Modern Popularity Resurgence
In the 1980s New York City Film Forum programmer Bruce Goldstein held the first film festivals featuring Pre-Code films. Goldstein is also credited by San Francisco film critic Mick LaSalle as the person to bring the term "Pre-Code" into general use.
In the 1990s MGM released several Pre-Code films on laserdisc and VHS. "The Forbidden Hollywood Collection" included: Baby Face; Beauty and the Boss; Big Business Girl; Blessed Event; Blonde Crazy; Bombshell; Dance, Fools, Dance; Employee's Entrance; Ex-Lady; Female; Havana Widows; Heroes for Sale; Illicit; I've Got Your Number; Ladies They Talk About; Lady Killer; Madam Satan; Night Nurse; Our Dancing Daughters; Our Modern Maidens; The Purchase Price; Red-Headed Woman; Scarlet Dawn; Skyscraper Souls; The Strange Love of Molly Louvain; They Call It Sin; and Three on a Match.
MGM also released other Pre-Code films such as The Divorcee, Doctor X, A Free Soul, Little Caesar, Mystery of the Wax Museum, Possessed, The Public Enemy, Red Dust (remade in the 1950s as Mogambo), and Riptide under other labels. UCLA ran several series of pre-Code films during the 2000s, showcasing films which had not been seen for decades, and not available on any home media.
In 1999, the Roan Group/Troma Entertainment released two Pre-Code DVD collections: Pre-Code Hollywood: The Risqué Years #1, featuring Of Human Bondage, Millie and Kept Husbands, and Pre-Code Hollywood 2, featuring Bird of Paradise and The Lady Refuses. Warner Bros. Home Video has released several of their Pre-Code films on DVD under the Forbidden Hollywood banner. To date, five volumes have been released:
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- Volume 1, released on December 5, 2006, includes Baby Face, Red-Headed Woman, and Waterloo Bridge.
- Volume 2, released on March 4, 2008, includes The Divorcee, A Free Soul, Three on a Match, Female, and Night Nurse.
- Volume 3, released on March 24, 2009, featured six films from William Wellman: Other Men's Women, The Purchase Price, Frisco Jenny, Midnight Mary, Heroes for Sale, and Wild Boys of the Road.
- Volume 4, released on August 9, 2012, includes Jewel Robbery, Lawyer Man, Man Wanted, and They Call It Sin.
- Volume 5, released on August 9, 2012, includes Hard To Handle, Ladies They Talk About, The Mind Reader, and Miss Pinkerton.
- Volume 6 released in 2013 includes The Wet Parade, Downstairs, Mandalay, and Massacre.
Universal Home Video followed suit with Pre-Code Hollywood Collection: Universal Backlot Series. Released on April 7, 2009, the box set includes The Cheat, Merrily We Go to Hell, Hot Saturday, Torch Singer, Murder at the Vanities, and Search for Beauty, together with a copy of the entire Hays Code.
Read more about this topic: Pre-Code Hollywood
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