Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man.(Book Review)

Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man. Mick LaSalle. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002.

Mick LaSalle is the movie critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, where he writes some of the more pithy and cogent reviews of films in the country. His journalistic skills--and more so, his appreciation for US film history--are on full display in this study, which is a companion to his previous book, Complicated Women. LaSalle's subject is not the post-WWII man who recoiled in reactionary fear at the rise of feminism, but rather the "pre-Code" male star who thrived from 1929 to 1934, before Hollywood became paranoid about movie morals and began to mistrust the masculine integrity of its heroes and villains. This work joins a growing canon of scholarship on masculinity in the movies, yet unlike many previous texts, LaSalle is not burdened by theories of gender and speculations on audience reception. Rather, he sticks to the relevant films and performers who comprised the pre-Code era, and although some academic readers may expect more attention to other contemporary scholars in the field, his account of this history is thoroughly engaging on its own terms.

The dozen chapters proceed in thematic order, rather than trying to make a strict chronological story of how Hollywood quickly slipped under the influence of Catholic guardians and industry pressures as the Great Depression set in. LaSalle looks at maternal relationships among gangsters, romantic consequences for philanderers, and the various incarnations of monsters that seemed to sustain Universal Studios in the early 1930s. Along the way, his research on both the films and their contexts is thorough and convincing. He examines hundreds of popular and lesser-seen films, and numerous interviews, reviews, and publicity materials. Alas, herein lies another instance in which some scholars will be frustrated, because he often provides quotations without any citations.

LaSalle examines the dozens of stars in his pantheon--such diverse figures as Clark Gable, Lon Chaney, and Edward G. Robinson--through biographical accounts and critical commentaries on their films, resulting in exciting and revealing accounts. He devotes one ...