Charles wrote:
>"It's a commonplace to lament the degraded state
of
>popular culture and to complain about increasing
vulgarity,
>sexualization and so forth -- but based on at least
some of the
>evidence I've seen, in some ways people are more
uptight today than
>they were fifty years ago.
I agree - especially after reading this review in the NY
Times's for a new DVD box set called "TCM Archives -
Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol 1."
"Before Hollywood began serious enforcement of the
puritanical Production Code in 1934, the studios were
astonishingly free to treat adult themes in adult terms. This
two-disc box revives a much-missed series started back in the
days of VHS with three exemplary pre-Code pictures, including
both the pre- and post-censorship versions of Alfred E.
Green's jaw-dropping "Baby Face" of 1933, starring Barbara
Stanwyck as a mill-town tramp who sleeps her way to the top
at a Manhattan bank. The cut version is a shocker in itself;
the uncensored version, discovered in the archives of the
Library of Congress, is even more cynical and deliciously
sordid."
Based on that review by Dave Kehr, I ordered the set as a
gift for my uncle.
Mark
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 21 Dec 2006 EST