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List Price: $49.98 | | Label: WARNER HOME VIDEO
Salesrank: 7920
Released: March 4, 2008 |
| Our Price: $35.92 |
| Used Price: $38.72 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
THE DIVORCEE (1930): After several blissful years of marriage a woman catches her husband in a compromising position and forces him to confess his infidelities Her solution to the problem is to then try to match him tryst for tryst. Based on the 1929 Ursula Parrott novel "Ex-wife," this highly controversial story was first published anonymously, with the author’s name added only after thousands of copies were sold. A FREE SOUL (1931): Lionel Barrymore shines as Stephen Ashe, a brilliant alcoholic lawyer who successfully defends dashing gangster Ace Wilfong (Clark Gable) on a murder charge only to find that his headstrong daughter, Jan (Norma Shearer), has fallen in love with his client. Jan, a fun-loving socialite seeking freedom from her blue-blood upbring, is only too eager to dump her aristocratic boyfriend (Leslie Howard) for the no-good gangster. Barrymore gives a remarkable Oscar-winning performance culminating in a legendary courtroom scene that is powerful and deeply moving. THREE ON A MATCH (1932): Childhood friends Mary Keaton, Ruth Wescott and Vivian Deverse reunite ten years after high school. Mary is now a chorus girl, level-headed Ruth has a job as a secretary, and sexy Vivian is on the verge of deserting her wealthy husband Henry Kirkwood and their baby in favor of a glamorous gangster. FEMALE (1933): In Michael Curtiz's romantic comedy FEMALE, Ruth Chatterton plays Alison Drake, the iron-fisted president of a motorcar company. Alison oversees the daily operations of her male employees with a predatory gaze and frequently exercises her right to engage with them in any way she deems fit. She meets her match in an equally strong-minded new employee, Jim Thorne (George Brent), and the two engage in a smoldering, contentious, sexually charged duel. NIGHT NURSE (1931): William Wellman's NIGHT NURSE is a sassy, unsentimental comedy about a private pediatric nurse named Lora Hart (Barbara Stanwyck) who, after applying as an apprentice in a family home, discovers there is a plot afoot to starve her two rich, fat, young charges to death. The culprit is the family's chauffeur, Nick (Clark Gable), a villain who plans to marry the kids' dissolute mother and make off with their trust fund. THOU SHALT NOT: SEX, SIN AND CENSORSHIP IN PRE-CODE HOLLYWOOD (2008): Over seventy years later, they've lost none of their power to shock, entertain, and titillate. So-called "pre-Code" movies remain among the most vital films America has ever produced. But why were these films so much more sexually free and socially critical than what came before or after? Who created the Code, and what did it forbid? And why did it finally become a Hollywood commandment? The answer is a fascinating mix of scandal, big business and social history - a unique collision of events that resulted in one of the most dynamic - and delicious - periods in Hollywood history.
TCM Archives - Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 2 (The Divorcee / A Free Soul / Night Nurse / Three on a Match / Female) Reviews:
My list of the 5 best books on Hollywood and Stars scandals 
2009-10-27 - My list of the 5 best books on Hollywood and Stars scandals. After an extensive research and readings, I have compiled a list of the best books on Hollywood and stars scandals.
The best in this rank order:
Number 1: Hollywood Earth Shattering Scandals: The Infamous, Villains, Nymphomaniacs and Shady Characters in Motion Pictures. It is the newest, largest and the most explosive. Lots of new stories and scandals we did not hear about or read in other books. The galleries of photos are impressive. Author, Maximillien de Lafayette. Definitely this is the very best. Rating: 5 stars
Number 2: Hollywood Babylon. Simply because it was the first, the pioneering work that opens the Pandora Box. Author, Kenneth Anger. This book is still interesting. Rating: 5 stars
Number 3: The Hollywood Book of Scandals. Some new stuff, but lots of rehashes. Rating: 3 stars.
Number 4: Sex lives of Hollywood Goddesses. Very very interesting, but little. However, juicy. Author: Nigel Cawthorne. Rating: 3 stars.
Number 5: Dishing Hollywood. Not much stuff but engaging. Author: Laurie Jacobson. Rating: 3 stars.
Some good movies, somewhat over hyped 
2009-05-11 - Hollywood came into it's own in the 30's after the code was in place.
Not until the late 50's was the "Code" really challenged.
But even in the 20 and early 30's what we see in ordinary European films of today would have been banned? Sin isn't new, but I guess modern civilization has gotten much better at it than in these more innocent days.
My objection with this collection is not the good films in it,
but the presumptive "sale of sin" label given these films.
DON'T watch the documentary first!!
2009-05-09 - This is an incredible set of five very entertaining films, and a great look at some popular stars that have been rarely seen. BUT....DO NOT watch the documentary, "HOU SHALT NOT: SEX, SIN AND CENSORSHIP IN PRE-CODE HOLLYWOOD", before you watch the films! The documentary is great - great info, fun footage (especially Cagney stuff) - but it also goes over these specific films in this set in great detail, and gives away tons of spoilers, including the endings!! So make sure you don't watch this first!!
The other reviews pretty much tell it like it is - this is a great set that no old film fan would want to miss.
More fun!
2009-03-13 - This is Volume Two of TCM's popular series,and it's even better than the first one.The films vary in quality."Female","Three On A Match",and
"Night Nurse" are typical low-budget WArner Bros.programmers of the
early Thirties-well-made,fast-moving fun."The Divorcee" and "A Free Soul",
on the other hand,are big-budget,full-scale MGM star vehicles-strong scripts,excellent performances,fine direction.Norma Shearer was never better(she won the Oscar for "Divorcee"),Lionel Barrymore was at his peak
(he won an Oscar for "Soul"),and Gable gives a star-making performance.
This is good classic fun!Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Volume Three (Other Men's Women / The Purchase Price / Frisco Jenny / Midnight Mary / Heroes for Sale / Wild Boys of the Road)TCM Archives - Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 1 (Waterloo Bridge [1931] / Baby Face / Red-Headed Woman)
More TCM uncenored gems
2009-01-30 - Five more diverse pictures from a unique period in American film, when the advent of sound, and economic gloom blew away the opulence of the silent screen and left the studios no option but to turn out films with plots full of sex, sin, adultery, often from the female viewpoint.
The installation of sound cameras made the films less cinematic, but stronger in pace and plot.
The Divorcee, with Norma Shearer is a good example of exploring different roles, and displaying society with the flaws that did and still do exist in human relationships.
The moralists, usually Catholics, of the time would have hated such aberrations of the norm, and after they took hold when the economy recovered, art as daring as this took a nosedive, as the limits put on freedom of expression took hold.
Unfortunatley these self-appointed guardians are still out there.
The fact that this collection of gems are not rated reveals how purile their rantings were, and still are today.
Oh and Ted Turner should be knighted for restoring a small but vital slice of great art, in an era lovers of American cinema should be proud of.
Looking forward to the next lot.
s
