Pre-Code Hollywood
May 2025 Classic Film Series: Long before the Hays Code imposed moral order on the movies, Hollywood gave us women who schemed, seduced, and stole the spotlight. This series spotlights four fearless films where sex and power were tools of survival—and pleasure.
Upcoming
Design for Living (1933)
A sparkling sex comedy from Ernst Lubitsch about a painter, a playwright, and the woman who refuses to choose between them. Miriam Hopkins, Fredric March, and Gary Cooper are irresistible in this witty ménage-à-trois that thumbs its nose at conventional romance.
She Done Him Wrong (1933)
Mae West is in full command as a bawdy saloon singer juggling admirers and dodging danger in 1890s New York, all while romancing a virtuous mission worker—played by a young Cary Grant in one of his earliest roles.
Baby Face (1933)
Banned in several states upon release, this notorious drama stars Barbara Stanwyck as a fiercely ambitious woman who seduces her way up the corporate ladder—leaving a trail of broken men behind her, including a very young John Wayne.
