TCM Archives - Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 1 DVD Credits:

Region: 1

TCM Archives - Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 1 DVD Release Date: 5th December 2006

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TCM Archives - Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 1 DVD Review:

Before the rating system their was The Production Code, which censored films, but before that there were several films made with subject matter and content that would become banned in the 1930s. The Forbidden Hollywood Collection is special because it contains an uncensored version of one of the films that played a part in beginning the censorship. What is really amazing is that the theatrical version was censored, but obviously not enough to stop the controversy of the film, Baby Face, which deals with a woman using sex to get ahead in life. Nearly all of the three films in the collection deal with women using sex to get ahead, except for Waterloo Bridge, in which case it is prostitution in order for survival. From the collection of films “Forbidden” seems to mean sex, and women who are a little rougher around the edges.

Baby Face (1933)
The star of the collection seems to be Baby Face, mostly because of the newly discovered original cut of the film, which has four additional minutes and some striking changes to make the shocking film even more shocking. Barbara Stanwyck stars as a small town girl who is prostituted in a bar by her father until he dies. She then travels to the city and begins working at a bank. She reads some philosophy books and realizes that she can use men. She sleeps her way to the top, manipulating and discarding ruined men in her path. Disc one contains both the original version of the film and the theatrical release as well.

Red Headed Woman (1932)
Jean Harlow plays the title scandalous woman in the film. She works her way into the life of a rich man, somehow managing to separate him from his wife. Once she gets him she uses his money to try and fit in with high society, but they aren’t accepting of her so she begins to seduce her way into even more affluent beds, while also beginning a romance with the handsome chauffeur. Harlow’s fiery attitude keeps the film moving along as a character you love to hate. This film is on disc two with Waterloo Bridge.

Waterloo Bridge (1931)
This is the most sentimental of the films in the collection, because it is actually about love. Mae Clarke stars as a dancer trying to survive in war-torn Europe. When she meets a soldier on Waterloo Bridge they hit it off, but she is forced with many gritty situations including prostituting herself to live before they can finally have their happy ending. It is a gritty version of the popular romance which was made again in 1940, but there are some extremely interesting sequences in the film which now seem highly developed for the period. The initial meeting of the lovers feels like a sequence from Before Sunrise which leads into a fantastic and subtle scene in which Mae Clarke prepares to walk the streets.

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TCM Archives - Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 1 DVD review written by: Ryan Izay