Pre-Code Picture Party

The films of the early talkie era (1928–1934) play like a second founding of the seventh art, a moment when all the technical finesse, artistic pretense, and aspiration towards a universal visual language that characterized the final days of silent cinema were simply chucked away like yesterday’s garbage. Film had begun as an adjunct to vaudeville in the late 19th century, and the talkies would bring the overgrown art form promptly back to ground zero, a return to the immediacy and vulgarity of shysters, spielers, dames, and dancers talking at you. The slang and double entendres and unmodulated accents captured by the microphone — whether in English or another language — made the movies seem simultaneously more exotic and more pedestrian than ever, a technological marvel that simply brought audiences closer to the dumb jokes and earthy expressions that they might encounter on the street corner. Helped along by lax enforcement of the Production Code, Hollywood studios turned out a movie a week without much concern for good taste. These movies were shot quickly, slapped together, and released as soon as they were ready, for fear that their ultra-contemporary verve might wilt if left on the shelf too long. Hollywood needn’t have worried — they’re fresher than ever!

The Pre-Code Picture Party will take place in the Logan Center Screening Room from Friday, May 1 - Sunday, May 3. This is a TICKETED EVENT -- admission is not free, and we recommend reserving tickets in advance. For more information on ticketing, visit the Chicago Film Society's website.

Pre-Code Picture Party Screening Schedule:

FRIDAY, MAY 1:

7:00PM: ☆HORSE FEATHERS☆ (1932) dir. Norman Z. McLeod
35mm print courtesy of Universal. Tickets: $10
Preceded by: “Guido Deiro, The World’s Foremost Piano-Accordionist” (Doc Saloman, 1929) – 6 min – 35mm preservation print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive

9:00PM: ☆ LADIES MUST LOVE ☆ (1933) dir. E.A. Dupont
35mm print courtesy of Universal. Tickets: $10

SATURDAY, MAY 2:

3:00PM: ☆THE LETTER ☆ (1929) dir. Jean de Limur
35mm print courtesy of the Library of Congress. Tickets: $10
Preceded by: “Dangerous Females” (William Watson, 1929) – 21 min – 16mm from the Chicago Film Society collection

5:00PM: ☆ THE WISER SEX ☆ (1932) dir. Berthold Viertel
35mm print courtesy of Universal. Tickets: $10

8:00PM: ☆ WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD ☆ (1933) dir. William A. Wellman
35mm print courtesy of the Library of Congress. Tickets: $10
Preceded by: “Their First Mistake” (George Marshall, 1932) – 21 min – 35mm from the Library of Congress

SUNDAY, MAY 3:

1:00PM: ☆ HIS WIFE’S LOVER ☆ (1931) dir. Sidney M. Goldin
35mm print courtesy of the National Center for Jewish Film. Tickets: $10
In Yiddish with English subtitles

3:00PM: ☆ CARAVAN ☆ (1934) dir. Erik Charell
35mm print courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art. Tickets: $10

6:00PM: ☆ ANYBODY’S WOMAN ☆ (1930) dir. Dorothy Arzner
35mm print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Tickets: $10
Preceded by: “The Golf Specialist” (Monte Brice, 1930) – 20 min – 35mm