Oddball
Films and guest Curator Taylor Morales bring you, Sex, Censorship and Betty Boop: The
Ladies of Pre-Code Hollywood, a
collection of films exploring Hollywood’s fascination with female sexuality in
the years before 1934, when the industry adopted the Motion Picture Production
Code, a set
of moral censorship standards that governed the US motion pictures industry
between 1934 and 1968. The Code, which banned all forms of overt sexuality
and “immorality”, forced Betty Boop to lengthen her skirt and cover her garter.
This collection of films and cartoon shorts captures the good, the bad and the
offensive of this remarkable pre-code period. Looking back at the era with a
critical eye we see examples of sex as an avenue to power for females as well
as a means of exploitation. Our evening
will begin with a dance lesson from the queen of sex appeal, Ms. Betty Boop, in the Fleischer brothers' short The Dancing Fool (1932). In this
cartoon Betty Boop teaches her animal friends how to shake their stuff, and
shakes her building to pieces in the process. Our next film, the Janus Films
documentary, The Love Goddesses Pt. 1 (1965),
explores the rise of female sex symbols from the silent film era through the 1930s.
Greta Garbo, Mae West, Jean Harlow and other love goddesses grace the screen in
classic scenes that taught the world how to love. We then turn from glam to ham
with Red Noses (1932), a live-action
comedy short about two female office workers sent to the Turkish baths by their
boss when they are too sick to go to work. This thin plot is more of an excuse
to enact a series of comedy bits involving scantily clad women on treadmills
and mechanical horses. It does not disappoint. Next, we’ll move from the
hilarious to the egregious with Polly
Tix Goes to Washington (1934), a “baby burlesk” starring 3-year-old Shirley
Temple, in one of her first films, as Polly Tix, a high-class call girl sent to
Washington to seduce a congressman into voting on a Castor Oil bill. This film
displays the darker side of pre-code sexuality, landing on the wrong side of
the precarious line between satirical and sinister. We will come full circle
with our last film, another Betty Boop cartoon, Minnie the Moocher (1932), featuring the first known filmed footage
of jazz band leader Cab Calloway. When Betty runs away from home she finds
herself in the company of a cast of scary creatures. Will she make it back
home?
Date: Thursday, September 5th, 2013 at 8:00pm
Venue: Oddball Films, 275
Capp Street San Francisco
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