Review Roundup: VIRTUE (1932) / SEARCH FOR BEAUTY (1934)

Hello Readers!  It's been way too long since I checked in -- hope everything's going well with you all.  Things are going great for me because every Friday in September, TCM is playing pre-Codes!  All the lurid goodness you can handle for 24 hours.  Paradise for this film fan!

Two that I enjoyed over the weekend (hooray for DVR):

VIRTUE (1932) is a gritty little melodrama about Mae (Carole Lombard), a prostitute ready to walk the straight and narrow instead of the streets, and Jimmy (Pat O'Brien), the taxi driver she begins a new life with -- only to have the old one rear its ugly, two-faced head.

I was going to write a full review, but Danny at Pre-Code.com has done a marvelous job of that already, so go have a look!   Allow me to add that Lombard is on par with Barbara Stanwyck in this -- the entire film feels more like a down-and-dirty WB production rather than Columbia.  Top-notch and I recommend it highly.

SEARCH FOR BEAUTY (1934) is crazy.  The plot of a health-and-fitness magazine trying to run a beauty contest almost doesn't matter; this whole film is sex on screen with a healthy thumbing-of-the-nose at the Hays Code.  It's gotta be the most salacious of the pre-Codes I've seen (and that's saying something)!  Danny at Pre-Code.com again does the honors with his review.  YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS MOVIE.  Also: Toby Wing Speaks!  She gets actual billing!  

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You may wonder why I'm no longer doing my own reviews.  Well, the fact is: there are so many other bloggers that are much, much better at it than I am!  So you'll continue to see poems, actor profiles, and other interesting tidbits on FF+SS, but reviews will be from other film bloggers worth your attention (and boy, are there some wonderful ones)!  I'll still be adding my two cents though. ;)

The Purchase Price (1932)

Barbara Stanwyck.  I've lost the ability to write anything objective about her.  Was there ever a more perfect person for the pre-Code era?  (Possibly Joan Blondell, but I digress.)

Miss Stanwyck is a torch singer in a bit of trouble, and decides to escape it by becoming a farmer's mail-order bride.  The result is a warm, funny, charming picture, with more than a bit of Frank Capra about it (though actually directed, and beautifully so, by William Wellman).  George Brent plays the farmer and is immensely likeable -- he and Stanwyck have terrific chemistry and are (at the risk of sounding cliche) a delight.

The ending is a bit abrupt after the easy flow of the film, but I still enjoyed it very much.  Highly recommended!

I give this one: