Product Review

Forbidden Hollywood Collection Vol. II (TCM Archives) (DVD)

Illicit sex. Glorified vice. Crime that pays. You can’t do that said the film industry’s Production Code. But in the pre-Code era, Hollywood could – and did – with lots of classic style. On Disc 1 of this set of five pre-Code sizzlers, Norma Shearer is The Divorcée – her Best Actress Oscar®-winning* role – who believes sexual freedom is for women too. And she’s also A Free Soul who falls for gangster Clark Gable (and is defended in a murder trial by Best Actor Academy Award® winner* Lionel Barrymore). Disc 2 delivers platinum-haired Bette Davis in Three on a Match’s searing tale of adultery and Ruth Chatterton as a tycoon who buys herself boy toys in Female. And on Disc 3, Barbara Stanwyck defies sinister Clark Gable to protect an endangered child in Night Nurse.