Pre-Code Hollywood was a "fascinating period in American motion picture history from 1930 to 1934 when the commandments of the Production Code Administration were violated with impunity in a series of wildly unconventional films -a time when censorship was lax and Hollywood made the most of it..."
The underworld-set BLOOD MONEY(Fox 1933), typical of its time, tweaks convention by making no apologies for its morally compromised characters or their criminal actions and risqué situations. Burly George Bancroft plays high-profile L.A. bail bondsman Bill Bailey, a man who makes a very comfortable living off society's less fortunate. Vice queen Ruby Darling (a languid, bejeweled Judith Anderson swathed in fur) put him on top after he was thrown off the police force for theft and he repays her by falling for kleptomaniac Elaine Talbart, a Beverly Hills society girl with an "underworld mania". When Bailey introduces Elaine to Ruby's bank-robber brother, Drury (Chick Chandler), sparks fly but a double-cross by Elaine forces Ruby to put an underworld contract out on Bailey. In this film's universe, criminal careers, shady politics, high society hypocrisy, prostitution, and sexual ambiguity are all alluded to in breezy fashion and even unrequited love resolves itself in an upbeat ending. Frances Dee steals the show as the over-heated Elaine, a gal who's eyes light up at the very thought of crime. She's last seen chatting up a stranger who was just manhandled and near-raped by a photographer she interviewed for; Elaine, growing visibly excited, asks the girl what floor his offices are located on and rushes off to meet him! Buxom songstress Blossom Seely, done up as "Diamond Lil", torches it up in a speakeasy and look quickly for a platinum blonde Lucille Ball playing a five dollar hooker at the dog track.
The underworld-set BLOOD MONEY(Fox 1933), typical of its time, tweaks convention by making no apologies for its morally compromised characters or their criminal actions and risqué situations. Burly George Bancroft plays high-profile L.A. bail bondsman Bill Bailey, a man who makes a very comfortable living off society's less fortunate. Vice queen Ruby Darling (a languid, bejeweled Judith Anderson swathed in fur) put him on top after he was thrown off the police force for theft and he repays her by falling for kleptomaniac Elaine Talbart, a Beverly Hills society girl with an "underworld mania". When Bailey introduces Elaine to Ruby's bank-robber brother, Drury (Chick Chandler), sparks fly but a double-cross by Elaine forces Ruby to put an underworld contract out on Bailey. In this film's universe, criminal careers, shady politics, high society hypocrisy, prostitution, and sexual ambiguity are all alluded to in breezy fashion and even unrequited love resolves itself in an upbeat ending. Frances Dee steals the show as the over-heated Elaine, a gal who's eyes light up at the very thought of crime. She's last seen chatting up a stranger who was just manhandled and near-raped by a photographer she interviewed for; Elaine, growing visibly excited, asks the girl what floor his offices are located on and rushes off to meet him! Buxom songstress Blossom Seely, done up as "Diamond Lil", torches it up in a speakeasy and look quickly for a platinum blonde Lucille Ball playing a five dollar hooker at the dog track.