I'm meandering my way through the Criterion Channel's Mervyn LeRoy's Pre-Code collection. They're short and gritty and entertaining and often quite good, and you can clearly get a sense of how Hollywood (and the US film industry as a institution) took a step back with the implementation of the Code. There is that Puritanical, anti-intellectual aspect to American thought and life which sadly never seems to go away, and we never benefit from it. The other night I watched LeRoy's 1934 film Heat Lightning. It starred Aline MacMahon as Olga. She and her sister Myra (Ann Dvorak) run a gas station in the middle of an ungodly hot desert in the southwest, and their tranquil life (perfectly tranquil for Olga, stifling for Myra) is threatened by the arrival of Olga's ex George (Preston Foster) and Jeff (Lyle Talbot), who crooks on the run. It's essentially a pre-film noir film noir. I'm not saying insanely highly recommended, but I also definitely enjoyed it so I'd recommended giving it a look. It was great to see Aline MacMahon, who had a very long career as a character actor, finally get a chance to star in a movie.
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