when a small time circus rolls into town they soon find themselves caught up in a sordid tale of marital infidelity, murder, cruelty to animals, and cannibalism.
- DirectorIrving CummingsStarsAdolphe MenjouMayo MethotRichard 'Skeets' GallagherNew York Police Commissioner Thatcher Colt must save a wealthy socialite from a rendezvous with death on New Year's Eve.
- DirectorGeorge W. HillStarsWallace BeeryLewis StoneJohnny Mack BrownAfter rising bootlegger Slaughterhouse Scorpio eliminates his gangland competition, two reporters and a cabal of six businessmen work to expose him.
- DirectorHenry KingStarsElissa LandiRalph BellamyNeil HamiltonThe Woman in Room 13 is a 1932 American mystery film directed by Henry King, written by Guy Bolton and Max Marcin. Cast: Elissa Landi, Ralph Bellamy, Neil Hamilton, Myrna Loy. Released on May 15, 1932, by Fox Film Corporation.
- DirectorWilliam Cameron MenziesStarsViolet HemingRalph BellamyAlexander KirklandRussian beauty Anita Mellikovna, traveling by train with a forged passport and carrying jewels, finds the police on her tail. Seeing Deene Maxwell, whom she met one summer in Scotland, on a train across the tracks, Anita climbs out of her train and enters his compartment. Deene, a British official traveling to Moscow, suggests they pose as husband and wife, since he has diplomatic immunity, and offers to marry her at the British Embassy. After the wedding, Anita reveals that she is already married to eccentric, violent composer Louis Capristi, whom she left on their wedding night after he threatened her. Meanwhile, Capristi, under the name Charles Pringle, is imprisoned in an English asylum for the criminally insane after strangling a woman to death. Anita and Deene are happily in love in England when they are confronted by Capristi, who escaped after he heard about their marriage. Capristi threatens to have them arrested for bigamy unless they allow him to stay a few days until his boat for South America sails. Deene's friend, Scotland Yard Inspector Slante, becomes suspicious of Capristi and posts guards to watch him. One evening in a restaurant in Soho, French girl Mariette recognizes Capristi as Pringle, and he murders her. Disguising his voice, Capristi calls Deene and lures him out of the house by telling him to meet Slante at Mariette's apartment.
- DirectorErnest B. SchoedsackStarsRobert ArmstrongHelen MackRoland YoungAn American in London stumbles on a criminal ring.
- DirectorLambert HillyerStarsRalph BellamyJune CollyerClaude GillingwaterDetective tries to figure out who killed a man who predicted his own death.
- DirectorD. Ross LedermanStarsRalph BellamyShirley GreyGail PatrickAn actress is murdered in the midst of shooting a dance sequence for her latest picture, with Inspector Steve Trent on the case.
- DirectorLambert HillyerStarsRalph BellamyShirley GreyWarren HymerPolice Inspector Steve Trent is called to the Radford Arms, a high-rise apartment building that has been taken over by a bank and its apartments now-unoccupied. There, the caretaker "Pop" Daley, leads him to an apartment where Trent finds the dead body of world-champion fighter 'Kid" Roberts. Also present are William Malcolm, Daley's unemployed nephew living in one of the "unoccupied" apartments, and Sally Grey, an unemployed secretary just in from San Francisco, also occupying an apartment unknown to the caretaker. Before long, suspects entering and exiting the building include building-owner Wells Deveroux and his knock-out wife Lola; "Knockout" Walters, a petty-thief and former fired-sparring mate of the murdered man; Jack Allen, Robert's manager, who shows up with three hoodlum bodyguards, a bad attitude and a very sour disposition; "Toledo Eddie" Marchetti, connected to a gambling syndicate; and Mabel Kane, former sweetheart of Roberts until he tossed her out in favor of an unknown "high-society, married dame." Among the many, many clues Trent uncovers are cigarette-butts with two different lipstick-brand marks, including "Tango Flower", suitable for brunettes; a Belgian .44-calibre revolver; a lingerie-filled suitcase; a ticket stub to the Opera Theatre for seat one, center section, row eight; a ladies' glove and perfumed handkerchief; expensive jewels, a diamond ring and bracelet in the dead man's room, and assorted notes, letters, lint and leavings, including a wrist-watch with a missing minute-hand which, of course, has the correct time shown only once an hour...24 times a day. It takes Trent a long time to crack the case, possibly because it takes him a long time time to ask somebody what time it is, or possibly because the title itself is a misnomer number.
- DirectorChristy CabanneStarsRalph BellamyValerie HobsonCatherine DoucetThere are plenty of suspects when an unscrupulous, blackmailing businessman turns up dead, especially the Police Commissioner's current paramour, who actually confessed to the killing before it was committed.
- DirectorHarry LachmanStarsRalph BellamyMarian MarshThurston HallA criminal has plastic surgery done to change his identity. However, during the operation, he loses his memory; when he comes to after the surgery, he has a change of heart and decides to help people by becoming a doctor.
- DirectorD. Ross LedermanStarsRalph BellamyJoan PerryDouglass DumbrillePhyllis Fowler claims to be just a "simple little country girl" trying to get by in the wicked big-city, and she takes a big getting-by step when she pulls a scam that gains her a $17,000 diamond from an exclusive jewelry store. Soon, a private-detective, who has a dupe gem matching the stolen one, the police, and two gangster buddies of the jeweler are all racing each other to get the diamond back from Phyllis. The country-girl provides them all with a wild chase.
- DirectorChristy CabanneStarsRalph BellamyFay WrayRegis ToomeyTop U.S. government spy-smasher John Baxter (Ralph Bellamy) does just that as he is aided by Eleanor Dunlap (Fay Wray) and companion federal agent Ted Hall (Regis Toomey) while being highly abetted by top enemy agent Dr. L. B. Carter (Walter Kingsford) and his minions of gang members and henchmen.
- DirectorJames P. HoganStarsRalph BellamyBlanche YurkaJ. Carrol NaishMobster Ma Webster rules her clan with an iron hand, taking charge of all their robberies despite the protests of George Frost, the only member of her gang who is not her son. On Christmas Eve, Ma, George, and her sons Eddie, Charlie, and Tom, rob the Centre City bank, but are warned to get out of town by her other son Bert, who disdains their criminal activity and is studying to be a lawyer. Ma and the gang go on a crime spree across the states, receiving $300,000 in ransom for kidnapping, and additional cash from various robberies. Aware that the serial numbers on the ransom money have been recorded by federal agents, they arrange with fellow crook Pan to trade the money $100,000 in unmarked bills, but take the bills and kill him instead, They are unaware, however, that the police have found a list of the serial numbers for all Pan's bills in his coat pocket. Federal agents Scott Langham and Ross Waring are put on the case, and trace the Websters to a Southern town, where Ma is posing as a socialite. The Websters elude the police, but are forced to live meagerly while hiding out in cheap hotels. By the next Christmas, Ma returns to Centre City to visit Bert's baby boy. While she is out, her boys hold up a store, but Charlie is killed and Tom is arrested. Bert represents Tom at his extradition trial, and convinces him to plead guilty and return willingly to the city of the kidnapping. When George wants to go his own way, Ma and Eddie kill him, then hire Stitch Torey to get Tom away from the police. Their attempt fails, however, and most of Torey's gang perish. After a year, Ma and Eddie have developed a low profile while Eddie works at a cannery to support them, and Ma becomes neighborly. Unknown to Ma, Eddie arranges a hideout for some robbers he hopes to join up with and gives them a case of canned food, but the criminals' car crashes and the police get Eddie's fingerprints from the cans. On Christmas Eve, federal agents attempt to arrest Ma and Eddie, who respond with gunfire. In the hail of bullets, Eddie is killed and Ma is finally arrested.
- DirectorArthur LubinStarsRalph BellamyMargaret LindsayJoseph SchildkrautMagazine photographer Ann Larkin is snapping photos at Mexico's National Museum when she sees Brod Williams steal a painting from its frame. Convinced that Brod is the notorious art thief known as "The Wildcat," Ann follows him into the street and accuses him of being the thief. Even though the police attest that Brod is a New York City police detective, Ann remains dubious and consequently follows Brod when he visits the Dumeray gallery. At the gallery, Brod asks Leon Dumeray to store a painting in his vault. Recognizing the canvas as stolen, Dumeray has Brod arrested. Her interest piqued, Ann visits Brod in jail where he asks her to bring him some fruit from Juan's fruit stand. Ann returns with a pineapple, in which a gun is concealed. Holding Ann at gunpoint, Brod demands that she switch clothing with him and, thus disguised, he blasts his way out of jail. After his escape, the police congratulate Brod on his clever ruse of staging a jail break in order to win the Wildcat's confidence. Pretending to seek refuge, Brod breaks into Dumeray's home where the art dealer reveals that he is the real Wildcat and recruits Brod to join his gang. Learning of a planned robbery at the museum the following night, Brod passes a message, coded in a bar of soap, warning the police. Meanwhile, Ann discovers that Brod really is a police detective, and when she sees him at Dumeray's house, she assumes that the two are working together and unintentionally lets Dumeray know who Brad is. Dumeray then takes Brod, Ann and her driver Max prisoner and ties them up in the power house near the museum. That night, as Dumeray tunnels into the museum, Brod breaks loose of his bonds and flashes an S-O-S signal over the power lines. He then hold the thieves at bay until the police arrive to meet the real Wildcat.
- DirectorJames P. HoganStarsRalph BellamyMargaret LindsayCharley GrapewinThe benefactor of the Stack Memorial Hospital dies after an operation. Ellery Queen investigates when it is revealed the cause of death was murder by strangulation.
- DirectorA. Edward SutherlandStarsCharles RugglesLionel AtwillGail PatrickA monomaniacal zoologist is pathologically jealous of his beautiful but unfaithful wife Evelyn and will not stop short of murder to keep her.
- DirectorKurt NeumannStarsLionel AtwillGloria StuartPaul LukasTwenty years after 3 murders occur in a castle's "blue room", three men who each want to marry a beautiful girl decide to spend a night in the room to prove their bravery to her.
- DirectorCharles VidorStarsEvelyn VenableMary MorrisAnne RevereIn New York in 1910, wealthy spinster Victoria Van Brett controls with an iron hand both the family fortune and the lives of her younger sister Caroline and half brother Rip. When Rip marries Anne Darrow, a nurse who saved his life, Victoria does everything in her power to ruin the marriage, asserting that Anne only loves Rip for his money. First, Victoria steals Rip's wedding present to Anne, his mother's pearls, which Victoria claims are not his to give. Next, she secretly writes Rip out of the family will, then calls him home early from his honeymoon to make him executor of the family millions, which leaves him little time for his bride. Victoria then restricts Anne's use of the family's Fifth Avenue mansion and only addresses her indirectly as "that woman." Meanwhile, Victoria tells Caroline that unless she cooperates with her treatment of Anne, she will lock her in the secret soundproof vault where their father died. Caroline's own romantic happiness was spoiled by Victoria years earlier, and she lives in daily terror of her sister's malicious manipulations. After many months of constant battering and humiliation, Anne goes to her friend, Dr. John Lucas, whom she was going to marry before she met Rip, for help. John suggests that Anne fight Victoria's tyranny and start inviting her own friends to the Van Brett home. That night, Anne invites John to dinner, and in the presence of family lawyer Mortimer Neff, Victoria accuses Anne of having an affair with him. Earlier in the day, Anne was forced to lie to Rip about visiting John unchaperoned. Under the weight of Victoria's present accusations, however, she admits her lie, swearing that John has not betrayed Rip's friendship. Finally overcoming Victoria's lifelong tyranny, Rip promises to take Anne from the house that night, forfeiting what he believes is his inheritance. When Anne comes downstairs with her suitcase, however, Victoria lures her into the vault by promising to give her the pearls and shuts the door. Caroline wakes at Anne's cry, but Victoria tells her it was only a dream and threatens to consign her to a mental institution. Victoria then tells Rip that Anne has eloped with John and dismisses the servants, planning to close up the house for a year. When John appears the next morning without any word from Anne, Rip becomes suspicious. The dog then barks at the wall that conceals the vault, and Caroline confesses that she heard a scream the night before and reveals the vault. Rip bends Victoria's arm to make her open the safe and discovers Anne, who has fainted. Although Victoria tries one last time to lure Caroline into the safe, Mortimer stops her, threatening to put her in prison unless she writes Rip back into the will. Caroline leaves the house with Anne and Rip, and after Mortimer leaves, Victoria goes into the safe to get the pearls, and the door locks behind her.