Hospitality Sweets

Gee whiz! Are these parties audacious!
The sizzling tarts so curvaceous!
This picture licentious
Proved quickly contentious
For business was far too salacious.

Dick Powell, Joan Blondell, and Guy Kibbee in Convention City (Archie Mayo; 1933). This sex comedy was banned after the Motion Picture Production Code was enacted in 1934, and prints were ordered destroyed by studio head Jack L. Warner. LimerWrecker Donald B. Benson sweetened up our title.

Revel May Care

 

For each gin-addled salesman, a floozy
An insolent gal who'll get boozy
A crowded hotel
Where the rowdy raise hell
This sin-loaded tale is a doozy!

Booze on the table, cash on the floor: Guy Kibbee and Joan Blondell in a suggestive still from Convention City (Archie Mayo; 1933). Several lines of dialog were ordered removed by Motion Picture Production Code censors, including the following: "Now you take off that dress and I'll take off my toupee, huh!"

Beat the Banned

Outlandish! A salesman's convention
Where randy young gals deserve mention
And rubber yahoos
With tubs full of booze
Demand one's unfailing attention.

The delegates arrive at Convention City (Archie Mayo; 1933), banned after the Motion Picture Production Code was enforced in 1934.. The plot revolves around the convention of the Honeywell Rubber Company in Atlantic City.

Hell Toupée

Films this racy and blue draw attention
Here's a case that caused studio tension
Said Jack Warner, annoyed,
"Have that porn film destroyed!"
It flew in the face of convention.

Guy Kibbee and Joan Blondell live it up in Convention City (Archie Mayo; 1933). Due to its salacious content, Convention City was banned after the Motion Picture Production Code was enacted in 1934. Prints were subsequently ordered to be destroyed by studio head Jack L. Warner. The film is now considered lost.

Gold Figures

As pure and as meek as the lambs
They're helpless and weak when in jams.
But virtue will pay
When hearts they display
(Along with their cheeks and their gams).

Donald B. Benson

Joan Blondell gets up to answer the door in the pre-code musical Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy; 1933).

Diggers With Attitude

 

With randy old characters leering
At dandy canaries, careering
These crafty young honeys
Are after their monies
Their candor is very endearing.

Joan Blondell and Guy Kibbe in a still from Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy; 1933). Title by David Cairns, accepted with gratitude.

Brother Can You Spare a Dame

So fraught were the day's economics,
As naughty were chorines and comics.
'Cause wolves at the door
Demanded much more
Than watered-down westerns with Tommix.

 

Donald B. Benson

The camera passes through the spread legs of chorus girls in the Busby Berkeley choreographed production number "Young and Healthy" in 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon; 1933).

Out-of-Doughboys

Our doughboys return from the war
Find no way to earn, and grow sore 
Gave their all, are forgotten
It's appalling, it's rotten
This show-stopping turn demands MORE!



Joan Blondell delivers the very stirring spoken word in the Remember My Forgotten Man number in Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy; Busby Berkeley). Title by doughy Donald B. Benson.

Wing Man-ic

The queen of bit parts, Toby Wing
On screen she made heartstrings go "zing"
From prop man to mogul
They'd stop and they'd ogle
This "teenager" started to sing.

Dick Powell and uncredited chorus girl Toby Wing, in the Busby Berkeley production number Young and Healthy from 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon; 1933). The 27 year old Powell plays the show's "juvenile" lead, Billy Lawler.

Toby Wing Nut

For fair Toby Wing, here's an ode.
Our fantasy fling of pre-code.
Although she has talents,
What's tipping the balance
Is she's got that thing -- a la mode.

 Donald B. Benson


Perennial chorus girl Toby Wing, here entertaining the swells in Search For Beauty (Erle C. Kenton;1934).

Ginger's Snap

Now Ruby, your mother could meet,
While Joan was more earthy, but sweet.
But let it be said
That Ginger (pre-Fred)
Would crank up the sexual heat.

Donald B. Benson

Aline MacMahon, Ginger Rogers, Joan Blondell, and Ruby Keeler, the Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy; Busby Berkeley).

Wearin' the Money

These diggers' finances are stressed
With big rolls of cash they're impressed
What's more it's the duty
Of chorus girl cutie
To wiggle while scantily dressed.

The "We're in the money" number from the depression era Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy; Busby Berkeley). The Pre-Code frolicking continues at LimerWrecks.

Sour Mash-Up

To keep his good name undefiled,
A nom de indulgence he styled.
The name wasn't Hyde.
"It's Ernest", he lied.
A different story -- by Wilde.

Donald B. Benson

Fredric March as Edward Hyde,...blah blah...absurd literary reference...blah blah...Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931). And with that we bid farewell to the good doctor. But there's more Pre-Code to come here at LimerWrecks..

Doubled Jeopardy

With the coppers wide-eyed and aghast,
This proper doc's ride ends at last
As his head rearranges,
And from Edward he changes,
He says, "Swapping with Hyde was a blast!"

Dr. Jekyll (Fredric March), at rest in his lab in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931). Title by double standard-bearer Donald B. Benson.

Wrong Division

Doc and Hyde by the mob have been hounded
Now both sides are, by bobbies, surrounded
Policemen forbid
Releasing one's id
And divided, Doc's problem's compounded.

Mr. Hyde (Fredric March) is caught in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931). LimerWrecker Donald B. Benson gave the title his undivided attention.

Hyde in Plain Sight

 

When he's popped in the chest, point-blank range
The cops watch this pest start to change
Till his nibs lies prostrated
With his ribs perforated
Though he's stopped, this arrest is quite strange.

David Cairns

Dr. Jekyll reverts to Mr. Hyde (Fredric March)  in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931).

Where the Wild Thing Is

Poor Jekyll, now dead and disgraced
Was punished because he erased
That line, very thin,
Twixt virtue and sin
Which Hollywood draws at the waist.

Donald B. Benson

Fredric March meets his end in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931).

Nowhere to Hyde

Is the doctor the brute? There's confusion
And when socked on the snoot, a contusion
Is this Jekyll to blame?
It's his neck just the same
Who'll be shocked the cops shoot the conclusion?

Edward Hyde (Fredric March) strikes a policeman at the end of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931).

Gulp Fiction

It appears Doc's been caught turning fink
Grown weary, he's brought to the brink
Tries to flee, is denied
Now they see that he's Hyde
Some serums one ought never drink.

Fredric March in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931).

Bad Hyde Manner

Mr. Hyde has a very short fuse
Though decidedly hairy, wears shoes
Quite well-read, but a brute,
Sits in bed in his suit
He's one side of a pair in the news.

Fredric March as Edward Hyde n Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931). Miriam Hopkins Title by well-mannered David Cairns.

Hydezilla vs. Camera

He isn't as hot as he was
He's grizzled and rotten because
The snorter he sipped
Has distorted his lips
Can this lizard be shot through a gauze?

David Cairns

Fredric March is both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931).

The Eccchh Phial

Phenomena shocking, outré
Are quite common for our Dr. J.
Pharmaceutical lore
Brings the brute to the fore
For an abominable, noxious affray.

David Cairns

In this still from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931), Dr. Jekyll (Fredric March) toils in his laboratory, undeterred by the anachronistic lighting equipment.

This Gland is Our Gland

 

The doc, who's admittedly placid
Trips out as if hitting the acid.
Once commonplace features
Are now a foul creature's
(And likewise a bit that was flaccid).

Donald B. Benson

Fredric March is both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian; 1931).