The three titles in “TCM Archives: Forbidden Hollywood Collection Vol. 1” are the kind of movies that inspire that vintage declaration, “Yowza!”
“Waterloo Bridge” (1931), “Red-Headed Woman” (1932) and especially “Baby Face” (1933) are prime examples of hard-boiled Hollywood innuendo that ran afoul of the 1930 Hays Code — which forbade frank depictions of sexuality or immoral conduct.
When “Baby Face” hit theaters, it had been substantially censored — some 1,000 feet, or five minutes worth. Only recently was the pre-release version discovered and restored by the Library of Congress. And it’s an eyeful.
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The first disc of the two-disc “Forbidden Hollywood” set contains both versions. “Baby Face” stars Barbara Stanwyck as Lily Powers, a speakeasy owner’s daughter who has been — as we learn in the unedited version — prostituted by Papa since age 14. No wonder the help-thyself writings of Friedrich Nietzsche appeal to her.
Heading to New York, Lily finds low-level work at a bank and connives a way to literally sleep her way to the penthouse, starting with a chubby male receptionist from Tallapoosa. Playing for keeps, Stanwyck is a revelation, whether batting her eyes like an innocent girl or listening without emotion as she hears a lover in the next room shoot his rival, then himself.
Amazingly, Stanwyck somehow makes Lily weirdly sympathetic — so much so that it’s almost a letdown when she softens up for a semi-feel-good finale.
“Red-Headed Woman” takes virtually the same plotline but puts a more comic spin on it. Jean Harlow plays Lil, a secretary who decides to seduce her boss, Bill (Chester Morris), and wreck his marriage. The movie focuses on Bill’s eventual attempt to reunite with his wronged ex-wife. But he and she are virtuous bores compared with the shameless exuberance of Harlow, whether she’s buying a dress because you can see through it or squealing for “Bee-yull” in a grating form of baby talk.
Finally, “Waterloo Bridge,” directed by James Whale (“Frankenstein”), is sometimes the stagier of the three movies (based on a Robert E. Sherwood play). The tale of an American chorus line member forced into prostitution in London when World War I shuts down her theater, it’s most notable for star Mae Clarke, who gives a beautifully nuanced, touching performance. (Keep an eye out for the emotionally complex scene when she applies makeup in front of a mirror and sizes herself up as she prepares to hit the streets.)
As good as she is, she can’t help but be slightly upstaged later in the film by a newcomer named Bette Davis, who plays the sister of a soldier who falls in love with Clarke.
“Forbidden Hollywood” ($39.98) is the fifth DVD release in Atlanta-based Turner Classic Movies’ partnership with Warner Home Video, which owns the films. The companies also have released Lon Chaney, Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy, and Garbo silent movie collections.