Date and Time for this Past Event
- Thursday, Jun 13, 2024 11:30am - 12:45pm
Details
"Pre-Code: Sex and Censorship" electrifies the first AFI Silver Classic Film Weekend. Immerse yourself in the thrilling era of pre-Code cinema, a fleeting moment from the late 1920s to 1934 when films defied convention before the Hays Code stifled Hollywood's boldness. These movies, lighthearted or dramatic, showcased complex women and flawed heroes struggling against social injustice, and unflinching explorations of sex, ambition and crime. Witness legendary stars ignite the screen: Clara Bow, James Cagney, Barbara Stanwyck, Cary Grant, Jean Harlow, Joan Blondell, Spencer Tracy, Warren William, Anna May Wong and Josephine Baker. Festival guests, including film historians Richard Koszarski, Steven C. Smith, Farran Smith Nehme, Katie Gee Salisbury and David Stenn, will introduce each film
BLONDE CRAZY
Hyperactive bellhop Bert (James Cagney) provides hotel guests with illegal booze and gambling to set them up for small-time extortion. Bert teams up with chambermaid Ann (Joan Blondell in her first starring role), encouraging her to join his cons by explaining that "everyone has larceny in his heart." When they move to the city to execute big-time cons, his carefully crafted plan falls apart. BLONDE CRAZY captured the national feeling that the entire country was suffering from the consequences of a huge economic fraud, so the natural response was to join the con. The film is a catalog of scenes that would not survive the Production Code — Cagney walking in while Blondell is bathing, road maps on how to commit fraud and an overall amorality that in the midst of chaos, everything is up for grabs. In their fourth film together, Cagney and Blondell play off each other beautifully.
