Previewing the Pre-Codes at the 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival
April 21, 2025
The 2025 TCM Classic Film Festival is right around the corner! I’ve published my annual festival preview, which you can read here. Now it’s time to dive a bit deeper into the pre-Codes playing. Year after year, these movies rank among my most anticipated screenings of the entire event, so to say I’m excited is an understatement.
Moonlight and Pretzels (1933)
How can one not be intrigued by a title like this? (You know it’s pre-Code by the lobby card alone!) I’ve heard of Moonlight and Pretzels, but I’ve never seen it, which automatically bumps it to the top of my must-see list this year. No big names grace the cast; the most well-known actors are Leo Carrillo, Mary Brian, and William Frawley.
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Universal intended to cash in on the Busby Berkeley musical craze with Moonlight and Pretzels. (But really, I’ve read that it’s a miracle the studio didn’t get sued—that’s how closely they copied Berkeley’s numbers.) The film centers around a small-town songwriter, played by Roger Pryor. He meets music store owner Mary Brian, helps save her shop with his in-store performances, and eventually stamps his ticket to Broadway, becoming a big-time producer.
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Celebrated cinematographer Karl Freund (who later worked on I Love Lucy!) helmed this film, one of the few he directed in the 1930s. In addition to that distinctive credit, I’ve seen many people call Moonlight and Pretzels unique/odd/eccentric, and I am always here for that, especially when it involves a new-to-me pre-Code!
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The Divorcee (1930)
I mean, what else is there to say that hasn't already been said about one of the most quintessential pre-Codes? The Divorcee first hit theaters in April 1930, one month after the adoption of the Production Code. By the looks of things in this movie—you know, Norma Shearer getting even with her cheating husband and having a ball as a newly free divorcee—studios weren’t exactly itching to abide by the Code. And they didn’t… for another four years, at least.
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I was just thinking recently that The Divorcee is a film I’d love to experience in a theater with an audience. Suffice it to say, I’m very much looking forward to this screening. It’s a brand new 35mm print, playing in the resplendent Egyptian Theatre—fit for an iconic movie like this!
A Swedish poster for Servants' Entrance, based on a novel by a Norwegian author that was first adapted as a Swedish film!
Servants’ Entrance (1934)
So, I’m not sure I’d classify Servants’ Entrance as a pre-Code. While the film started production pre-Code enforcement (June 1934), it passed the finish line likely after implementation in July and was released in September 1934. This makes things interesting, though! Movies that straddle enforcement fascinate me. Some feel more like pre-Codes, others exude more post-Code buttoned up vibes. (Also, I always wonder how much production changed during that time.)
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That said, I’m very interested to see where this Fox musical comedy, which stars Janet Gaynor as a rich girl who takes a job as a maid and falls for chauffeur Lew Ayres, lands. Thank you to TCMFF for bringing this rarely screened movie to the festival! It’s not often that Disney lets the Fox pre-Codes out of the vault, so this will be a special screening. It also apparently features a sequence combining live action and a Walt Disney animation, which sounds entertaining to say the least.
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Me and My Gal (1932)
Speaking of Fox… there’s nothing I love more than seeing multiple Fox pre-Codes on the TCMFF schedule! Well, maybe one thing I love more is a film I haven’t seen, and this ticks both boxes. I’ve heard of this Spencer Tracy-Joan Bennett romance/comedy/drama/crime film, in which he plays a policeman who falls for Bennett’s waitress, but it’s eluded me.
However, Me and My Gal plays in theater 4, notoriously the smallest of the fest, so that means I’m going to have to jump in line early if I want a chance to see the movie. Not to mention, Bruce Goldstein will be presenting this screening. His intros usually include gems from the censorship files, which I like incorporating into my intros, too; though these files are publicly available, some, like the one for this film, are housed in Special Collections in the Margaret Herrick Library, so they aren’t the easiest to view for those outside Los Angeles. That’s just one more added bonus for this new-to-me pre-Code that I was already excited to see!
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The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)
As The Private Life of Henry VIII is a British film, it wasn’t subject to the same censor standards as Hollywood-made films during its production. BUT, since it was distributed in the US, it was reviewed by the Studio Relations Committee (SRC); indeed, a Production Code Administration file for this film survives at the Margaret Herrick Library. I really wanted to take a look, but I didn’t have enough time to request the Special Collections file before the fest. Though I’ve heard of this biopic, starring Charles Laughton, Binnie Barnes, Elsa Lanchester, Robert Donat, and a young Merle Oberon, it hasn’t really been on my radar, so I’m looking forward to (hopefully) making this screening. That said, it’s playing opposite/close to a few other movies, Q&As, and programs I want to catch, so… we’ll see! If I don’t make it, I know it’s relatively easy to find streaming. (Though of course, watching it at TCMFF would be ideal.)
Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper in Morocco.
Morocco (1930)
I mean, Marlene Dietrich’s films with Josef von Sternberg are always luscious pieces of art. Co-starring Gary Cooper, Morocco is a bona fide pre-Code classic, especially for that infamous kiss Dietrich imparts on a female audience member during a musical number in which she dons a top hat and tails. While I would love seeing this with a TCMFF audience, I’ve had the opportunity to watch Morocco on the big screen more than once, and it’s playing opposite a new-to-me title projected in VistaVision. This means I’ll likely pass on Morocco this time around, but it’s definitely a treat, and I know this screening will be a popular one.
Animal Crackers (1930)
I love comedy, and pre-Code humor is on another level. I don’t recall if I’ve seen a Marx Brothers film on the big screen before—and they are one troupe whose clowning I’ve always wanted to experience with an audience. (Mae West was another—I got shut out of 1933’s She Done Him Wrong twice at last year’s festival, but I finally got the chance to see West at her best last summer at AFI Silver’s pre-Code festival!)
Animal Crackers screens at 9pm, which is usually late for me—not to mention, I have a habit of falling asleep during late movies—but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be impossible to doze off during this film because people will be laughing nonstop. I can’t wait! I haven’t seen this movie in a very long time, and I really don’t remember many of the famous lines, so it will basically be a rediscovery for me.
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That's all the pre-Codes playing at the fest this year! For those attending, are you planning on catching any of these films?
thanks for stopping by!
I See a Dark Theater is a website dedicated to classic movie-going—and loving—in the City of Angels. Whether it's coverage on screenings, special presentations, or Q&As around Los Angeles that you're looking for, or commentary on the wonderful and sometimes wacky world of classic cinema, you've come to the right place for a variety of pieces written with zeal, awe, and (occasionally) wit. Enjoy.
