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The pre-Code era of Hollywood filmmaking ran from 1930 to 1934. During these years, Hollywood films contained increasing levels of violence, sexuality, drug use, and morally ambiguous protagonists. Although officially created in 1930, the Production Code did not begin strict enforcement until the middle of 1934.

While many have preconceived notions of Golden Era Hollywood films being sterile, that belief certainly does not apply to pre-Code films. The reality is, many pre-Code movies feature outrageous content that, even by today's standards, remains shocking and taboo. Countless pre-Code classics still account for some of cinema's most controversial movies.

This article was updated on October 6, 2024, by Christopher Raley: The era before the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code or the Hays Code offers a look into the kind of films that Hollywood made before the time in which the code was enforced. While the display of nudity was not as frank, some of these films...

Fred MacMurray movies: ‘Double Indemnity,’ ‘There’s Always Tomorrow’ Fred MacMurray is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" today, Thursday, August 7, 2013. Although perhaps best remembered as the insufferable All-American Dad on the long-running TV show My Three Sons and in several highly popular Disney movies from 1959 to 1967, e.g., The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, Boy Voyage!, MacMurray was immeasurably more interesting as the All-American Jerk. (Photo: Fred MacMurray ca. 1940.) Someone once wrote that Fred MacMurray would have been an ideal choice to star in a biopic of disgraced Republican president Richard Nixon. Who knows, the (coincidentally Republican) MacMurray might have given Anthony Hopkins a run for his Best Actor Academy Award nomination. After all, MacMurray’s most admired movie performances are those in which he plays a scheming, conniving asshole: Billy Wilder’s classic film noir Double Indemnity (1944), in which he’s seduced by Barbara Stanwyck, and Wilder...