HOT SATURDAY - "I'm Burning For You" (1934)

 Welcome to the Saturday Night Pre-Code Special down in The Dungeon! Before the "Code To Govern The Making Of Talking, Synchronized and Silent Motion Pictures," was enacted on June 13, 1934, it was anything goes! That's why you can watch silent movies, and wonder in disbelief that there was nudity, when the rest of society was still pretty much draped from head to toe! I don't have time to tell you all the details, but here's a couple of highlights of what had to stop! In the "Crimes Against The Law" category, 01 - "The technique of murder must be presented in a way that will not inspire imitation." But what they really wanted to crack down on was partying with alcohol and basically anything that had to do with sex! So you have stuff like "Scenes of passion should not be introduced when not essential to the plot!" So you get the idea, somebody suddenly got a moral stick up their butt, and movie making was changed until 1968 when the code was replaced by the MPAA film rating system! All you comic book fans will know that the same basic thing happened to comic books in 1954 until the early 2000's! Marvel abandoned the comics code completely in 2001!

What a fitting title for this Saturday Night Special!

Just another sleepy little town!

Here's Nancy (The Devil's Holiday) Carroll as the super sweet and pleasant bank worker Miss Ruth Brock!

Here's Cary Grant as the swanky playboy Romer Sheffield!  How cool do you have to be to wear a completely white suit? As cool as Archibald Alexander Leach, Cary Grant's birth name!

 Ruth's sister Annie steals her drawers, so she strips them off her, and takes them back! This is obviously a breach of future rule VI, COSTUME - 2. "Undressing scenes should be avoided, and never used save where essential to the plot."

 DITTO!!

 Not many guys could get away with wearing an ascot like that either, but Cary Grant always gets away with it effortlessly! This scene is an obvious breach of future code rule 4. "The use of liquor in American life, when not required by the plot or for proper characterization, will not be shown!" What a bunch of spoil sports!

Here's about 2 minutes of  "I'm Burning For You" written by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow, and sung by this unidentified road house torch singer! I'm sure it commits some kind of sin!

 VII DANCES - "Dances suggesting or representing sexual actions or indecent passion are forbidden!"

Big time cowboy-western actor Randolph Scott plays Bill Fadden, Ruth's old flame from seven years earlier!

Ruth Brock gets wrongfully accused of spending the night at Romer's pad, and the catty rumor mill cranks into high gear!

Ruth is fired from her job for her supposed infidelities so she goes out in the rain to find Bill Fadden who is on a dig up in the mountains! It starts raining like Hell, and before she can find the cave he's dwelling in, she passes out from exhaustion!

 See how they like to twist everything around! Bill innocently undresses Ruth to dry out her clothes and get her warm, but it turns into another evil sexual innuendo!

 She's naked under there, so I'm pretty sure that would violate future rule VI. COSTUME - 1. - "Complete nudity is never permitted.This includes nudity in fact or silhouette, or any lecherous or licentious notice thereof by other characters in the picture."

Bill and Ruth were all set to get married until he falls into all the traps of gossip and lies, and he ends up driving Ruth into the arms of Romer Sheffield who doesn't mind at all because he was madly in love with her anyway! 

I got this movie from Amazon! It's included in a nice three DVD set called "Pre-Code Hollywood Collection" that includes a total of 6 movies, and a copy of the whole "Code To Govern The Making Of Talking, Synchronized and Silent Motion Pictures," so you can bet this won't be the last of the Pre-Code thrills around here! If you don't want to own it, but you still want to watch "Hot Saturday," there's a nice version streaming for free right here on YouTube!