In the second collection of Troma’s Pre-Code Hollywood, discerning fans of truly unbridled cinema can see two slices of wild and raw movie magic from the days before the puritanical rule of the Hays Office! First up on the menu is Bird of Paradise!â€"In this early risque classic, Joel McCrea stars as a handsome South Seas soldier of fortune who falls in love with Dolores Del Rio, the daughter of a Polynesian native chieftain who has a tendency to go for nude swims at night. Alas, their idyllic romance is destined to come to a sudden and violent end: tribal custom decrees that Del Rio is to be sacrificed to the local volcano. After initial resistance, the heroine nobly resigns herself to her fate, realizing that there is no place for her in her white lover's civilization. Features Del Rio’s famous skinny dipping scene in an early example of the cinema nude scene. Our second slice of pre-code entertainment is the bona fide classic The Lady Refuses--A British aristocrat befriends a woman and hires her to begin distracting his son away from a conniving golddigger. She does, but finds herself falling in love with her titled boss instead. Gilbert Emery, as a patrician English peer, Sir Gerald Courtney, dominates this film as he tries to bring his rakehell son Russell (John Darrow) closer to him through a secret strategem involving June (Betty Compson), an economically distressed young woman. Veteran director George Archainbaud has strong vision for whatever niceties the scenario might bring, and his handling of the cast and storyline are top-notch. More...
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