Complicated Women

The people who are saying that this documentary was in any way exaggerated or inaccurate are themselves inaccurate. This film is historically documented and completely true to the spirit of the pre-Code era. And lest anyone think the film pandered to a modern sensibility, keep in mind: It had three ninety year old ladies in it, and was narrated by 66-year-old JANE FONDA, not Courtney Love. The fact is, the pre-Code was an extraordinary period for women's films -- something that becomes more not less evident after one has seen two hundred or three hundred pictures from this period. And it was not extraordinary only for what it showed or dared but for the points the films made -- for those points that were intrinsic to the MESSAGES of the films -- which go way beyond a flimsy gown or anything that could be edited into tameness. If anything this documentary needed more time -- three or four hours -- to do justice to the range of pre-Code women's films. Still working within the constraints, this was a splendid achievement and yet another laurel for Turner Classic Movies.

Complicated Women is the documentary companion to Mick LaSalle's book about women in the pre-code era. The time from the first talkies through to the enforcement of the Production Code is known as the pre-code era, a great time for movie making. Subjects ranging from marital infidelity, prostitution, abortion, nudity, drug use, and other shocking subjects littered films. The public either loved them or hated them, and thanks to groups like the Catholic Legion of Decency, these subjects were censored. However, this documentary praises these films for their modernity and shows clips from films like The Divorcée, Queen Christina, Downstairs, Torch Singer, Mary Stevens MD, The Smiling Lieutenant, Men in White, Female, A Free Soul, Baby Face, Midnight Mary, The Story of Temple Drake, Red Dust, Faithless, Grand Hotel, Gold Diggers of 1933, Ladies They Talk About, I'm No Angel, Tarzan and His Mate, and more.

The only problem with this documentary is that it skips around a lot. There are headers for each section, but they all begin to blend together.

The film incorporates interviews with many great sources like Mick LaSalle, Molly Haskell, Mark Viera, and several actresses of the era.

I thought the Mick LaSalle character was great, he really brought out the Italian American in him.

The thing that's good about this documentary is it really brings out that the current puritanism in America is a modern phenomenon. Pre-code, nudity was OK and there weren't any self-appointed moral watch dogs complaining about the contents. If you didn't want to watch something spicy, you didn't go see that movie.

Mick LaSalle is an excellent film reviewer who really knows his stuff (is that enough suck up?).

Cheers, Neil.

Actually, very good clips, and the narrative makes a very good claim to proving its thesis: that the sexy Pre-Code dramas and comedies actually represented a realistic depiction of the 20th century morality until Joseph Breen clamped down, making the Production Code not just voluntary, but mandatory.

There is a good claim in that, but it makes its point by looking at the best of the Pre-Code works and the worst of the movies made under the Code. Nor does it go into the reason that Hollywood made those sexy movies in the first place, and stopped making them later: to sell tickets at the box office. Truth has never been the primary concern of the movie industry; and while these clips demonstrate that Hollywood was interested in selling tickets to men who wanted to look at naked women... well, the underwater swimming sequence from TARZAN AND HIS MATE shows Maureen O'Sullivan's stand-in swimming around in the nude, but Weismuller is wearing a loincloth.

This is an excellent look at women in the pre-Code films. Narrated by Jane Fonda, it is extremely thought-provoking in this age of wardrobe malfunctions, hue and cry over a sexy Paris Hilton commercial, and Nicole Sheridan dropping a towel during an ad on Super Bowl Sunday.

I found this documentary comforting in a way - 70+ years later, we're still going through all the same stuff we did back then. The way things are going, we'll be back in 1933 before you know it.

Fonda narrates with a lot of expression as she takes the viewer through pre-code movies showing prostitutes, women sleeping their way to the top, menage at trois, bisexuality, abortion, and unfaithful wives. If you're not familiar with movies done before Breen and Hays, this will be a revelation.