WB and TCM to Release Rare Pre-Code Films

Finally doing something about the lack of pre-code films available on DVD (or, for that matter, in any other medium) Warner Bros. is teaming up with Turner Classic Movies to release what they swear will be be a series of films from that period. The first such set -- TCM Archives: Forbidden Hollywood Collection Volume 1 -- is due out December 5, and the films included in volume one are anything to go on, this series is going to be one to look out for. Included in the set are the Barbara Stanwyck-starrer Baby Face (including both the edited and recently discovered original versions), Red-Headed Woman (starring Jean Harlow) and James Whale's Waterloo Bridge. All three films were released in 1932 or 1933, shortly before the Production Code went into effect, and are striking illustrations of just how different (part of) Hollywood was before Will Hays and his friends came along.

The only problem with the set so far is that for some reason they squeeze all four films onto two discs, with Waterloo Bridge and Red-Headed Woman on one, and the two version of Baby Face (plus the film's theatrical trailer) on the other.