Sin, skin and cynical gold-diggers populate Turner Classic Movies’ Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume One, featuring three risqué films made prior to the implementation of the censorious Hays Code in 1934—if you ever wondered why silver-screen spouses sleep in twin beds, as in the Thin Man series, the Hays Code is why. But pre-Code, bad girls ruled the school; in 1933’s Baby Face (presented in both its original and pre-release form), Barbara Stanwyck flees a sleazy small-town speakeasy for a big-city bank job, where she uses her “power over men” to sleep her way up the ladder. The long-lost Waterloo Bridge was directed by James Whale of Frankenstein-fame, and stars that film’s leading lady, Mae Clarke, most famous for being on the receiving end of James Cagney’s grapefruit in Public Enemy—Bette Davis also appears in a bit part. Clarke plays an American prostitute in WWI London who falls for an upper-crust Canadian soldier and can’t bear to reveal her source of income. But the set’s real gem is 1932’s Red Headed Woman, with Jean Harlow ditching her trademark platinum blonde ’do to play the titular gold-digger. Written by Anita Loos (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), this film’s scheming home-wrecker actually has fun being bad, and doesn’t repent, reform or face punishment in the end, a rarity in Hollywood even today.

by LORRAINE CARPENTER