Forbidden Hollywood: The Wild Days of Pre-Code Cinema

Overview

In 1934, American cinema was sanitised. The Motion Picture Production Code swept sex, drugs, crime and violence from screens, favouring traditional values in a regime that remained until 1968.

The Code rallied against a raucous time in filmmaking, all things risque thriving upon the advent of sound and after the Great Wall Street Crash and the Depression. Strong women defying puritan ideals became the order of the day, alongside ripped-from-the-headlines cops-and-gangster antics. Promiscuity, prostitution, infidelity, abortion — the list of taboos traversed was surprising and subversive.

Forbidden Hollywood: The Wild Days of Pre-Code Cinema, the Gallery of Modern Art’s extensive retrospective, trawls through this unique period in film history. Screening on 35mm, stars such as James Cagney, Mae West, Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Clara Bow and Clark Gable shine in gems including Scarface, Blonde Venus, 42nd Street and Baby Face — in possibly your only chance to see these classics in a cinema.

Visit the QAGOMA site for the complete program.