Example

Footlight Parade (1933)

Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

I'm No Angel (1933)

King Kong (1933)

This was the ultimate Beauty and the Beast monster film, extensively censored for its violence; the film's subtext was the introduction of the feminine into a man's world and into uncharted territory, and the release of the primal male beast upon the civilized world (NYC); the film was considered slightly scandalous for its inter-racial 'love story' of a giant black ape with a white blonde woman - their forbidden love resulted in Kong's subsequent punishment - death; sexy screamer Fay Wray (as Ann Darrow) was featured as the object of male affection and of the desires of the giant hairy Beast -- and the Empire State Building was the ultimate phallic symbol from which the beast was toppled; the white blonde woman was regarded as a more valuable virginal substitute for Kong by the natives of Skull Island who regularly sacrificed half-naked, garlanded black virgins (white woman Ann was worth the equivalent of six native women, acc. to the tribal chief); the film even contained sexual double entendres, as in the scene when film-maker Denham (Robert Armstrong) told First Mate Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot) that he feared his crewmember had been emasculated and gone "soft" (or impotent) and "sappy" over Ann's Beauty, as the Beast would do later: "It's the idea of my picture. The Beast was a tough guy too. He could lick the world. But when he saw Beauty, she got him. He went soft. He forgot his wisdom and the little fellas licked him"; in addition, the film had some sex-related sequences: (1) a braless Ann went to costume herself for the screaming film-test with Denham, soon returning and wearing a revealing, off-the-shoulder "Beauty and Beast costume", and (2) after being looked at and bathed by the monstrous ape, Ann swam away after plunging off Skull Mountain and lost the top of her dress (in a split second shot); censors did away with other scenes of doomed sailors being eaten by giant spiders, of natives being crushed in Kong's mouth or trampled into mud, of a woman being snatched from her NY apartment's bed (and held upside down over the street and then released after being mistaken for Ann), and the scene of the ape peeling down the blonde beauty's clothing - these were all censored and cut; in the remake King Kong (1976), a curious Kong fondled a topless 'Fay Wray' character (Jessica Lange) - a scene which was re-instated

Mary Stevens, M.D. (1933)

Our Betters (1933)

Queen Christina (1933)

Roman Scandals (1933)

She Done Him Wrong (1933)

The Sin of Nora Moran (1933)

The Story of Temple Drake (1933)

This was a tricky and daring film adaptation of William Faulkner’s notorious 1931 short story Sanctuary that required the re-naming of the film; the plot was about a young, upper-class, pampered, flirtatious and promiscuous 'bad-girl' southern belle named Temple Drake (Miriam Hopkins), the daughter of a Mississippi judge, who was kidnapped and then raped by ruthless, degenerate bootlegger-gangster Trigger (Jack La Rue) in a farmhouse and then taken to the city to serve as a kept woman (not completely unwillingly) in a house of ill repute; the actual rape scene was not explicit - basically communicated by a candle (in the original tale, it was a corncob) approaching Drake's bed followed by a scream and quick fade to black, but the film's taboo subject matter was considered so shocking in its day that it was attacked by the press even before its release; in the film's shocking climax in a courtroom, she finally admitted on the stand that she had killed Trigger; this film was responsible for spurring the rapid passage of the restrictive Production Code

Torch Singer (1933)

Cleopatra (1934)

George White's Scandals (1934)

It Happened One Night (1934)

Men in White (1934)

Sidney Kingsley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play was adapted into this Code-era story that was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency as being "unfit for public exhibition"; this gritty slice of life film starred Clark Gable as internist Dr. George Ferguson who was dedicated to saving lives; one of the more controversial aspects of the film was Gable's illicit sexual liaison (after a discreet fade-out) with student nurse Barbara Dennin (Elizabeth Allan), ending up with her becoming pregnant -- this led to the film's mostly-implied scene of abortion (without the explicit use of the word 'abortion' in the film, but alluded to with veiled dialogue about her dangerous condition: George: "Ruptured appendix?" Dr. Hochberg (Jean Hersholt): "More serious than that." George: "Why didn't she come to us?"); the young female patient, after having experienced an illegal, butchered back-alley abortion (or self-induced abortion, or suicide attempt?) to avoid shame, was rushed into emergency surgery; typical of films at this time, Barbara died following the operation - interpreted as divine retribution for her sexual transgressions

Of Human Bondage (1934)

The Painted Veil (1934)