Posts tagged ‘Ruby Keeler’
Pre-Code Gams and Dams(els).
Legs.
Gams.
A whole lotta tomato.
Pick your hyperbole, the fact is that 1930s cinema were full of that most suggestive of appendages in a way never quite paralleled since.
Sure, they’re still everywhere because they’re still sexy. They’ve always been sexy– ever since skirts first hiked heavenward in the late 20s straight through to today. But never quite this sexy. Perhaps for the fact that the definition of “sexy” is dependent upon the word “suggestive.” Today, sex on film is hardly suggestive. It is blatant, forthright, overpowering, and leaves absolutely nothing to the imagination.
These shots? They leave everything to the imagination.
Wherein the real power lies… Read more ►
From the Vaults: Footlight Parade
This poster of the 1933 musical Footlight Parade is definitive sexy pre-code ‘tude.
If you’ve not had the pleasure of viewing Lloyd Bacon’s film, it is ceratinly one that belongs in your Netflix queue. Its admittedly throwaway backstage plot is more than compensated by all manner of early 30s cellophane fancies, namely, a scorchingly hot Joan Blondell, a never-been-better Ruby Keeler and Cagney–oh, Cagney–proving once and for all that a tough little cuss can strut a softshoe and still be a hell of a he-man.
And then, of course, there’s the matter of the music. Harry Warren and Al Dubin bringing to the screen the delicious subtle salaciousness that can only come from pre-code cinema.
Shanghai Lil, anyone?
Footlight Parade, 1933. Directed by Lloyd Bacon.
Don’t you just adore the early 30s deco geometry?