This past year I have had a fascination with pre-code films–actually the entire arc of the pre-code films that dared to take on subjects that are politically incorrect even today, and the fall of the strict enforcement of the code and its eventual release (only to have it reinstitute in this decade). Especially interesting is following the directors who lived through those era and coped and still made amazing films because of the freedom, then because of the constraints and then the chipping away at the code (I’ll write more about those later). I mean directors such as Howard Hawks, Otto Preminger, Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, etc. One of them should have been Joseph von Sternberg had his career not been cut down by studio politics (his own high handed manner didn’t help). Because, in the heyday of the pre-code films there were these series of absolute gems made by the partnership of Marlene Dietrich and Joseph von Sternberg.
I was lucky enough in one of my visits to my new home in Torino to catch a Sternberg/Dietrich retrospective. Each films is itself worthy of its own post or two, but I just wanted to commend in this time of attack on diversity how this film was an outstanding example of the non-racist Hollywood. I remember when I first went to see it, I was bracing myself for the worst, especially since my boyfriend is from Hong Kong. But neither von Sternberg nor Jules Furthman (the screenwriter) had any interest in depicting racist stereotypes. It was refreshing to see the good bad and ugly of every type,
Marlene, particularly, modeled the best of a woke awareness of diversity. She seemed not just completely at home among both whites and asians; but also showed particular kinship with Anna May Wong, playing Hui Dei, the main Chinese female character who is treated unfairly by most of the white cast, whose behavior Furthman and von Sternberg are clear to show as reprehensible small-mindedness.
It’s also just a spectacular story. The woman of –supposed–loose morals (who would disappear without he enforcement of the code) who is able to redeem not just herself but also the pigheaded men around her.
Furthman is one of the most celebrated film writers, and he will team up with Howard Hawks and William Faulkner for another amazing DEI film in the form of To Have and Have Not. More about that film, in a following post.